Just off an internal courtyard, a mudroom provides a prime place to keep sneakers. Each family member has their own shelf, backlit by windows that illuminate every pair.

March is a purveyor of modern kitchen essentials.

A pressed-steel Parallel shelving system by Terence Woodgate holds books and mementos.

One of our favorite areas was the design library swatch wall with removable color swatches displaying the full range of customizable options and the light cloud filled with pendant fixtures. Photo by Sharon Risedorph Photography, San Francisco.

The dining test lab (shown) features 70 of their bestselling and most iconic chairs alongside tables that can be used to test-drive the seats in situ. Photo by Sharon Risedorph Photography, San Francisco.

DWR’s new 20,000-square-foot store at the heart of the Design District in San Francisco’s Portrero Hill neighborhood is one of their largest locations to date. The 30 full-room vignettes throughout the store allow shoppers to visualize and interact with the furniture. Full product lines are mixed in with the vignettes as well, to help people find one specific item. Photo by Sharon Risedorph Photography, San Francisco

Container Store finds, like galvanized-steel shelving in the kitchen, maximize storage.

The original building was designed by Kohn Shnier.

Morera was also attracted to cacti's resilience. "They thrive in the worlds harshest conditions, and not only do they thrive, they look completely bitchin' while they're at it!" he says. "I started collecting them…big time. I would say I had over 2,000 specimens in my personal collection at one time."

Here's a sample menu from the restaurant. "We wanted to subtly nod to the early to mid-20th century through choices like the logo 'stamp' for the packaging and hand-embossed menus on recycled cream paper stock," says Hooper.

The space functions as a showroom for the brand's modern wares. It displays the beloved products Umbra has developed over its 35-year history.

Over five years ago, Bong and Rossy, an interior designer, opened their first concept store in Cubao X, an area dedicated to design innovation. "We decided to open the store with the goal of breathing a fresh air of our particular design aesthetic to the local design community," Bong says.

The bathroom includes a sink Bornstein discovered in a secondhand store.

Keiko and Taku Shinomoto have two simple rules for their store: that the items come from Japan and that they have been well made by artisans. Just off busy Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, California, the shop carries homewares such as Kaikado metal tea canisters.

The store's entrance includes a three-story facade with vertical wood slats and glass storefront.

Aesop, San FranciscoLocated on the shopper's paradise of Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights, the cork-and-pine shop cuts an understated figure when compared to flashy retail outlets like Jonathan Adler or Marc Jacobs down the block.

Visit Mjölk in Toronto, Ontario, Tuesdays through Sundays at 2959 Dundas Street West or shop online at mjolk.com. Watch our slideshow of Daoust and Baker's favorite products in the shop.

The built-in niches were among the architect's takeaways from a visit to Corbero's residence outside of Barcelona. "You can see [the influence] throughout the store," Wannberg says. "There's a heavy feeling through the grey colorway but with a ceratin lightness in shapes and details." The shoes were created in collaboration with South African artist Esther Mahlangu.

"A retail space needs to combine inspiration and sales," Wannberg explains. "It must be inspiring enough for people to visit merely for the design but also sell products without screaming."

Some of the cacti species available at the shop include cleistocactus supernova, pediocactus knowltonii, and thrixanthocereus senilis. "What we try to do is carry uniquely beautiful cactus that are not commercially available to the public," Help LTD. says. "But we try not to carry plants that only a cactus head would flip over—we're trying to bring these beautiful plants to the public, not pull them further away."

British designer Lee Broom is transforming unoccupied shops to create his Department Store exhibition, the launch of over new products, including the Crescent light shown here. Via Alfredo Cappellini 16.

Here's another glimpse of Greer, this time of writing implements and blown-up stamps from around the world.

Colorful metal tables float on a mobile hanger (which resembles Man Ray's mobile coat hanger piece, "Obstruction") from the store's ceiling. Photo by: Samuel Kirszenbaum

Tucked behind Tortoise General Store is Tortoise, a gallery-like setting where designs from Ryota Aoki, Hiroto Nakanishi, and Masanobu Ando are on display.

When the home design- and garden-loving duo Mary Gray and Annette Goliti Gutierrez teamed up to start a business, they developed a concept of a boutique shop dedicated to outdoor living. Thus, Potted was born. Years later, and many similar boutiques have come and gone in the Los Feliz area, it’s still one of the best shops in town. 3158 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039

Roombots can also store themselves in a carton when not in use, or create a static structure such as a box or wall.

Department store Liberty on Regent Street in London's iconic Tudor-style building designed in the 1920s.

Here's an exterior view of the new shop. I visited in June and I prefer it to the Camper stores I've been to in both New York and San Francisco.

Every product zone features helpful information that conveys a clear benefit. Health is touted; sustainability is implied. Word of the store has spread quickly around Austin. "We've done some social media," says Yanosy, "but mainly it's grassroots. Local builders and a lot of young, savvy families are our customers."

Head to Cactus Store at 1505.5 Echo Park Ave in Los Angeles, California, to spy an expertly assembled collection of rare cacti. The store's manager, Johnny Morera, became interested in the plants after what he calls "a long love affair bonsai." "As a 10-year-old, Cuban-American of immigrant parents I was definitely an outcast in the Japanese L.A. bonsai scene," Morera says. "I showed up to seminar after seminar, and hung around a nursery more than I was attending grade school. Eventually that kind of perseverance—or annoyance—paid off and I was issued clearance to start studying under John Naka, the California bonasi legend. I got pretty far in the scene but, unfortunately, after skipping all of those classes, I got kicked out of high school. Then I got a job at a nursery where I was exposed to a lot of different plants and cacti. Cacti took my attention because they have many of the same sculptural qualities as bonsai and are at times as slow moving—and most are native!"

"A lot of nurseries sell cacti, but the difference in what we are doing is that we are not selling raw plant material delivered by a semi each morning," says the store's owner, Help LTD. "We hand pick every cactus that's in the shop from these crazy farms in the middle of nowhere near the border of Mexico and California. No one else is doing that—you aren't going to find these plants at a nursery."

The Dwell Store offered scores of modern products, with designers on hand to discuss their creations.

Umbra's first store, built in 2007, now has a new interior designed by The Retail Lab in partnership with Designstead.