Furniture, Gifts, Chocolate and More at the Platypus Store in Montvale, NJ

Platypus is a real little treasure located in the Tice Shopping Center on Chestnut Ridge Road in Montvale, N.J.. This is a beautiful store full of delightful gifts, hand made furniture, lovely home accessories and some of the best coffee around. It's located near the WIlliam Sonoma end of the shoppng strip.

The Platypus stores have been in business for 30 years. They offer delivery from Boston to Florida. They have gorgeous hand painted furniture, custom upholstered pieces and wonderful outdoor furniture in the summer. Their outdoor furniture is Teak or aluminum.

They carry Regency, John Hancock, Homestead lines of furniture and more. Most of the time they will have a discount on many pieces. They offer hand painted furniture with custom colors for only 20% additional cost.

When you walk in you have little venues of their furniture set up so you can get the feel of how pieces look together. They carry very realistic silk flowers, wonderful small pieces, end tables, coffee tables and large imposing pieces, hutches, cabinets, tables, lamps, leather armchairs, rugs, headboards with all the linens and throws and pillows to go with these pieces.

Walk around through the furniture area, scan the walls, check out the wonderful knickknacks on the shelves. There are shelves loaded with wonderful decorative pieces. Prints, pictures and mirrors are availabe, large or small, all extremely decorative.

As you walk around you will smell the aroma of fresh coffee. Keep walking. You can check out the unusual flatware and serving pieces and the charming gift items. The displays are very creative. The flatware is displayed on a bed of coffee beans. They carry a lot of unusual gifts. If you walk to the left side of the store you will come upon the Godiva chocolates, Belgian chocolates, Chocolate covered cherries and pistachios, Joe Schmidt Truffles, chocolate dipped pretzels and wonderful cookies.

The pretzels are rolled in tiy pastel M & M's or nuts. Just beyond that is the fresh coffee you've been smelling. There are flavors like Double Chocoolate Fudge or a nice Italian expresso if you want to pass on the flavors. They have a set up so you can sample the coffees they are featuring that day and perhaps buy a pound when you find the one you really like. You can even get New Orleans Cafe du Monde Chicory coffee in a can. You can enroll in their coffee plan. Fresh bags of beans are right there to be ground for you.

Just beyond the coffee set up is the area with wonderful jams, syrups, vinegars, oils and teas and tea samplers. Try the Artichoke or Sundried tomato pesto by Stonewall Kitchen. There is a large collection of home tableware . See the wood and cork placemats and coasters.

A set of placemats that will hold up forever and clean with ease are $34.99. Wonderful , interesting china pieces and serving pieces are there if you need a housewarming gift. Any of these would make wonderful gifts for yourself or someone special. If I were a bride to be I would register here.

For children there ar stuffed animals by Ditz that are cute and cuddly. There are cute books, CD's. water features, whimsical hand painted reading glasses and Sylvestri items. Christmas decor is already 40% off.

The parking is more than ample since this is a large shopping are newly built on what used to be TIce's Farms land. There was quite a fuss when the idea of putting stores in this area came up since the farms were becoming fewer and far between. Some people were against a shopping center. This shopping center is wide and narrow so it isn't overwheming.

Most people are now thrilled to have such a nice selection of stores so readily accessible. There is lovely seating in the form of metal benches in front of all the stores. When you get your cup of coffee from Platypus and some wonderful Godiva chocolate you can go sit outside and think about which piece of furniture is for you if the weather is condusive. There are always samples of the chocolates and candies out for you to try.

Platypus is wheelchair accessible and accepts credit cards..