Clearfork Welcome Mat
Fort Worth snags first Texas location of hot East Coast home boutique
A leading home furnishings and décor retailer from Atlanta is expanding to Texas, and Fort Worth gets the first store — a few months ahead of Dallas. Ballard Designs will open at 5100 Monahans Ave., in The Shops at Clearfork, on May 18.
A Dallas store will follow, in Preston Royal Village East, in late August.
Ballard Designs offers a selection of more than 500 customizable pieces, representing all periods and provenance of home furnishings, with a European influence.
It differs from other home decor stores in that it creates an "immersive experience" for shoppers. ("Unleash your inner decorator," the website encourages.) Customers can view vignettes that surround a central Design Solutions workshop studio and then work directly with a design consultant for free to customize pieces for their home.
The Fort Worth store will be stocked with accessories and smaller décor items, such as lighting, side tables, and rugs that can be purchased on the spot, as well. An in-store personalization shop will allow shoppers to have linens, gifts, and accessories monogrammed. And ship-to-store program ensures complimentary shipping when placing an online order to be sent directly to the store for pick-up.
Ballard Designs' first catalog — a two-page black-and-white brochure — launched in 1983 and now has an annual circulation of over 65 million. The Texas stores will bring the company's store count to 13 in the U.S., including three outlets. Most of the stores are in the Eastern U.S. — Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, and Virginia. With Texas, the company marches west.
"We are overjoyed to be opening two stores in Texas. This has been a long time coming for our loyal Ballard enthusiasts," Ryan McKelvey, president of Ballard Designs, says in a release. “Cities for our new retail store locations are carefully and purposefully selected, and these openings were an easy decision.”