Cheryl Shops

Website of the week
I am a huge fan of the Starwood Preferred Guest program. (It's even better than most frequent flier programs, in my opinion, because when you transfer 20,000 Starwood points to a frequent flier account, they give you a bonus 5,000 points. Although I always end up using my points for hotels, because, well, I like staying in the hotels.) Starwood created the W Hotels mini-chain to appeal to people my age who like to feel glamourous when they go on vacation (or travel for business). So while W Hotels is quite a strong brand in and of itself, did you know they had a store? I didn't! So, um, yeah, there are several stores in W hotels (including the Times Square location), and there's also a nice little website, so when you return home from your travels, you can re-create the sophisticated, urbane atmostphere in your very own home. You can even shop by hotel, although the more conventional method is to shop by room (bedroom, bathroom, dining room, etc.). The most obvious thing to do would be to re-create the W's "heavenly bed" with the featherbed and the classic bedding. Equip your bathroom with the ultra-plush spa robe, the promising-sounding world's best towels, and maybe even the footprints scale (hey, if you're going to weigh yourself once a week, it might as well be an aesthetically pleasing experience). Add an ametheyst vase for ambience and slip the rhythm & muse CD into your stereo and, voila! It's like you're in a deluxe suite at the W! But aside from carrying linens for ease of turning your bedroom into a hotel room, the site is also a great source for fun gift items, like fancy bath products, quirky decorative pillows, and cool jewelry. Be forewarned, however, that the site is out of stock of a lot of items, such as this weirdly awesome ghost candelabra. But then again, you don't want to totally turn your apartment into a W hotel room--after all, then what's the fun of staying at the real thing?