National home furnishings retailer West Elm is holding a grand opening for its latest location, at Southpoint Mall in Durham, on Thursday.

Everything starts at 10 a.m. when the doors open. The first 300 people will receive a West Elm Durham canvas tote bag. The cool part about these canvas bags - they are unique to each store. This one is covered in bulls and other symbols that describe the Durham area. 

A tote bag is not the only incentive to check out the new location during opening week. All upholstery is 15 percent off until Sept. 3. If you are a college student, come in any time or even order online and you will always receive 10 percent off.

West Elm Durham has also formed a partnership with Seeds, a nonprofit educational community garden dedicated to promoting sustainable agriculture and respect for the environment through gardening and growing food. West Elm Durham will be donating a portion of their proceeds to Seeds through opening week.

West Elm believes in using global materials and mixing in natural and urban influences to create products that are affordable and functional for modern living. They understand that you may need just one chair to match a whole set or a pillow to match the bedding you already have so they do not sell things in sets, rather they make things that will match with anything you may already have.

West Elm focuses largely on using materials that are organic, green, hand-made, hand-woven, recycled or reused when designing furniture and accessories. You can tell if something is made from these types of materials if it has an elm tree symbol on the tag.

Every season West Elm does collaborations with an artist from outside the country. This year, they traveled to Africa and instead of partnering with one artist, they came back with designs and work from 16. This fall collection contains one of a kind designs and handmade crafts that showcase the rich color palette and varied design influences of Africa.

If you are not sure if something will match in your home or need help with measurements, West Elm will do all the work for you. They have a free home stylist who will go to your house to take measurements and help you get exactly what you want. They also have a free design lab located in the middle of the store where you can bring in pictures of your home, pictures from magazines, or pictures form a blog so your home will come out looking as planned.

West Elm Durham is open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.