Home, furniture and garden

Palo Alto's houses range from 1890s Victorians in Professorville to thousands of postwar Eichlers on the south side. Keeping them furnished and their gardens green supports a small but varied set of shops. OpenStreetMap, the open map our directory starts from, tags about 30 home and garden businesses inside city limits. Kitchen and housewares shops and furniture showrooms are the biggest groups, followed by mattress stores, florists, hardware and paint stores, flooring and interior design studios, a lighting showroom and a garden center.

This page works in two parts. Below the guide, every store we have verified appears automatically as a card. Above them is the context: where these shops are, how to buy furniture without surprises and the city rules every gardener here should know.

What this category includes

• Furniture and beds: furniture showrooms, mattress and bedding stores
• Kitchen and home: cookware, tableware, storage and home decor shops
• Design: interior design studios, lighting, flooring, window coverings and framing
• Hardware and paint: hardware stores, paint stores and kitchen and bath fixture showrooms
• Garden and flowers: garden centers, nurseries and florists

Gardeners, locksmiths and repair trades are in everyday services. Architects and real estate offices are in professional services. Candles and small gifts sit with books, gifts and specialty shops.

Where home and garden stores cluster

Stanford Shopping Center

The center is the city's furniture row. Its directory lists RH, the home furnishings gallery with a rooftop restaurant, plus Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Williams-Sonoma Grande Cuisine, Arhaus, The Container Store, Frette and Hästens beds. You can compare sofas, linens and storage in one afternoon and park once. See the Stanford Shopping Center guide.

Town & Country Village

Town & Country has a cluster of home shops. Serena & Lily opened a design shop here in November 2023. Hudson Grace sells tableware, Sur La Table carries cookware and kitchen tools and the KOHLER Signature Store shows kitchen and bath fixtures. Framebridge handles custom framing. Read the Town & Country Village guide.

Downtown

Downtown has smaller showrooms on University Avenue, Hamilton Avenue and Bryant Street, including furniture, mattress, rug, lighting and interior design studios. A florist sits on Hamilton Avenue.

California Avenue and El Camino Real

The practical side of the category lives here. Hardware and paint stores sit on South California Avenue, Page Mill Road and Alma Street. Mattress, flooring and florist shops line El Camino Real. A garden center and a design showroom are in the south of the city near the Charleston area.

Buying furniture without surprises

Large pieces bring more risk than most purchases. A few checks help:

1. Measure first. Measure doorways, stairs, hallways and elevators as well as the room. Older homes can have narrow halls, tight stairs and small side gates.
2. Ask about lead times. Made-to-order upholstery can take weeks or months. Ask for an estimated delivery date in writing.
3. Understand delivery. Ask what delivery costs, whether it includes carrying items inside and setting them up and whether the store removes packaging or old furniture.
4. Read the return terms. Custom and special-order pieces are usually final sale. California's rule requiring stores to post their return policy does not cover customized goods. Ask about restocking fees before you order.
5. Ask about samples. Many showrooms lend fabric and finish swatches so you can see them in your own light.

Palo Alto's mid-century homes draw buyers who want furniture to match. Our Palo Alto architecture guide covers the Eichler tracts and the architects behind them.

Gardens, florists and local rules

Palo Alto has mild, wet winters and long dry summers. Gardens here lean toward drought-tolerant plants and natives. Many gardeners plant in fall so the winter rains can help new plants settle in. Our weather guide explains the seasons.

Florists and flowers

Independent florists handle arrangements, weddings and delivery. For a casual bunch, Trader Joe's and Piazza's sell flowers and the two weekly farmers markets have flower stands year-round. Order early for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, the two peak weeks.

Learning from local gardens

The Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden in Old Palo Alto runs gardening classes and docent tours. Its Spring Tour in late April includes a marketplace with a plant sale. See the Gamble Garden guide.

Leaf blowers

Gas-powered leaf blowers are banned in Palo Alto's residential neighborhoods. Electric and battery blowers are allowed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, but not on Sundays or holidays. They must be no louder than 65 decibels at 50 feet. The city can cite property owners, not only the gardener. California has banned the sale of new gas leaf blowers and string trimmers since July 1, 2024. The city's leaf blower page has the details.

Protected trees

The city protects certain trees on private land. Coast live oaks, valley oaks and coast redwoods of at least 18 inches in diameter are among them, along with trees named in an approved landscape plan. Removing a protected tree requires a permit from the city's Urban Forestry section. Check the city's tree ordinance pages before any major pruning or removal.

Delivery, tax and timing

Sales tax is added at the register at a combined rate of 9.75 percent (effective October 1, 2026) and applies to furniture, housewares and plants. Delivery fees are usually charged on top. Stores at Stanford Shopping Center work within the center's hours of 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Town & Country shops set their own. Independent showrooms and hardware stores set their own hours. Some design studios work by appointment.

Holiday weekends bring furniture and mattress sales. Spring is the busy season for garden centers and paint stores. December fills the kitchen and home shops with gift buyers.

Parking and loading

For anything bulky, the shopping centers and El Camino Real stores are the easy choice, since their lots let you pull up close. Ask staff about loading help and whether they will hold a large item for pickup. Downtown showrooms rely on city garages and lots with posted time limits. The City of Palo Alto parking page has current rules. Small purchases on Cal Ave and downtown are easy by Caltrain or bike. Our getting around guide covers both.

How we check home and garden listings

Every page in this category follows the same process. We start from OpenStreetMap data for the name, location and any posted hours. Then an editor opens the business's own website and confirms that the Palo Alto location is current, with a store page, current hours, recent dates or online ordering. Chain locations are labeled as part of a chain. If we cannot confirm a business is open, we do not publish a page.

Each page describes the business in neutral terms from its own published information. We do not publish customer reviews, star ratings or rankings and we do not quote prices. Businesses cannot pay for a listing or a better position. Every page shows the date it was checked. Location data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License.

Browse the home and garden listings

The verified businesses appear below in alphabetical order. Each card leads to a page with the address, nearest Caltrain stop, parking notes, hours where we could confirm them and what else is nearby. More stores are added as editors verify them. For the rest of the directory, return to the directory home.

In this section

Frequently asked questions