Elements of Living, October 2005

Being unable to get her clients high-end contemporary furniture without accruing huge shipping costs to her Midwest town led designer Barbara Near of Noblesville, Indiana, to the Web discovery of europebynet.com. “Finally”, says Near of this online purveyor of dramatically discounted furniture from across the pond, “pieces by hyper-creative European designers were directly available to me.” Immediately Near picked up where frustration had let her off, ordering for two clients a pair of lacquered, dark-marrone-finished Tempo side tables designed by Prospero Rasulo for Zanotta. Europebynet.com was started in 1999 by Julie Edwards – investment banker, management consultant and bargain conscious shopper – who came to realize she could offer consumers hard-to-find pieces and help them avoid large retail mark ups by distributing via the Web. Edwards’s virtual showroom thrives because she negotiates directly with foreign manufacturers for the pieces she hand picks herself on visits to the trade fairs of Milan, Cologne and Paris. The company’s current online catalog offers more than 5,000 items by such companies as Artemide, B&B Italia, Cassina, Cappellini, Minotti and Poliform. Europebynet.com ships worldwide. For Barbara Near, the website offers double satisfactions: When her clients’ side tables arrived, she was so impressed with the quality that she coaxed the couple to order two more. – Kristine Dickson