• Martin Albert Interiors

  9 E. 19th St., 212-673-8000; martinalbert.com

  When you’re working without a designer, this is the place to go for custom-made upholstered headboards, window treatments, and slipcovers—and a staff willing to lend creative guidance. Fabrics are at least 30 percent off list here; with its own workrooms on the premises (meaning no middleman markup), the labor tariff isn’t stratospheric either. Prices are really one-off, but you’ll spend $195 plus fabric costs for a queen-size gathered dust ruffle; a classic balloon shade for a three-by-five-foot window is $395; and a queen-size upholstered headboard is $850.

From the 2007 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine