Best Furniture '95

Best Furniture Store

American Home Furnishings
4690 N. Oracle Road

READERS' PICK: It's a vast mini-mall of furniture and home accessories, with a dearth of hyper sales people. The rug shop at American Home Furnishings is a lot of fun. Staring up at hanging woolen almost-Orientals, browsing through the colorful Kilims and the brilliant, geometric Southwestern flat weaves, we were left with the pleasant sensation of the child overwhelmingly surrounded by great size and sensual stimuli. AHF takes up the better part of two floors; rugs are upstairs, across from patio furniture, next to the shop with all the lamps and wall mirrors, down the way from the amply stocked housewares section--pots and pans hanging everywhere and a virtual oasis of crystal and Nambé. For families doing a real shop-a-thon, there's the conveniently located cheap-seats theatre, right next to a gourmet coffee shop at the upper, north end. Send the kids to a flick, grab a cup, and make your way down to fantasy land on the first floor. Couches, sofas, davenports---call them what you will, but they are there in every color and configuration, nestled between sumptuous leather chairs and unusual magazine keepers. Sit yourself down and create your own tableau vivant. On the practical side, American Home Furnishings also has bedding and bath accessories, small appliances, several credit-payment plans, a bridal registry and useful stuff like those canvas covers for butterfly chairs.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: In a complicated world it's so nice to go somewhere and see uncomplicated furniture. Year after year Copenhagen, 3660 E. Fort Lowell Road, continues to come up with not only uncomplicated but also sophisticated and practical designs, as well as downright attractive pieces that keep us going back. If all you ever think about when you think of this furniture store is dark teak tables, you need to take another tour. In its wonderfully open and airy showroom, you can really step back from that eggplant-colored leather sofa and dream about what it would look like in your living room, where it will double as a place for your kids to kick the stuffing out of each other. We like the clean lines of the glass-top tables and barely curved seating, which you can either dress up or keep in a minimalist state, depending on your mood ring. The pieces are elegant without overwhelming, so they don't compete with light or space. If we've forgotten to mention comfortable, go try one of their leather-and-chrome lounge chairs and you might just take one home. Lounge chairs don't have to look like overstuffed monsters swallowing you and your bowl of popcorn. You can be comfortable and still look like you have some idea of real style.

STAFF PICK: Arroyo Design's high-end furniture is a welcome respite from the distressed pine/saguaro rib concoctions we've come to know and loathe. Advice to anyone considering purchasing an example of the above: Save your hard-earned dough...in a couple of years you'll be sweating and cussing, trying to squeeze it in to your Tuff Shed next to your hula hoop and eight-track tapes. Then, stop by Arroyo Design, 224 N. Fourth Ave. The work at Arroyo may be considered "Southwestern" because of the emphasis on native hardwoods like mesquite and ironwood, though Southwestern flourishes in the actual construction are subtly integrated into the larger style of the piece. The showroom display is dominated by Stickley/Craftsman-style pieces, with neo-classical touches: turned columns, cabriole legs, built-up moldings. Though grain matching is not an option with a wildly figured wood like mesquite, panels and small tabletops are resawn and book-matched, the worm holes and flaws filled with epoxy and highlighted as part of the design. Pieces from Arroyo Design are destined for family heirlooms.

1998 Winner: Copenhagen
1997 Winner: American Home Furnishings
1996 Winner: Copenhagen