Home Accessory Class at Pottery Barn
If you’re our friend on Facebook, you might have seen that one half of us attended a free class in Home Accessorizing at Pottery Barn on Sunday. I’m sure you can guess which half was at Pottery Barn accessorizing and which half was accessorizing his their bike instead.
My number one take away from this one hour class was that more is more and bigger can be better. Seriously. These people will put a whole friggin’ tree in an urn and then stick it on your coffee table. It looks amazing of course, but it’s Pottery Barn so who ever had doubts?
The way these classes work is that 3 million people get an e-mail notifying them that the Southpoint PB is hosting a class on painting, or furniture arranging or how to mix tan with beige, etc. Then you just call the store to claim a spot. The classes are free and you receive a 10% off coupon and private run of the store for an hour to shop following the class. The 10% was good on sale items as well which I was proud of them for doing.
Since this class was all about accessorizing I thought that I would share some phone pics of my favorite trinkets around the store.
It’s hard to tell, but these ivory candles have a nice burlap like wrap on them, also in ivory. Another lesson from class. Texture = interesting.
I couldn’t find the same candles online to add a link for you so you might have to go into the shop to purchase them if you love my ramblings so much that they’ve convinced you to turn lunch break web-surfing into buying. However, when looking for them online I did spot these monogram cube candles which I enjoy equally as much.
This terrarium was so pretty and easy looking for a plant killer like me. Probably because the topiaries inside are fakers. I have to admit that caged plants have never really made much sense to me – but the trend is growing in my book. By the time they are no long “cool” I will finally catch on. It’s inevitable.
If you too need convicing read this recent post by Jenny about her terrarium adventure at West Elm in NYC. My blogger life is not nearly as glamorous as hers, as I get called for no special sessions with chief designers. But I’ll take my free class just the same. We did get a shout out on the West Elm blog once. And that was nice.
White stoneware never gets old to me. We registered for quite a few pieces of the Great White Collection and love pairing them up with mix and match plates from the thirft store for an update thats inexpensive and fun.
These burlap inspired cocktail napkins are super cute and could easily be DIY’d. Which is good, since I couldn’t find them on the website anywhere either.
These key jars aren’t exactly my jam I have to admit. However, I find them blog worthy because our instructor in the class put them ALL together on a coffee table which was moderately excessive to me. Plus they kept toppling all over each other when he tried to arrange other items in the room. That’s a sign to me. However, it is pretty cool that you can put stuff in them, which would likely keep them from falling over. There are also smaller ones online that would mix things up a bit and make them more user friendly.
On the flip side I loved these peacocks with mohawk jars. Although, again, I don’t see the need to have three of them on your coffee table. One will do for my casa.
These campaign leather stools were as awesome as a peacock with a mohawk and a surprising reasonable price at about $150 each.
And last but not least came the lamp.
I have decided my next house will have two of them in it. Perhaps with jazzier shades.
To conclude, here are my notes from the class for all who are interested. I feel it’s okay to share these tidbits since the class was free and I’m not really pushing out information that someone else paid for.
- Use neutral colors in your large pieces of investment furniture. Also, neutral does not mean light in color. A gray, tan or even green toned sofa can be considered neutral. Apparently we’ve done okay here with our own tan microfiber, puppy-friendly sofa. Even though I’m aware it makes some you shudder.
- Play instead with your pillows, using different colors and textures. Aim for pillows with zippered closures that can be easily cleaned and switched out season to season. Perhaps you could get some here as well as PB. Shameless.
- Don’t be afraid to layer rugs. This is something we’ve heard but have yet to be brave enough to try. The folks in the know at Pottery Barn were using sisal rugs like our own in their design though, so it looks as though we have a good base. A rug on top of a rug though? That’s insanity – but we might try it.
- Arrange your accessories in a pyramid, meaning tall with varied heights left to right but also front to back. Consider the depth of your space, not just arranging things in a row. This was demonstrated with photo frames specifically. Odd numbers also work well because these groupings give you a natural center to work around.
Some great tips to remember when shopping, for home trinkets, whether in Pottery Barn or anywhere else. It was a fun little hour that I would definitely do again if another class presents itself. Has anyone else ever taken one of these classes or have some accessorizing tips of your own to share? We’d love to hear them!
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I’ve heard about arranging accessories using odd number groupings before but never in a pyramid style. That makes so much sense! I must rearrange my shelves immediately!
Also, thanks for the heads up about free classes. I had no idea. I will get on their mailing list ASAP.
So, you taught me two things today. It’s like you’re Yoda. But with way better skin tone.
I want to go to one of their classes. I really feel it’s neccessary that my whole house needs to be Pottery Barn-ized! Every time I get a catalog in the mail…I drift off to re-decorating land. Thanks for sharing the info!