10 Great Finds

We scoured the neighborhoods to find these fabulous stores, where you’ll want to buy everything in sight.

These are the shops we love. From Orlando to College Park to Winter Park and west to Mount Dora, we discovered incredible merchandise for your home tucked into stores of all shapes and sizes and run by people with amazing creative spirits. Whether you’re in the market for a major piece of furniture, an interior designer to guide you, or a special accent piece that shouts “Wow!,” a stop at these stores promises a shopping adventure. And it doesn’t matter what your style is because there’s everything from Asian and tropical to whimsical and romantic, traditional and mid-century modern to bling-adorned and pop art-inspired. Here’s what we found. 

Adjectives Market
1215 E. Altamonte Drive,
Altamonte Springs, 321-203-2525. 
460 N. Orlando Ave., #124,
Winter Park, 321-203-2526. adjmkt.com
If you’re in the mood to take a stroll down memory lane, this is the place where you’ll find a wealth of fanciful collectibles, with some antique treasures hidden in the mix. A visit is guaranteed to rekindle warm and fuzzy moments, especially for boomers who will find nostalgic home items from the 1940s and ’50s. This vast building in Altamonte Springs (Adjectives has a smaller sibling in Winter Park Village) has a soaring wood-beamed ceiling and a second level that makes the market space feel huge. Some 90 vendors have set up shop here, displaying everything from painted wood furniture, including vanities, dressers and hutches, to vintage clothing and accessories. Merchandise is creatively displayed, so be sure to explore every nook and cranny. Look up, and you’ll see antique crystal chandeliers, while the walls are covered with ornately framed artwork. Glassware finds are plentiful and range from exquisite Lenox lead crystal to golden leaf-patterned stemmed beer glasses. 

Collage Home
1822 Edgewater Drive, Orlando,
407-843-0040. collagehome.com 
A newbie on the home design scene, this College Park shop is where designer Grant Gribble’s style is showcased. Enter this bright and airy store, and you feel a sense of energy peppered with dazzle. The carefully curated collection of home furnishings includes Asian, coastal, contemporary, transitional and everything from the sublime to the amusing. Retail manager Dan Radjeski likes to say: “It’s about the mix, not the match.” Engage him in conversation, and you’ll get the back story on just about every item, from glass paperweights for $10 to furniture priced at $1,000 plus. Check out the gray silk sofa stuffed with feathers and down. A modern mirror trimmed in beveled glass pieces is a showstopper. Felt pillows topped with oversized floppy flower petals and the vintage china plates with transposed images of cats, dogs and sheep in business suits and regal attire (guaranteed to get a chuckle) are great additions to any home. 

Foreign Accents
2301 S. Orange Ave., Orlando,
407-648-2464. foreignaccentsinc.com 
This unassuming store on the corner of Grant Street and South Orange Avenue has a loyal clientele that pops in regularly to check out the ever-evolving collection of handcrafted items from around the world. To shoppers’ delight, the merchandise changes every time a shipment arrives. Everything here is made by craftsmen, with the pieces from Mexico being top sellers, explains co-owner Becky Broyles, who together with her husband Daniel has been running the shop for 18 years. Mexican confetti glassware, clear thick glass with multicolored specks, is available in various styles from tumblers to margarita glasses. Hand-painted clay tiles in the Mexican Talavera style are stacked in the corner, and urns in the same colorful patterns sit on tables. In the back room, heavy wood doors, some made with reclaimed wood and spruced up with wrought iron detail, lean against the walls. Shopping here can turn up anything from slices of handmade marbled soap with gold trim for $8 each to custom-made doors costing upwards of $2,000.

Gilded Home
558 W. New England Ave., Winter Park,
407-401-9770. gildedhome.com 
Sitting outside this Hannibal Square shop is a vignette-like setting, composed of a zebra-patterned chair with a silver-splashed throw pillow and a metallic-painted ceramic garden stool. A tasteful mix of the exotic and a little bling sets the tone for what’s inside. Interior designer John McClain and Peter Courtney have done a marvelous job of bringing just enough of McClain’s glamorous L.A. design style to Winter Park—not overbearing, but perfectly balanced. His custom-made furniture (designed by McClain and built in North Carolina) is something you’ll definitely want in your home. The showpiece is a cream-tone bed with an exquisitely tufted headboard that’s outlined with nailhead trim. Mirrored nightstands balance the look. An oversized black accent chair with a tall curved back exudes a 1920s vibe. Look for playful accessories from giant dice to colorfully lacquered bowls with a gilded touch to jazz up your home. And if you’re impressed with the draperies on display, just ask. McClain’s next project is custom-made drapes. 

Hinge
1506 N. Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando,
407-401-9112. hingevintagehardware.com 
Prepare to be overwhelmed when you step into Hinge. This is where “The Hardware Man,” the first vendor at Renninger’s antique center in Mount Dora, has moved his massive collection of Americana collectibles and every vintage hinge, handle, bail, pull and door knob you can imagine. Marked with a patriotic mural of an eagle and flag on the exterior, the shop located on the edge of College Park is chock-full of made-in-America merchandise. Meander through themed rooms such as the Sweet Shoppe, where old-fashioned ice cream scoops line the wall; the Water Closet, which is filled with white Elizabethan porcelain faucet handles; and the Retro Room, with its old-time bubble gum dispensers and boxes of skeleton keys. Then venture into the back area and get lost among rows of towering shelves stocked with brass weathervanes, Depression-era glassware and thousands of small pieces of hardware for doors and cabinets. A special room devoted to lighting includes fluted glass lampshades to oil lanterns. You can spend as little as $5 for a brass drawer pull or splurge on a trio of antique balls once used as the trade sign for a pawn shop for $1,200. 

Living Morocco
1804 N. Orange Ave., Orlando,
407-898-6610. living-morocco-online.com 
If the mosaic table is good enough for Brad Pitt and George Clooney, we’re sure you’ll love it too. Displayed on the shop’s wall is a photo from the film Ocean’s Eleven featuring the two movie stars conducting business over a table provided by Living Morocco, a store obscurely tucked into a strip shopping center in the Ivanhoe Row district. Enter this dimly lit store and the hundreds of stained glass lanterns hanging overhead will catch your eye. The concrete mosaic tables, and the similarly designed water fountains, in colorful traditional star–shaped patterns are the store’s top sellers. Both work well on patios where they can handle Florida’s sun and rain. Look to the right and a red bed veil is draped from the ceiling adding a touch of drama. Freestanding henna lamps, made of goat skin and lit from within, cast decorative shadows against the store’s rust-hued walls, and the well-stuffed rotund leather poufs (ottomans) in purple, tangerine and metallic gold are hard to resist. With lanterns priced from $200 and up and decorative wooden doors direct from Morocco at $1,895, the store is a treasure trove of everything exotic. 

​Matamo Designs
100 E. 5th Ave., Mount Dora,
352-735-4800. matamodesigns.com
Among the shops in historic Mount Dora, this one stands out for its subtle tropical vibe. The merchandise from warm-weather countries like Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines have the vibrant colors and natural textures of these faraway places, but were selected because they can easily work in homes miles from palm-studded islands and sandy shores. Look for rattan sofas with alabaster cushions, dressed up with accent pillows featuring tropical prints. Driftwood table lamps topped with jute shades, handcrafted teak bowls, and seashell-adorned frames and mirrors are on display throughout the shop. Owner Debbie Belton also has select pieces of coral that work well on cocktail tables. Motifs such as the pineapple, seahorse, fish, elephant and peacock show up in merchandise throughout. The walls are covered with prints of pelicans and palm trees set in natural wood frames. Belton uses every inch of space to display furniture and accessories, so plan on spending several hours here. Design guidance is also available. 

​Papilio
120 W. Fifth Ave., Mount Dora,
352-735-0028. papiliomountdora.com 
Complementing this Mount Dora store’s name—Papilio, a genus in the swallowtail butterfly family—is a wall of butterfly art. But before your thoughts wander, keep in mind that these butterflies, carefully displayed in Lucite frames, come from sustainable farms, where butterfly farming provides an alternative income to rural communities and an incentive to preserve rainforests. In fact, they live out their natural lives and are then harvested. Consider it a small piece of the rainforest for us to enjoy and cherish. Billed as a place where nature and creativity coexist, the store is stocked with home accessories and gift items, most with nature themes. Tree branches dripping with Spanish moss and crystal chandeliers add to the shop’s décor. Look for home fragrance products with natural scents, decorative candles and throw pillows embellished with fish, flowers and butterflies, of course. 

Porch Therapy/99 Market 
East End Market, 3201 Corrine Drive,
Orlando, 407-489-8973. 99market.org 
Landscape designer Jennifer Crotty wanted to have fun with plants by creating something edgier than the traditional garden-store offerings—things like living walls and funky aeriums. So the artist-turned-businesswoman opened a cool plant-centric shop in East End Market. Easy to find by the floral parasols hanging from the ceiling, her space is always abuzz with home gardeners in search of succulents, mini orchids and air plants. Rustic wooden tables overflow with hand-thrown terracotta pots, bubble glass aeriums, handmade multicolored baskets from Ghana, and quirky ceramics in unexpected shapes like that of a horse’s hoof. Outside in the courtyard is an example of her living wall arrangements; plants with various leaf shapes and shades of green are artistically arranged in wooden frames and secured on the wall. Sprawled throughout are displays featuring everything from cacti to bleeding hearts. Shoppers leave with finds ranging from succulents priced at $2 apiece to Fair Trade baskets for around $50 each. 

Ted Maines Interiors   
1030 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park,
407-571-9876. tedmainesinteriors.com 
You can’t miss this glass storefront on Orange Avenue across from the antique street clock at the six-point intersection in Winter Park. Peek in the window and Elizabeth Taylor looks back at you. Enter and explore, and there’s Marilyn Monroe. Both pieces of Andy Warhol artwork clearly define this as a place for sleek, contemporary, minimalist and pop art-inspired home design. Interior designer Ted Maines has filled his space with leather and chrome sofas that pair well with his accent chairs—leaf-shape cushions on thin chrome legs in statement-making colors. The show-stopping chandelier is anything but traditional. Its billowy balloon shape blends seamlessly with hardware designed to resemble candlesticks. Elements of mid-century modern design show up in Maines’ collection of chairs, in black, white and red. Anyone who’s looking to infuse their home with modern furnishings and accessories will find this store the ideal place to begin their design project.