Polly Reiter
Independent Annapolis-based interior designer
Polly Reiter has a versatile, modern style. For her, lighting is the first thing to be addressed in a home. To fill this need, she does most of her shopping at Jones Lighting in Towson, where she’s scored beaded wall sconces and glass jug lamps. She’s also a fan of their modern and classic decoupage lamps.

For turn-of-the-century furniture pieces like farm cabinets and true French reproductions, she recommends Absolutely Fabulous Antique & Consignment Shop in West Annapolis. And for French linens, she shops exclusively at Yves Dulorme in Annapolis. Reiter also keeps an eye on antique and consignment shops, such as Annapolis Antique & Consignment Shop for uncommon lamps and old accessories like decanters or frames. “You might even find something at the Salvation Army if you have a good eye,” says Reiter.

Laura Ortel
“I love wooden, aged pieces,” admits Easton designer Laura Ortel of Annapolis-based E-I Designs. “And I like to shop in places you need to dig around in.”

Oak Creek Sales in Royal Oak, Md., is a place she keeps returning to for “little gems.” Recently, she bought a hand-painted, rustic child’s hutch for a client who was creating an area in their home for the grandkids. She also found a wastepaper can with an oriental figure on the front and a reproduction solid maple lowboy, which she put to use as a side table.

Ortel also enjoys perusing the inventory at Flo-mir Antiques in downtown Easton for interesting period furniture, such as chests of drawers or upholstered chairs, French china, or old English lamps. For herself, she took home a set of books on American antiques as well as French prints of boys playing leapfrog, a playful piece for a powder room.

Darryl Savage
“Neoclassical eclectic,” is how Queenstown interior designer Darryl Savage describes his personal style. To find pieces that strike his fancy, he’ll shop “anywhere and everywhere.” Since his store DHS Designs specializes in period French limestone mantels from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries, Savage travels three times a year to shop all over France.

When stateside, the designer keeps a constant eye open for antique garden ornaments, decorative arts, and furniture at Potomac Village Antiques where he recently acquired an antique Chinese lantern from a Buddhist temple. “They have wonderful antique and vintage Chinese pieces, among other lovely accessories and furniture. Great pieces and great prices.”

Gary Lawrik
“Eclectic” is how Annapolis interior designer Gary Lawrik describes his style. “When shopping for clients or simply shopping,” says Lawrik, “I just roam around. I scour the local places. It’s like a treasure hunt.”

Lawrik suggest Gaines McHale in Baltimore for antique and vintage European furniture such as armoires, hutches, Louis XV-style chairs, and interesting accessories, such as a grape-picking basket. He recently bought striking coffee table bases made from European iron window grates. “I’m used to seeing mixed marriages that combine country French and early bachelor,” says Lawrik. “It’s the juxtaposition that becomes interesting.”

Another favorite shop is Echoes and Accents in Annapolis, where he purchased a breakfront, a glass-and-wood cabinet that his client uses in her living room to display family treasures, antique silver, and children’s pictures. He’s currently on a mission to find distinctive twin beds for his beach house. “Their stuff moves quickly, so the inventory’s always changing. It’s wonderfully priced.”

Pam Meekins
“I like helping people find an individual look involving one-of-a-kind, custom pieces,” says Pam Meekins of E-I Designs in Annapolis. For her, there’s no need to travel far outside of town to run across good finds.

From Bon Vivant Antiques & Period Furnishings in West Annapolis, she recently obtained a Hepplewhite English sideboard, perfect for a client with a small dining room. She praises Coup de Coeur in the Annapolis Antique Gallery for their offerings of imported French furniture, armoires, chairs, beds, and dining room furniture as well as accessories such as antique linens. Recently, Meekins purchased an armoire originally from a convent school in Normandy. “It still has the name of the last student who used it on the inside. It’s beautiful.”

And the area’s best kept secret? The family-run Clement Hardware in Severna Park. “You don’t need to go into the city to find designer hardware,” notes Meekins. “They have gorgeous, gorgeous hardware.”

Alison Paice
Easton-based independent interior designer Alison Paice describes her style as “elegant simplicity.” She likes to shop for transitional pieces, like overstuffed couches that go well with antiques. “I like eclectic stuff, but it needs to be high quality and unique,” says Paice.

For its wide array of lamps, Paice goes to Bountiful, a furniture and interior design shop in downtown Easton. At Foxwells Antiques, also in Easton, she’s found brass ship bookends, a World War I poster, a child’s desk, and quart Atlas jars, which she bought to use as vases at her oldest daughter’s wedding. She says it has a great inventory of hats and pocketbooks for collectors.

When in Cambridge, Paice likes Artwell’s Antique Mall, where she’s found a cherry bed, a chest of drawers, and a set of Pyrex bowls. Another favorite Cambridge haunt is Packing House Antique Mall, a dealer warehouse, where she’s found 1940s and ‘50s embroidered breakfast tablecloths, antique baby spoons, early Fiesta Ware bowls, and a gas lamp with a glass beaded shade for a friend’s boat.

In Trappe, she stops at The Defender Collection Antiques for oriental rugs, imported antiques, British- made knives and pie steamers, old benches, and tin wear. “I find myself going to several of these places just for the kick of it,” says Paice. “Sometimes you can get stuck in catalogues or on the Internet. But I’m old-fashioned. I still need to see and touch things.”

Dan Proctor
For Dan Proctor from Kirk Designs in Baltimore, style is less about his personal tastes and more about “establishing a visual vocabulary with clients.”

When shopping for clients - or for himself - Proctor looks for unique pieces that may also be unusual in their application. At In Watermelon Sugar, one of his favorite shops in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, he discovered a square log of mahogany, hand hewn, and hollowed out as a drum. He ended up using it for potted plants at the center of a table. “The key is to look at things in a different way,” says Proctor. “You might find a strange plate that makes a great candleholder.”

The Baltimore designer also recommends The Dutch Connection in Baltimore for unique hand-tied bouquets of fresh flowers, decorative iron urns and planters, handmade European glass giftware like candleholders and vases. He spied a magnificent beaded tablecloth with mother of pearl sequins at The Pearl Gallery, also in Hampden. And his preferred auction is the Alex Cooper Auction in Towson for rugs, fine china, hutches, sideboards, end tables, or antique beds.

Maggie Bokor
Interior designer Maggie Bokor of Maggie’s Style in Edgewater, Md., describes her style as “eclectic, funky, malleable.” She does much of her shopping in Annapolis, and often chooses stores based on the personality of their owners. “They need to .create an atmosphere that is inviting. It’s easy to buy when you have a hometown feeling there.”

According to Bokor, Before and After is one of the best antique and reproduction furniture stores in town. Here she recently purchased a large, whitewashed tin framed mirror for her shabby chic-themed guest bedroom. “Their inventory is always fresh,” she says. “They have quality furniture that won’t fall apart. And it’s very reasonably priced for the neighborhood.”

For plumbing and kitchen fixtures, and lighting, she recommends Ferguson’s. Bokor has also had positive experiences at Storehouse, where she’s found shabby chic chairs, stylish tight-backed sofas (those sleek, contemporary types with no cushions on the back), and Mitchell Gold brand leather, “exceptional quality leather that’s hard to find. You can live with one of their couches for twenty years,” she says.

Carol Wilson
Carol Wilson of Powers Smith in Annapolis puts artwork at the top of her client shopping list. When it comes to hunting for original, interesting pieces by local artists, Wilson says a stroll through Annapolis reveals hidden gems. “We have so much here at home. There’s no reason to go much further. Really. We want for nothing.”

She often spots intriguing landscapes, particularly oversized oil paintings and landscapes, at McBride Gallery, which specializes in works by local artists. Unusual photographs await at Maryland Federation of Art where she purchased a trompe-l’oeil photograph of two bicycles, one real and one drawn, in an urban setting. From Aurora Gallery she recently bought a watercolor painting of peaches by Annapolis artist Susan Bradshaw to go in a client’s dining area, after having purchased a Nancy Hammond print from her crane series to go in another’s contemporary home.

Absolutely Fabulous Antique & Consignment Shop
24 Annapolis St.
Annapolis, Md.
410-268-8762

Alex Cooper Auctioneers
908 York Rd.
Towson, Md.
410-828-4838
http://www.alexcooper.com

Annapolis Antique & Consignment Shop
20 Riverview Ave.
Annapolis, Md.
410-266-5550

Artwell’s Antique Mall
509 Race St.
Cambridge, Md.
410-228-0997

August Georges
1523 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, D.C.
202-337-5110
http://www.augustgeorges.com

Aurora Gallery
67 Maryland Ave.
Annapolis, Md.
410-263-9150

Before and After
50 Maryland Ave.
Annapolis, Md.
410-263-7075
http://www.beforeandafterannapolis.com

Bon Vivant Antiques & Period Furnishings
104 Annapolis St.
Annapolis, Md.
410-263-9651
http://www.bonvivantantiques.com

Bountiful
218 N. Washington St.
Easton, Md.
410-763-8500

Clement Hardware
Ritchie Highway & Robinson Rd.
Severna Park, Md.
410-647-4611
http://www.baldwinbrassonline.com

Coup de Coeur
1908 Dulaney Place
Annapolis, Md.
410-974-1531

The Defender Collection Antiques
Maple Ave. and Main St.
Trappe, Md.
410-476-9923

DHS Designs
6521 Friel Rd.
Queenstown, Md.
410-827-8167
http://www.dhsdesigns.com

The Dutch Connection
3811 Canterbury Rd.
Baltimore, Md.
410-467-7882
http://www.thedutchconnection.us

Echoes and Accents
224 Chinquapin Round Rd.
Annapolis, Md.
410-280-0880

Ferguson’s
11 Hudson St.
Annapolis, Md.
410-573-0040

Flo-mir Antiques
23 East Dover St.
Easton, Md.
410-822-2857

Foxwells Antiques
7739 Ocean Gateway
Easton, Md 21601
410-820-9705

Gaines McHale
836 Leadenhall St.
Baltimore, Md.
410-625-1900
http://www.gainesmchale.com

In Watermelon Sugar
3555 Chestnut Ave.
Baltimore, Md.
410-662-9090

Jones Lighting
1010 York Rd.
Towson, Md.
410-828-1010

Maryland Federation of Art
18 State Circle
Annapolis, Md.
410-268-4566
http://www.mdfedart.org

McBride Gallery
215 Main St.
Annapolis, Md.
410-267-7077
http://www.mcbridegallery.com

Nancy Hammond Editions
410-267-7711
http://www.nancyhammondeditions.com

Oak Creek Sales
25939 Royal Oak Rd.
Royal Oak, Md.
410-745-3193

Packing House
Antiques Mall
411A Dorchester Ave.
Cambridge, Md. 21613
410-221-8544

The Pearl Gallery
815 West 36th St.
Baltimore, Md.
410-467-2260
http://www.thepearlgallery.com

Potomac Village Antiques
9906 River Rd.
Potomac, Md.
301-983-0140

Storehouse
2536 Solomons Island Rd.
Annapolis, Md.
410-266-1345
http://www.storehouse.com

Yves Dulorme
167 E. Jennifer Rd.
Annapolis, Md.
410-224-0015
http://www.yvesdelorme.com