Pottery Barn
I like to try to learn something from every room I enter or see. From this photo, I learn that adding in texture instantly cozies up a space. The walls, basket, carvings, and wood all warm up what could be a cold space.
What do you take away from these photos?
Love it! To me, what adds the ‘umphf’ is the wood…the rawness of it. Without those hunks of wood & that basket, that room wouldn’t be nearly as warm and inviting. There would be too much blue & white. Well, that’s my 2 cents anyway ;)
These images are killing me I love them so much!
What I take away from the photos – I wish I could afford to buy more stuff at Pottery Barn! Just kidding – I love the natural feeling of the room. I prefer to use natural elements in my home as much as possible.
My best- Diane
so true, so true.
When I initially saw this picture in the catalog, I thought ” I love the black & white photos, and the display, but I’d probably never put a nature/landscape as the main focus of the grouping. I’d probably put a family photograph.” That made me think a little bit about what I like in groupings of photos. Love your perspective! Texture in a home does indeed make it more cozy.
I like the natural elements, esp the river rocks (which we have an abundance of). I would have never thought to bring them into the house. I’m learning more and more everyday :) Thanks Nester!
I take away that photo walls need some sort of thought and arrangement within them. I like how all of the small black frames are arranged in a row along the top, and the same is done with the smaller white frames along the left side. It makes something that could look cluttered, more organized.
I’m also feeling the need to go chop down some wood and artfully place it under a bench. LOL !
It does feel organized!
a reminder that i LOVE oversized and quirky mats!! xoxo, friend!
agreed, I love a HUGE mat and a little photo, it’s like a little tiny dog wearing a big diamond collar. kind of
i love that we get each other. :) if i had a tiny dog, it would totally wear a huge diamond collar. ritzy style.
I always love how Pottery Barn places their accessories. I love the layers. It’s one of my favorite catalogs, and honestly, I’m enjoying it better than my decorating magazines. You are so right about the textures! It adds so much interest – it’s a feast for the eyes! To me, it’s the same effect (or is it affect?) as the board and batten or other detail that gives you another dimension (sorry if my spelling is wacky). I love the wood plank wall, too! Blue and white color combo is so fresh, too! Love it!
I learn that warm and cool colors and sing harmoniously together. Also that I can effectively incorporate things like the rocks and sticks my little guys bring in. Though, having a wood stove and dealing with wood in the house, I cringe to think of the bark debris and spiders that may have entered with their indoor mini-woodpile. : )
my first thought was the spiders too!!!
I learn that once again, I want to move into my local Pottery Barn store. If they’d install a coffee bar in there, I’d never leave.
I learned that its beautiful but obviously NOT for a mother who likes her things “just so” and has small children. LOL!! No really, beautiful! I like the color of the walls, the tree, the stones, and the wood, I love bringing the outdoors in.
You are right. My second thought (first being that the room is beautiful) was that some kid would drop a rock right on their foot! lol. Maybe in a couple of years. :)
I love elements of each idea showcased here, it’s just waaaaay too much for my liking all in one small space.
IMO, a collage can be an awesome tool for filling up unused wall space, bringing personality and character, as well as beauty to an area… but it gets lost when you fill up everything around it, too. JUST the bench and firewood OR the tree would look awesome, but the way it is, it looks like somebody has a serious addiction to clutter.
If it’s the bench and natural textures of the wood/basket that you love, then why drown them out with 900 photos and some random decorations that you can’t figure out how to incorporate? Your eye can only focus on and appreciate so much before it’s all lost in a sea of “stuff”. It would have much more impact if there was one large photo above, and nothing taking up the usable seating… Am I crazy?? I really do like each of the items, I just can’t really appreciate them ’cause there’s SO much vying for my attention. Maybe I just have a serious addiction to neatness. Thoughts, anyone?
But Kyla….this is a catalog and someone wants to sell you NOT just the bench and your free firewood…..but ALL 900 photos and ALL the random decorations….:O)
RCG
Kyla, I love that, because it reinforces the fact of what you already know about yourself, you don’t like lots of small objects, you like large meaningful ones–see, you learned something!
also agree with Rubber Chicken, they have to put in as much as their merchandise as possible
Yeah, I guess I am kind of taking the photo out of context a bit, huh? Though, I do think it’s important to be able to see what doesn’t work for you in a space as well as what attracts you to it. (which is what I was getting at with my comment)
Nester, you got me pegged. :)
It took me a while to learn this lesson (and countless dollars spent on design books and magazines). I always thought you had to separate warm and cool tones, but by mixing them you can create a beautiful balance. In my new house, I chose a lot of cool paint colors for my house (blue-gray, silver sage, green-y gray, etc.) so I tend to use either wood pieces, baskets, linens or even burlap in my decor to break it up. It’s also great to know that beautiful accessories are not always expensive or hard to find. You can create warmth and texture just by using fire wood that you have lying around the house…or rocks that you find out in your yard. Simple beauty is totally accessible!!
I have to say that immediately I’m thinking of a Catologue Living type answer…I’ve read that blog for awhile so I think I’m jaded, lol
I am a texture girl. Have always loved texture in fabric before pattern or color.
In that pic I am drawn to the rocks. Lately I just love rocks. God is so cool to make such seemingly simple, ordinary yet amazing structures. And I like the mix of black and white photos, mattes and frames with the big splashy, yet colorless pic in the “middle”.
And as usual it looks Clean like No One lives there. Sigh.
RubberChickenGirl
Love, love, LOVE the B&W photos over that color blue! Does anyone know the name of the color?
I think if you call PBarn, they’ll tell you the color!
Love the wood!
I’m all about texture, but the other thing I noticed is that the frame arrangement has a straight “top” and almost bottom. My Type A personality really likes that.
I love that the baskets warm the space up…but not in a dark red or brown fall/winter kind of way. Just a comfy warm.
I take from it that I like my photos arranged a little more haphazardly. I do love the natural elements. Who knew how much it would warm up the place? I do know I don’t want to store firewood in the house no matter how pretty it looks. We heated with a wood burning stove for years…can’t deal with the spiders and bugs that hide in that purdy wood.
I think the way the frames are arranged it almost moves your eye around the picture to where the wood is. It’s a great room!
These pictures confirm for me my LOVE of natural things in my decor, and that I DON’T like the graphic-ness of that much black and white, or the blue wall. LOVE the wood, rocks, baskets – don’t love the color scheme.
I can’t take my eyes off of that basket with a tree in it!!! What an awesome planter idea! I am thinking I may have to do this with an evergreen this Christmas! I think one thing that really popped out at me besides the tree basket was the metal lighting. A perfect example of mixing elements like modern with rustic or in the case of textures, sleek and shiny with rough and dull.
Anotherthing I love about this room is that it is a good balance between femine and more masculine decor. My biggest problem in our home is that my husband and son really really hate anything “pretty” and I need bit of “pretty” in my environment. Coming up with a middle ground has been an ongoing battle that I am losing.
A fantastic point about masculine and feminine, something I’ve been thinking about in my own home lately but didn’t get that from this photo, now I do–thanks!
I’m in agreement with others… I LOVE the natural look of bringing the outdoors inside, but does anyone else have troubles with the little CREATURES that come inside with the wood? I’ve done this before (even with those big pine cones) and been surprised by a HUGE black widow crawling out! UGH… I can most definitely do WITHOUT those in my house!!! I really do love the look of it though. :0)
I love this Pottery Barn pic. I have one similiar in my inspiration files! I love photo collages, baskets and that lovely blue wood wall. I would forgo the wood under the bench and probably have one basket next to or under the bench and a standing coat rack for a entry way…I like a simple organized useful look. And the pictures would be of people I love!
I don’t take anything from this photo because PB is out of my price range. I can however create this look all on my own! And I love that photo wall! :)
I love the natural look – wood, clay, baskets – love basksets. I just cannot wait till the day my little guys are big enough that I can start to decorate the way I want, and don’t have to have yoga straps around my curio to keeps their little hands out!
I usually think I couldn’t do so much black and white without it feeling too severe, and while that’s more of it than I could do in one spot, it does show me it’s possible to have both black & white and cozy.
What do I take away from these catalog photos? Hmmm…. Let me tell you…I start to wonder what in the world Gary and Elaine are up to. (catalogliving.net) I can hardly look at catalogs anymore without wondering that now!! If you have never been to that site before, Nester…please scroll back through the archives for the “starfish” song and the “stacks of books” song (both by The Film Society). But I warn you…you will be singing about starfish for the rest of the day!! “Starfish…outta their…natural…habitat….” HAHA!
It stirs up my craving to go COOLER in my main living space! Love the crisp blue-y-ish color! Also, we’ve got the wood thing going, with our woodstove heating the house, but I’d like a more artistic way to display the wood we bring in! :) I thought the opposite about the mats, they were so big I couldn’t see what the pictures were, but probably up close it would not have that affect. Working on bringing plants and more natural elements in, too… but first to figure out how to cool down my permanently fall-looking decor!
i love the look but what it tells me is these “people” don’t use the wood (no bark or chips all over the place) nor do they use those pots for potting. it all looks great but it’s impractical and just looks staged. my house doesn’t have the space to put wood or clay pots in cute places just because it looks cute & textural. in my house we need to put boots and shoes or newspapers for recycling or whatever in these places. wood goes in the basement because it’s messy and clay pots go in another section in the basement.
It cozys up the space, definately … and in my opinion – part of it is because it looks as though someone lives there.
ALL I can think is what would http://catalogliving.net/ write about this photo. …what with the basket brimming with clay pots and the rocks perfectly lined up. ;) i do however, enjoy this photo.
I don’t know what I get from these pictures. Now that you’ve shared the link to Catalog Living, I can only hear Gary and Elaine yammering in my ear….
(I do like the feel of the space though.)
:)
It looks like an instant baseball game for my three boys ( the sticks and rocks). I like baskets for texture, but maybe have a more practical use. Thanks for sharing this pic!
I immediately noticed how cohesive the frames looked even though they weren’t all the same color or shape–some black, some white. This is a huge help to me since I can never decide if I want to go with black frames or white frames and have some of both. I’m using them together now.
Contrast! Warm with cool. Black with white. Rough with sleek. Refined with rustic. Contrast shows each element more emphatically for what it is so that both become focal.
I have been coveting those pages from PB for a while now. They are tacked to the board over my desk. We don’t really have an entry way, but I am trying to recreate this idea on a wall of our family room; we have a ton of those picture frames from our wedding registry, so I finally put some real pictures in them and am trying to find the perfect bench – low enough for under the pictures, and not too long or too deep. It took us weeks to decide how to layout the pictures! And I love the baskets…we have one with a chunky weave that holds all the babe’s toys that I am hoping will fit under the bench.
Honestly, the first thing that went through my mind was “Who wants to dust all those frames?!” There is more “stuff” in that picture than in my whole house. It stresses me out a bit, though I do love that color of blue.
What I take away is that I like big honkin’ frames and little pictures inside and blue is still my favorite and then I just remembered that I have a pile of birch branches stacked up in the shed. (happy me!)
My first thought was …that’s a lot of pictures and stuff. What I take away is that a lot of stuff can look very nice when it’s neat and organized. (Don’t tell anyone, but I’m kind of ocd like that :)
That you can use a tree as a window treatment…or mistreatment!
What I take away from the photos….is maybe I should paint my black sofa table…something lighter and creamier. Even though we’re heading into fall, it could be an easy update for my too dark family room. nice inspiration.
Natural elements add warmth…you can never go wrong with a plant, great basket/container or wooden objects. I also love to look at places like PB to get ideas on arranging photos. What could be busy and overwhelming actually looks interesting and calming…again, you can never go wrong with black & white photos. I think they are timeless too!
The color grey (those stones) is what seems to be very appealing lately. They can be combined with basically any color and it will look great. But I like the overall style in the pictures. All the items make a place look like a real home.
I realized that you can put square items (magazines?) in a round space (tub.) I am too exacting in my thoughts to think of doing that.