This shop contains ample choices of fantastic culinary items, accessories, candles and linens. It's…read moredifficult to find really great high-quality down pillows with linen slipcovers and I bought two at Forest and Ash that I am very impressed with and so very pleased. Suberb find!!

The shop itself is cute, but I was discouraged when the shop owner took off her mask because…read moreevidently "breathing your own air is toxic, with the CO2" and not wearing a mask is "common sense" and increasingly dubious stuff. It wasn't super courteous and as someone in contact with autoimmune compromised people it really got in the way of the otherwise nice experience.

I stopped at Christine's on a whim. It is easy to do, because they have a huge parking lot. The…read morestore itself is large, sunny, and packed with cool art, furniture, clothes and jewelry. The art was very well priced, and I loved the beachy, worn feel of many of the furniture pieces. (Now tempted to redecorate!) I found a beautiful, 100% linen designer jacket, made in the US. It was fun to try it on in the large, comfortable fitting room, with full length mirrors both inside the dressing room, and inside the little alcove next to the room.I wasn't quite sure about if it would go with the skirt and shoes I owned, and asked Beth, the person who was helping me, offered to hold it for me. I returned with my items, tried it all on, and the jacket worked perfectly. And even better, it was on sale! I had a great experience, great customer service, and I feel as if I "discovered" Christine's. I will be back when I am looking for something a little special, and a charming shopping experience.

I come to Christine's every summer with my mom, a local, and we have such fun sifting through the…read morecurated clothes, jewelry, shoes and housewares. It's a lovely shop with friendly staff. She has great taste and range in price and styles. I always leave happy and back in Los Angeles I get compliments on the pieces I found in this treasured spot!

Home Sense is owned TJX the company that owns TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Marshalls, etc…read more Basically this is like a Home Goods on crack. The space is bigger, higher ceilings that carries lighting, larger assortment of rugs, outdoor furniture, lots of pots, and then the normal stuff from home sectoon of TJ Maxx. This location is just over the Maine border in NH so there's no sales tax.

Why do they keep all the tacky stuff out front and center? This store constantly disappoints me,…read moreeverything on display is often either poorly made or disgustingly cutesy/shabby. It seems they keep all the decent stuff tucked away and hidden in the back. I managed to buy a good set of dining room chairs, although they were a bit overpriced. That took a while. I can already tell the kind of people they want to attract to this store. People who have poor taste and just want non quality, whimsical, cornball items in their house.

This is one of the stores I always have to stop at when roaming around downtown Portsmouth. They…read morehave a cute selection of gifts or things for yourself. I always get my soy candles there because they have some unique scents. It is a tiny shop with a nice, upscale boutique feel. Lots of beach, cottage feel items. Check it out, you'll love it

We found the perfect house gift here for friends we were visiting. The woman in the store the…read moreweekend we were shopping was nice enough to let us return the next day to pick it up so we didn't have to carry it around while we were exploring the town. Interesting items and friendly service. A place to return to.

Colleen has a great eye for New England country design. Love her color palette. Great showroom!…read more It's a breath of fresh air to have the option of seeing a display of finely constructed quality merchandise in these days of AKEA and the discount boxed furniture store market full of Chinese made wares. Haven't used her design services yet but planning to in the fall!!

We contracted The Look to do our new home in Portsmouth. It was a large project and when we spoke…read morewith the owner of The Look she was very engaging and had some good ideas. The first thing we probably should have noticed is that she never took any notes. We had to repeat ourselves over the course of several meetings. Perhaps we should have pulled out then, but we had hopes things would work out better. Things did not get better..... Once we started things only got worse, the timeline slipped by months and we found that we could get the exact same pieces that were specified by the designer for thousands less by doing a simple google search. These were not knockoffs, they were the exact same items. We decided to buy the items ourselves for a savings of well over $15,000.00 Before we go on I think it is important to clarify a few items. The designer and owner of The Look was very clear that her design services were a separate cost from her retail store and that if we did not want to buy from her retail store it would not affect the other services. She said that the retail store was competitive, she quoted "We also search the web to price match" Unfortunately that is not what happened, she was unwilling to match the full retail prices we were finding on the internet. So we decided to save ourselves thousands of dollars (and get the credit card miles) by buying ourselves. Surprisingly (or maybe not so) the designer became less interested in our project after that. She insisted that we had to manage all of the contractors by ourselves and didn't take any ownership of the errors that she made early in the process. For example, an entire floor of our house was neglected in her painting quote, a floor that we were extremely clear would need to be painted, but somehow she missed. To reiterate - I understand if a designer gets paid by taking a percentage of the retail items and that is why they would have higher prices. But the owner of The Look was very clear that that was not her practice. I caution anyone from buying directly from this establishment, A short google search could save you thousands. And even other designers in less than a 50 mile radius had the exact same pieces for less. Also, we wanted a specific wallpaper for one of our rooms, that she said had been discontinued. we were disappointed until we looked online and found that the wallpaper was available and The Look just could not locate it. We did buy several items from her retail store, and we were very disappointed by the service. I imagine that we were put at the "back of the line" after she lost interest in our project, but we paid over $7,000 for a bed and two hanging pendant lights. Our check for payment was delivered to The Look on June 30th. The bed was installed on September 21st, even with 2 months to make the bed that is a little long. But the real kicker is the two hanging lights. They were also paid for on June 30th, after 4 months on October 30th we finally cried "uncle" and just cancelled the order. There was still no delivery date and the story we heard is that they were back-ordered several times. Several times? How does that happen? Throughout these four months of waiting we had to always reach our to her for updates, she never emailed us with updates. She basically disappeared right after we sent her the check. After we cancelled the order she emailed us to say that she would send a check right out but "It takes a few days to get out". We took her at her word, until two more weeks passed and we still had not received any check. So, we had to drive to her office to manually pick up the check (on the 20th of November). Needless to say, working with The Look was quite the painful endeavor. Regarding the design services. She did produce good concepts. Except when she tried to convince us to put our hot tub on the front lawn - that was weird - I am sure our neighbors would have loved that! But I would warn everyone to get everything documented via email so that you can be clear on what is and is not included in your project. And you can refer back to the quotes when the bill comes. Also, double check your invoices - I was double billed for a $500 item that I had to catch.

I was in need asap of a sleep sofa. One that was on the smaller side. And not 6 months out…read more Joanne and Nicolle jumped into action. Three weeks later the delivery team was at my home and building a sleep sofa in the room. Great option since the house has narrow stairs to the den. Excellent service all around! Circle Furniture will do well in Portsmouth with that team!

They closed their doors and laid off their workers without notice. They did not deliver furniture…read morewe paid for.

Always a cheerful welcome and new things to see every visit. This shop is a treasure hunt with fine…read moreitems along with just the thing you didn't know you needed.

Hart used to be near Nissan near Portsmouth Traffic circle, where they sold nice furntiture with a…read morefew artistic items. They moved to a better location, where they will get walk ins, Much better for business, Unfortunately they have downgraded their items. Its 1930s type stuff, not really antiques. I was very disappointed. Many more things but no longer uniques. Rob H., I certainly did not get a cheerful welcome. was almost told not to come back? Owner nice to look at?? Ann L. are you in your 90s or 100s? Not ugly. Ann H. Did Ann L. get married?

I just had lunch at The Goods in Portsmouth's downtown area. The food is very good (hence the name)…read morebut the best part was Todd. He's very personable and friendly. I always like supporting businesses with great customer service. If you go for lunch - try the Buddha bowl with shrimp. It was the perfect size. They also have a great selection of sandwiches, salads and drinks.

Incredibly rude staff. The woman on staff was rude to an elderly woman asking where the bathroom…read morewas when we walked in. The bakery items on display next to the register are UNCOVERED and look like display items where people can cough/sneeze/breath all over them. I assumed they were display items and touched a muffin and the staff immediately said "that's yours now" and added it to our order for $5. This place is overpriced to be tricking customers into buying more and then expecting a tip. Most cafes have those items COVERED UNDER GLASS or they are display so this was misleading and over priced for a mini muffin that I didn't even want. Right next door at Green room they keep the food under a glass cover.... And display items in front.. the proper way. Never coming back here again. She was a brunette woman who seems mad at life and takes it out on the customers.

The Willow is in downtown Exeter. I love checking in. I recently went by & checked out their…read moreHoliday delights! This place has a bit of everything. It's tasteful & my cup of tea! Beautiful items for home & other!! Julie is a downtown Exeter Business Owner. Always pleasant, helpful, & easy to chat with. I go to a handful of business's in Exeter. Julie is a definite plus. There's something for anyone with fine taste!! I absolutely love Exeter & got to know a few area business owners. The ones I met are very kind & Julie is 1. This is a shop of distinction! You'll always be able to find a gift that is top notch!! Willow has fine people that are knowledgeable & always willing to answer any inquiry. I highly recommend The Willow for this Christmas or anytime of the year. Superior taste. Merry Christmas to Julie the owner of The Willow!!

Very cute store with home goods and gifts. Well curated and worth popping in. I loved their goats…read moremilk soaps and cards. Bought a Thich Naht Hanh book for a friend of mine.

What a great idea for any friend-group, couples outing, or to come on your own even!…read more All the materials are provided and the staff working are all so nice and knowledgeable. There's a whole wall of different candle scents and there's an awesome list of scents that pair well together if you don't know where to start. I went with a more "clean bathroom" scent and found 3 scents that were suggested on their list. I love the smell of my candle!! Once you've chosen your scents, chosen your vessel, stirred everything in your vessel for 5-7 mins, and labeled it yours, you have to wait 2.5-3 hours for the wax to set. This called for a perfect day-trip walking around the shops in Portsmouth and we also had time grabbed a bite before picking up our candles and heading home. Also - they've got a cute gift shop area featuring local artists and businesses in the area. The 4 of us all had different approaches to our scents and were all obsessed. I'm definitely gonna come back when I'm due for a new Christmas candle!!

Wasn't the best experience. Arrived a bit late and were told several times, by several staff…read moremembers that we had limitied time to create the candle, and was totally rushed through the process. The staff was so worried about a party of 9 that were coming in at 1:00PM, that they could care less about our party of 3 that were sitting there. After finishing on time, paying, using the restroom, gathering our belongings and looking around the shop, we were out the door by approx. 1:20. The party of 9 still had yet to arrive, and I wouldn't be surprised if they never showed. Since no credit card or deposit is needed to hold your seat, there is really no committment, so I'm sure it happens alot. FYI: Just to be clear, anyone making candles on Mother's Day was offered a 10% discount! The owners aren't very business savy. Wouldn't recommend going.