Home Notes from SoHo: Muji, CB2 and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

Home furnishings stores are giving us our news fix today. We're still feeling unmoved to leave the house even though the deluge has finally stopped, but you can bet we will get up off our ass when Muji opens its second US store in SoHo. (We couldn't resist that gem of a segue. Okay, maybe it's not so much a gem as a ring from a Crackerjack box) Muji is the Japanese home furnishings products company opening its first store in the upcoming New York Times Building. They have now signed up at 455 Broadway just below Grand Street for what will be their second store. Muji is a shortening of the Japanese words mujirushi ryohin, which means 'no label, quality goods', and who doesn't like those?
Just a few doors down will be the Manhattan debut of CB2, the lower priced version of Crate & Barrel. It will be their third retail store for the new brand, and they have taken 18,000 square feet at 451 Broadway. We expect the one two punch of these stores to increase interest in the area south of Grand street, where until now, most of the stores have had more of the seedy feeling of Canal Street than the glitz found a blocks or two uptown.
Over on Lafayette, we can look forward to Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams adding a freestanding shop to their in-store space at ABC Carpet & Home. They will occupy the ground floor of One Kenmare Square, the striking, wavy building at 210 Lafayette Street.