Diseño

So, I pretty much agree with all of the other reviewers that this store is interesting, the owner is friendly, and while filled with quality picks, it could do with a little more variety merchandise-​wise… but I wanted to add that I picked up a fantastic, cherry red alpaca scarf with ribbon braided fringe here which is the source of constant compliments!
Diseno is definitely a nice spot to stop in during a day of SoWa browsing!

Lovely little hidden gem of a furniture store! The pieces are all distinctly Latin American but also very modern and contemporary and artistic. They have everything from small inexpensive accent pieces to large item, high priced furniture pieces. Lots of bright colors and textures which is exactly what our industrial looking loft condo needed.
We’ve bought several items from this store and the owner is an incredibly nice guy, who gave us some really great, honest decorating tips for our loft condo. Would definitely recommend visiting!

More like 3.5 stars, but I really wanted to like this place, so I’ll be generous in my rating. The place seemed more like a cluttered interior design office than a retail location.
The merchandise was unique to a lot of other places, but seemed a bit repetitive: little gorgeous purple finger bowls and lots of animal-​skin throws and rugs; plus all the nice but spendy furniture, and a listening station for CDs that reminded me of those Puttomayo CD stands you could find at the old Nature Company stores.

This place definitely gets marks for originality — so many furniture and design stores seem to be copying each other, so it’s nice to see new stuff with funky colors and styles that break from the Crate and Barrel/​Pottery Barn/​West Elm formula.
The owners are super-​friendly and return to Argentina often to find new stuff. Sadly I have inquired about things that they promised to get back to me about, and never heard anything from them
all said, a decent little shop definitely worth a visit

So we fell in love with Buenos Aires last month. It’s a very sophisticated, creative city, with one foot in europe and one in latin america. We were missing some of that vibe back here in Boston so we googled and Unilocaled around and found Diseno. We stopped in and weren’t disappointed. The store has a great selection of stuff that’s representative of what we saw in Buenos Aires. It’s very design-​oriented, featuring cool lamps, vases, textiles (pillows, rugs, throws), soaps from an awesome shop we visited in BA called Sabater, as well as other great objects. They also have music, dvds, books, and jewelry. It’s a well rounded collection, if a little heavy on the animal hide stuff (which admittedly is huge in Buenos Aires). Prices aren’t cheap, but not high either for what you’re getting. The owner is very friendly, and we had a great conversation. He travels regularly to BA to scout things to bring back for the shop. I do wish the store had more clothes, BA has some great local designers and it would be nice to see some of that here. So if you’re interested in modern, contemporary design, but with a little twist, not want the usual things you can find anywhere, visit Diseno.

After all I had read about Diseno, I was hoping for big things. Big things. Sadly, I was disappointed.
I was looking forward to all kinds of goodies from South America, but the boutique fell a little short. Most of the store is filled with leather chairs and animal throws. Which is fine, if you’re desperate to fill your home with either of those things. But I couldn’t imagine buying cowskin (or whatever it was) to throw on my walls…
The vases and other décor was pretty cool, but there just wasn’t enough of that stuff for my liking. I’d had loved to see more rugs, but just not of the animal print kind. And I did like the shawls and some of the handbags, but my favorite was the music. Really cool tunes were playing and they have a great setup/​listening station for those wishing to check out the other artists/cd’s they have.
Lastly, the location. Obviously they can’t help it, but they’re right across from the Pine Street Inn, which may hurt their customer flow.
I’ll definitely pop in there again, I’m always in that part of the South End, and I hope they vary their selection around a bit.