Aldik Home in Van Nuys is like Disneyland for shoppers of patio furniture and artificial plants.
“Shoppers see items nicely laid out and it’s inspirational,” said Bryan Gold, Aldik Home’s media manager.
“It lowers your blood pressure as you walk through an oasis of flowers, plants and comfy chairs.”
The family-owned Aldik Home offers a curated collection of summer products and decorations.
“We’re a little different than a regular patio furniture store, which would have 20 brands and a few of each one,” Gold said.
“We home in on the manufacturers that are the best in their category. For furniture, we only carry Summer Classics. They’re family owned and operated out of Alabama.”
Gold called the products “good quality, well-crafted and comfortable.” The quality is visible as well, for example, in the curves of furniture legs. Less expensive products use thin pieces of wood and use heat and moisture to change the shape. Subsequently, when it is exposed to water and heat, the wood wants to return to its original straight form.
With Summer Classics, “they take a wider piece, and they’ll cave the curve. The wood stays how it was meant to be all the time. There’s nothing it wants to change back to.”
Elsewhere in the showroom are Treasure Garden cantilever umbrellas, which feature an offset design that does not require a center pole. It comes in a variety of sizes and shapes, in either manual or automative operation.
“It terms of function and usability, it’s a great value,” he said. “These are built to last. This year we started carrying their luxury brand. Everything I built to the nth degree. They’re super sturdy and super thick. They’re really well-crafted umbrellas. You won’t want to buy another umbrella.”
Shademaker sells the largest umbrella that regular homeowners can purchase, he said. The covering is 16.5 square feet.
“It’s a pergola on a pole,” he said. “It has a telescoping mast.”
The internal mast can be opened and closed easily. He called it the perfect shade that covers seating the dining.
“It inspires people to see products like that,” Gold said. “Even if they’re here to shop for other stuff. It’s a fun place to shop. I don’t know of any other places where you and go and play with a cantilever umbrella. You can use and look at things without having someone hovering over you. We show you how it works, how it operates and teach them all about it.”
In terms of colors, Gold said patterns are trendy, a direct relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bolder colors and patterns celebrate the vibrancy of being outdoors.
“We have 160 different fabrics for patio furniture,” he said. “A lot of them are really cool, hip patterns. We’ve seen people celebrate with patterns and not play it so safe post-COVID.”
American Fyre Design’s outdoor fire tables are popular among those who would like to dress up their patios.
“They’re local,” he said. “They’re based in Diamond Bar. They’re well-created, well-made, fire tables with a bunch of finish options.”
“Most people don’t have a gas hookup or want to dig a trench and run a gas line,” he added. “People prefer a propane tank table. It accepts a horizontal propane tank.
“There’s a little drawer that slides out and fits the horizontal propane tank. You don’t need a big old, tall one. You can get the lower version that doesn’t obstruct views. They’ve just been a nice edition to seeing people to use their space at night as well.”
The patio furniture complements Aldik Home’s artificial plants and flowers it has sold for more than 70 years. The showroom also features examples of custom silk trees created with real wood trunks.
“We pair that with the most realistic silk foliage to make a bespoke tree,” Gold said. “It’s a piece of art.”
When his grandfather, Richard Gold, founded Aldik Artificial Flowers in 1951, he was passionate about offering the highest quality artificial flowers and foliage he could find. Through the years, as the product evolved from plastic to silk, the company grew to be one of the largest importers in the industry.
“They had a storefront on Melrose, and they used to make little arrangements to go on top of TV set boxes,” he said. “Back then, televisions were big appliances and the smallest part of it was the screen. The rest is the whole apparatus. People wanted something nice to put on top of it.”
The current building was erected in 1971 as a showroom and headquarters. Throughout its evolution, the company focused on quality and its trend-setting abilities.
Once a part of Aldik Artificial Flowers, Aldik Home provides the most discriminating retail and wholesale customers with the same high-quality silk floral products and exemplary customer service that made Aldik wholesale silk flowers an industry standard.
Gold says the 25-member staff enjoys inspiring its customers with its passion for silk floral and accessories.
Christmas is magical at Aldik Home, which is transformed into a wonderland with thousands of ornaments, luxurious ribbon, a plethora of LED lights and 50 fully decorated Christmas trees. Guests can revel in the soft glow of thousands of LED lights in the Light Room or immerse themselves in the artificial tree lot.
The staff is proud of its jaw-dropping AH Gold Label Christmas Trees, which have been designed from the ground up to be better than any other artificial Christmas trees. With more realistic designs, stronger branches, and the most innovative LED lighting system, these trees must be seen to be believed.
“Every year during Christmas, it’s completely different. It’s a rebirth,” Gold said. “It’s nice, especially on those hot summer days, to get out of the heat and walk through a store with beautiful plants and flowers, be they artificial. It’s a naturally beautiful place to wander through.”
Gold said his staff is vital to Aldik Home. Many of his colleagues have been working for the company since before he was born.
“We couldn’t do what we do without them,” he added. “Shoppers come by and see their favorite staffers during the holidays. That’s their tradition during Christmas. Maybe their grandma brought them in when they were kids. Anyone who appreciates the highest quality in silk plants — whether it’s Christmas or spring — stops by to visit us.”
link
