Shop Talk: RH Denver, the Gallery at Cherry Creek

Anyone who’s ever ordered a piece of furniture online knows that clicking through pictures on a screen is a lot different than seeing and touching the items in person. Sometimes you just need to know what it feels like to flop onto a sofa before you buy it for your family room. That’s the idea behind Restoration Hardware’s newly opened Cherry Creek Shopping Center store: RH Denver, the Gallery at Cherry Creek.

The enormous space—70,000 square feet over four stories (including the spot formerly occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue)—is a bold move in the home decor world, where more and more companies are investing in e-commerce over brick-and-mortar shops. But, says CEO Gary Friedman, who’s been tasked with overseeing the openings of 11 of these industrial-chic design galleries nationwide (RH Denver is number five), “Our galleries provide our customers with a true experience—one that feels more like a home than a store—and bring our retail vision to life in a way the Web cannot.”

Highlights of this feast-for-the-senses shopping experience include a steel-and-glass arched entryway, a grand double staircase, and a rooftop conservatory that gives way to quaking aspens and hydrangeas. But don’t be fooled by the building’s gorgeous decomposed granite facade; the store’s beauty is all about business. “We believe…the physical manifestation of an aspirational brand in an inspiring three-dimensional environment will prove to be more important than an invisible one-dimensional online store,” Friedman says. The days of shopping in our pajamas for polished-chrome drawer pulls just might be behind us. Cherry Creek Shopping Center, 3000 E. First Ave., 303-331-1938

What’s In Store

With RH Denver’s opening in October, the Mile High City market also gained two of the company’s newest lines: RH Modern and RH Teen. “This is a company that’s absolutely unique,” says Jonathan Browning, a San Francisco–based designer who reimagined Sputnik chandeliers with an industrial spin (pictured) for the RH Modern line. “They don’t screw it up by dumbing it down.” Here, a few of our favorite things from the grown-up collection:

Milo Baughman Model #1233, 1972 Leather Chair in Brushed Brass, starting at $3,695