If the idea of decorating or redecorating your home conjures up images of driving all over Atlanta, sitting in traffic, fighting for parking spaces and spending weeks upon end not even finding what you’re looking for—the nightmare is over. Thanks to a recent trend, many design-oriented businesses are setting up shop together, creating design destinations that allow homeowners to park and browse, finding everything from bathroom tiles to fine art in one location.

The Carpets of Dalton campus
The Carpets of Dalton campus offers enough to make it more than worth the trip. Located along I-75 in Dalton, the campus features four major interior stores side by side, including Carpets of Dalton, American Home Showplace, Buy the Room and World of Outdoor Living.

Carpets of Dalton, which opened in 1972, provides many types of flooring such as carpet, wood, tile and rugs ranging from novelty to traditional. Next door, American Home Showplace encompasses more than 250,000 square feet of furniture and home specialty items like cabinets, home theater equipment and lighting. In the third store, aptly named Buy the Room, coordinated room collections are set up throughout the building and can be purchased in their entirety or by the piece. Finally, for the weekend warrior, World of Outdoor Living has outdoor furniture, kitchens, grills, fireplaces and more to help you create a delightful backyard, front yard or whatever piece of the great outdoors your property includes.

The definite not-to-be-missed aspect of the campus is the Dream Home. This is an actual full-scale house that has been constructed inside American Home Showplace. Each year a team of American Home designers redecorates the home. The 2005 home contains vibrant designs and a state-of-the-art kitchen from lead designer Sandi Graham. All of the products that were used to create the Dream Home come from the Carpets of Dalton campus. Carpets of Dalton is open seven days a week and provides complimentary trolley service between stores.

The Galleries of
Peachtree Hills
If an afternoon or even a whole day spent strolling and browsing art galleries, antique shops and other design-oriented places without having to leave Atlanta sounds like your cup of tea, the newly opened Galleries of Peachtree Hills beckons. Located on Peachtree Hills Avenue next to the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC), the Galleries complex is designed in the European tradition of elegant antique and design stores with owner’s flats above the shops. The architecture alone is probably worth the trip—the buildings were designed in 18th-century French style, and the 34 three-floor units are bursting with chic.

“We are privileged to welcome nationally recognized leaders in their respective fields, and are presenting to Atlantans an elegant, accessible enclave in which visitors and collectors alike can browse and shop,” says Jeff Glover, lead developing partner of the Galleries of Peachtree Hills. Jacqueline Adams Antiques, the first tenant to move in last October, chose a double space of more than 8,600 square feet to fill with French, Italian and Swedish 18th- and 19th-century antiques. More recently, contemporary international fine art gallery TEW Galleries Inc. moved from its longtime space to reside at the Galleries. Owner Timothy Tew saw the Galleries as a step toward creating a vital and recognized art market in Atlanta.

“The Galleries brings an opportunity to establish a centralized shopping district for antiques, art and home furnishings,” Tew says. The Galleries community is home to businesses like Keivan Woven Rugs, Parc Monceau, Swan Antiques and C. Weaks Interiors. With a total of more than 30 residents, design aficionados and novices alike will find their only challenge being able to leave.

Atlanta’s Warehouse District
Also within the city limits (don’t let the industrial setting fool you), the warehouse district located within the Westside off of Howell Mill Road and West Marietta Street abounds with specialty home furnishings, textiles, garden needs, antiques and lighting—and there are plenty of great deals to be found.

No Más! Home & Garden and its friends Bodega Garden and Sonoma form a sort of complex on the corner of Huff Road and Foster Street. Owners Steve MacNeil and Walt Bilinski repeatedly travel to Mexico in search of handcrafted goods and furniture. Working directly with the artists, they also are able to include a variety of custom-made pieces and original designs. “When we established No Más! in 1996, our attraction was the abundance of interior designers who were familiar with the well-established fabric stores,” Belinski says of the Westside area. “Over the past decade, we have seen a big swing in clientele toward homeowners trying to take advantage of the same resources known to the design trade. Today, it is hard to find anyone who is not familiar with this pocket of Atlanta.”

Speaking of fabrics, Forsyth Fabrics moved to its present location in the neighborhood from Forsyth Street in the 1970s. It features thousands of yards of in-stock designer drapery and upholstery fabrics and fringes at wholesale prices. Nearby, Lewis & Sheron Textile Co. is home to 60,000 square feet of fabric (including upholstery-weight silk), trim and furniture. The combination allows shoppers to create their own custom designs—basically, pick a fabric, pick a frame and Lewis & Sheron will create it for you.

Art has made its way west, too. Last fall Sandler Hudson Gallery moved to Marietta Street, and this spring Castleberry Gallery Midtown West opened its doors on West Marietta Street. Antiques are available at Provenance, and a host of furniture stores can be found nearby, like Direct Furniture from the Source, with its 12,000-square-foot showroom filled with name-brand designer furnishings. Even better, most of the furniture stores feature warehouse pricing. And if all the shopping works up an appetite, restaurants like Chow Baby, Figo, Pangea and Octane Coffee Bar & Lounge have the cure.

Whatever your home-decorating needs, these design destinations can probably help. They are good for a brief visit or an all-day adventure, and they definitely will have you spending less time driving between stores and more time doing the important work of shopping.