How to decorate
🎨 Home Activities & Decorating Inspiration
Good local shopping recommendations:
Briarwood Custom Furniture (Pacific) – handcrafted furniture.
Rustic Decor & More (Washington MO) – farmhouse, vintage-style decor.
Uptown Antiques (Warrenton) – mix of antique, quirky, and useful home finds.
The Painted Chair (Cottleville, worth the drive) – super creative upcycled furniture.
Vintage 71 (Wentzville) – upscale vintage home goods.
Local Home Décor Shops: The Pacific area has some noteworthy small businesses for home furnishings and decor. One standout is The Curly Willow in Truesdale (Warrenton area), run by a veteran interior designer with 30+ years experience. This shop offers a curated inventory of stylish home decor and accent furniture, and even on-the-spot design advice from owner Ellen Wortham​stlmag.com. It’s perfect for clients who “just need a little something” to freshen up a room – as Ellen says, maybe new pillows, bedding, or a piece of art can do the trick​stlmag.com. Another gem is Long Row Lavender in Wright City – a family-owned lavender farm that has a lovely on-site boutique selling handmade soaps, candles, wreaths, and farmhouse-chic decor items. Their gift shop features custom bath/body products, herbal teas, seasonal plants and home décor, plus they host workshops on crafting with lavender​tripadvisor.com. It’s both an outing (beautiful fields in bloom) and a chance to pick up unique accessories for the home.
Antiques & Vintage Finds: For one-of-a-kind pieces, steer clients to the antique malls and markets in our region. Downtown Washington, MO (30 min from Pacific) has a number of antique shops where you can find everything from primitive furniture to vintage wall art. In Collinsville, IL, the Pink Elephant Antique Mall (in nearby Livingston) is a fun road trip stop – a giant pink elephant statue out front and multiple vendors inside with retro decor items. These places are great for finding that quirky lamp or mid-century chair that becomes a conversation piece. Even local estate sales and swap shops (there’s a popular “Warrenton Treasure Box” group on Facebook) can yield inexpensive furniture ready for a DIY makeover.
Online Decor – Delivered to Your Door: When it comes to convenience and selection, online retailers are king. Wayfair and Overstock are go-to sources for budget-friendly furniture and rugs – huge inventories and frequent sales​thespruce.com. Ikea now offers delivery to our area as well, bringing their affordable Scandinavian style right to your door (or you can drive to Ikea St. Louis for a fun day trip and meatballs). For something unique, check out Decor Steals, a website that offers daily flash sales on farmhouse- and vintage-style home accents​decorsteals.com. Each day a new set of items (think rustic wall clocks, galvanized metal baskets, cozy throw blankets) goes on deep discount – it’s a favorite for fans of the farmhouse look. And of course Etsy deserves a mention: many local Missouri artisans sell via Etsy, so you can get a custom farmhouse table or metal wall art made by a maker in our region, shipped to you.
Designer Inspiration Online: If your client’s style leans more high-end or they want that magazine-look, introduce them to curated online boutiques from famous designers. For instance, Shoppe Amber Interiors (by designer Amber Lewis) and McGee & Co. (by Studio McGee) are two highly followed online stores offering “heirloom-quality” artisan goods and a thoughtfully edited catalog of decor​shoppe.amberinteriordesign.com. They’re not cheap, but even just browsing those sites can inspire ideas on mixing textures and styles. Many clients follow these designers on Instagram for ideas. Also, HGTV’s Home Town stars have an online store (Laurel Mercantile) with American-made, vintage-inspired goods. The key point: whether their taste is modern minimalist or rustic cottage, there’s an online shop or blog out there with plenty of inspiration – and many will ship to Pacific.
Hands-On DIY Resources: Sometimes the best inspiration is getting creative yourself. The Pacific area has a couple of DIY studios (check out Pinspiration Chesterfield or AR Workshop in Kirkwood) where you can attend a class to make your own wood signs, wreaths, or painted furniture. Also, the Home Depot in Washington and Lowe’s in Chesterfield offer free weekend workshops for homeowners (building a simple shelf, how to tile a backsplash, etc.). These can empower clients to tackle small improvements on their own. For design ideas and color trends, don’t forget about local paint stores like Sherwin-Williams in Eureka – they often have look books and the staff can advise on popular color palettes for the area (e.g. many Franklin County homeowners are embracing warm greiges and earthy greens in 2025).
