DANCE AROUND THE EXOTICS IN THIS WOODWORKER'S DREAM! 

  Bubinga. Cocobolo. Wenge. If you pine for cabinetry accented with these exotic woods, take a spin through WOODCRAFTERS (212 N.E. Sixth Ave., 503-231-0226 or go to woodcrafters.us), a 35-year-old business that stocks more than 15,000 items for carpenters, cabinetmakers and DIYers who practice the art of woodworking.

If you’re not a Normite, as devotees of “This Old House’s” master carpenter Norm Abram call themselves, you’ll enjoy oogling the fireplace mantels ($1,310), moldings ($2.95 a linear foot for clear vertical-grain Douglas fir), polished copper pulls ($7.56), or the many weathervanes that top the seven bookshelves filled with woodworking books in the back of the shop.

  BLOOMIN' BLOOMERS 

Located in a former dance studio, this charming lingerie shop, LILLE BOUTIQUE (1007 E. Burnside, 503-232-0333 or lilleboutique.com), offers wisps of luxurious silk and wool undergarments beautifully embellished with couture sewing techniques such as pleats and rouching. Yeah, paying $145 for an Alpaca knit camisole—and $65 for the matching high-waisted panties!—might seem so Oprah, but it’s cheaper than raising llamas and spinning the fabric yourself.

“We wanted a lingerie store that you didn’t hate going to,” says shop co-owner Sara Yurman, who sells everything in the shop (think retro vanities, pictures and furniture) along with bras and panties by Araks, Beau Bra, Bodas, Ciel, Elise Aucouturier, Princess Tam Tam and Vera Wang. Also available are accessories such as a silk lingerie bag ($34) by Elizabeth W, jewelry by Kiersten Crowley ($34) and specialty soaps. “This one smells so amazing I want to bite it!” says Yurman.

 
SHADES OF THE PAST

Browse beneath hundreds of vintage to-die-for light fixtures at HIPPO HARDWARE (1040 E. Burnside, 503-231-1444 or go to hippohardware.com), a three-story, 30,000-square-foot house part emporium that holds more than 130,000 pieces of cabinet hardware, conical hat-shaped glass lampshades that look as if they’re topping an imaginary workforce of Vietnamese fieldhands, plumbing fixtures such as a decades-old 5-foot-long clawfoot tub ($61) and architectural salvage. “Scream and yell if you need some help,” offered the oh-so-Portland shop smiling clerk behind the counter.

STEP BACK IN TIME 

You expect to find a valance of a dozen crinoline skirts in Frida Kahlo colors such as grape, lime-green and hot pink at BOMBSHELL VINTAGE (811 E. Burnside, 503-239-1073)—yep, here for the picking!—but you don’t expect shop owner Kim Wainio, a former corporate trainer for an online wire service to also stock sweet vintage pieces such as this 1940s ceramic pencil sharpener ($12) that’s perfect for a retro-loving cubicle-dweller.

“Today’s clothing is disposable; it’s made to be worn for a little while and thrown away,” says Wainio, who shops garage sales and thrift stores as far away as her native Minnesota to stock her mix. “But there’s a generation of women who bought nice clothes 50 or 60 years ago—and they really took care of their stuff.”

Many of their castaways are available here. Opt for a vintage Lorrie Deb party dress ($140), a maroon full-length smoking jacket ($40), a pair of 1950s cat glasses ($12) or a Borsalina brown fedora ($24). Just know that there’s a resident male who sniffs out your selections: Wainio’s shop dog, Blaze.