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The minimal Gjora bed by Ikea can be situated with the high rail at either end.

Utilise the Gjora bed from Ikea by hanging a tapestry, curtain or even your clothes on the end rail.

This versatile trolley from Ikea is the one that got away for Life & Style writer Natalia Didovich.

The Stenstorp kitchen island by Ikea is available in a variety of colours and includes storage on one side, and a recessed portion on the other for easy dining on bar stools.

The desk that stole Bridget Hope's heart, it's the Hamptons style Bedford desk from Pottery Barn.

Take a closer look at Pottery Barn's Bedford desk.

This jute rug makes for an inviting foundation to this botanical styled guest room by Pottery Barn.

Get a good look at this gorgeous Jute rug by Pottery Barn, because you can't have it.

Could this be the Jonathan Adler lucite and brass console that Richard Brunton spoke of? We love it too.

This lucite and brass console by Jonathan Adler is a piece of art in itself.

Surely all design enthusiasts can appreciate a piece such as the Electrum side table by Jonathan Adler? Too bad appreciating is all they can do.

On offer from Zara Home this season is the leaf shaped cake server. This one you could definitely ship to New Zealand - Hooray!

Another attainable piece by Zara home, these coral motif salad servers are ideal for summer entertaining.

The Bloomstudy rug by Anthropologie. NZ House & Garden writer Bea Taylor would have it at her place if only we had a store.

A closer (and final) examination of Anthropologie's Bloomstudy rug - goodbye, we will think of you always!

The Purple Garden Tamsin Chair by Anthropologie sadly won't be gracing our homes or gardens anytime soon.

Ceramics to wait for, it's the coral glazed Perasima dinnerware range by Anthropologie. Let's hope they answer our prayers.

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Sometimes it feels feel very apparent that we are living at the ends of the Earth.

One of those times is when shopping online and discovering there's no shipping option to little old N-Z. Another is when shopping whilst travelling abroad, falling in love with stores that don't exist in our lands and items that will never be yours.

Here's five amazing interior brands that we wish would arrive on our shores.

IKEA

A name synonymous around the world with sleek Scandinavian style, kitsets and clever space saving solutions, interior-wares super-giant Ikea is at the top of the list. With a portion of the Kiwi public virtually petitioning for their arrival, the Bring Ikea to NZ Facebook page is going strong with 18,730 likes but has yet to garner the desired result. 

"The international home style brand I most wish we had in New Zealand is definitely Ikea," says reporter Natalia Didovich. "It's got everything you could possibly want or need, and it's so accessible for everyone. Its' style is so diverse. You've got the Scandinavian style but also the European elements. It's always on trend and a little ahead of its time."

READ MORE:
* Looking for vintage bargains online? Be careful.
* On the retro trail: Christchurch's vintage shops
* Retro revival: first fashion, now furniture 

Great for basics, Ikea is a one-stop shop for setting up a home from scratch or for creating a custom storage system for a dressing room or kitchen. Their inventive ideas for utilising vertical space in living areas are a winner, such as a high-placed single or double layer of small shelves for trinkets and books spanning a whole wall or room.

"The best thing that I ever saw at Ikea, that I wish I would have bought was this cool four-tiered storage cart," says Didovich, "You could also use as a alternative bedside table if you've got limited space or as a really funky bar cart."

Despite ongoing rumours, Ikea is still a NZ no show. In the meantime, you can purchase some parallel imported Ikea products from Zoomly, Urban Sales, My Flat Pack, and Swedish Furniture to name a few.

READ MORE
*My favourite space: Clare Grove's Herne Bay turret bedroom
*Ever wonder how IKEA names their furniture? Now you know
*Too old for IKEA: Study shows your age dictates where you go furniture shopping

ZARA HOME

Offering a similar level of style and quality in homewares to what they do in clothes, Zara Home has a cult following for their mash-up of trend meets affordability.

"Zara Home was brilliant when I was in London," says NZ House & Garden columnist Clare Groves. 

"It's well priced and they do quite a good turn around, so each time you go in, it will be new. The quality is really good, I always used to get my bed linen from there and it was really, really well priced."

uch like their garment toting sister, Zara Home offer 'knock offs' of designer pieces at a shade of the price.

"When I was back in London last year I went to the huge Zara Home near Oxford Street and I bought some salad servers and a few small presents for friends. The servers are bronze and branch shaped with leaves on them, a bit like the Michael Aram designs."

With a super-sized Zara fashion store now at Auckland's Sylvia Park shopping complex, design lovers can only hope that a Zara Home is soon to follow.

POTTERY BARN

Remember that episode in friends where Rachel and Phoebe fell in love with Pottery Barn?

Phoebe: Oh my God. This is where you got all our stuff, Pottery Barn! Oh my God!

Rachel: Okay! Okay-okay look—no I did, I just wanted this stuff and I know how you feel about Pottery Barn. Just… Come on don't be mad.

Phoebe: No-no-no, but I am mad! I am mad! Because this stuff is everything that is wrong with the world! And it's all sitting up in my living room and all I can think about is how I don't have that lamp!

We can't blame Phoebe for changing sides. An American institution, Pottery Barn's easy take home style is addictive.

"My number one would be Pottery Barn," says Bridget Hope, director of Magpie Style. "Because it has really great, affordable products for the home. It cuts right across home style and the selection is vast."

"I think Americans do a great job at interiors. They layer up, they use a lot of texture, and I think Pottery Barn is a great example of that. It's practical, it's functional, it's a really great classic American look and it's really quite affordable."

"I was trying to find a desk for example, for my home office, and I just couldn't find anything in New Zealand. Then on the Pottery Barn website they have about 50 different desks and every desk comes in about six different colours. It was just all there and it was so frustrating. I spent a couple of months trying to figure out how I could get a Pottery Barn desk sent to a state forwarder, then sent to New Zealand. In the end, I just gave up."

The other large scale product range that Hope swears by are the Pottery Barn rugs.

"They do really great rugs. It's almost impossible to find a kitchen rug in New Zealand, like a long kitchen rug, but Pottery Barn have about 100 of them. They do ship to New Zealand but they're very selective. They used to ship their big rugs, and then all of a sudden they stopped. We think that maybe they figured out that the shipping cost they were charging wasn't as much as they needed to. Their online store does ship smaller items, like I've got some office caddies from Pottery Barn, but they don't ship the big items like desks. It can be very rewarding and extremely frustrating."

As for the item that she'd have bought if only they had a shop in Aotearoa?

"That would be the desk," Hope says. "They have a desk called a Bedford desk and it's a classic Hamptons look with the silver pull handles. It's a kitset, so you can add on components. I really wanted that desk."

With Pottery Barn recently opening online in Australia, it's possible that Kiwis could have their very own one day soon. "I haven't seen any bricks and mortar shops," says Hope, "But fingers crossed, Australia will be able to ship the big goods to New Zealand."

JONATHAN ADLER

A high class, high fashion interior design brand with price tags to match, Jonathan Adler is best epitomised as fabulous. Look up his inventive designs and you may find them stunningly familiar, he's the designer's designer and his works are a favourite of both boutiques and haute couture magazines. Imagine what the real housewives of New York have in their homes - probably a lot of Jonathan Adler.

"My number one would be Jonathan Adler furniture," says Richard Brunton, designer and stylist for NZ House & Garden magazine. "Because his style is really glam, sort of Hollywood regency. Lots of brass, lucite, velvet; it's quite luxe. It's also quite fun, he brings a lot of humour into his designs, and lots of colour."

"You can buy the accessories here, like the ceramics at Askew, also soft furnishings, fabrics, but you can't buy his furniture. With American You Post you can get furniture sent here now, which they never used to. I actually looked into getting one of his console tables but I couldn't figure out a way to get it sent. "

"I actually met Jonathan Adler at a book launch at his store in New York. He was really interested that I worked at NZ House & Garden and said that he'd love to come to New Zealand one day. He was an inspiration for me to get into working in interiors because I just love what he does so I was star-struck. But he was amazing, so friendly and so nice."

ANTHROPOLOGIE​

Another international brand with a devoted following is the hippy chic Anthropologie. Like peering into an it-girl's apartment, Anthropologie is both free-spirited and polished in the perfect amounts.

"I just love everything that they do and I don't think we really have a store here that does Boho in colour like that," says NZ House & Garden writer Bea Taylor. "There's lots of stores like Indie Home but it's not quite the same to me. I think it's because Anthropologie's style is kind of Boho and I'm quite into that at the moment."

"Their ceramics are great. I think they do rugs and cushions really well, but I've had to stop looking at them because it's been so depressing. It just costs so much to ship over here that I've stopped looking."

The rest of us should be equally depressed too. Anthropologie has a grounded feminine glamour all of its own. Whilst our very own Karen Walker has been selling her range at Anthropologie's international stores since 2012, the tide has yet to turn the other way. We hope and pray and patiently wait for the day it is our turn. In the meantime, we'll have to live vicariously through the stylish influencers of the internet.

 - Stuff