Pottery Barn Accessorizing Class Review

It seems like everyone is having the winter doldrums right now! To combat that myself and many of my girlfriends have been sprucing up our homes. I don't know about you but I find myself buying the same type of decorating items over and over. I am just really drawn to sconces and candlesticks. ALL the time. I mean I literally have to talk myself out of buying them all the time. It's a sickness I tell you. Cloches are my new weak spot. I think they are taking over my candlestick obsession! I have really been in love with them lately.

But I still find myself in a accessorizing rut and kind of redoing the same type vignettes over and over. Or maybe I am just a little bored and need some inspiration. Well, what better place for inspiration when there is no barn sale available than Pottery Barn?! We all just love to get that catalog in the mail, right? There is nothing better! On that note, I decided maybe I would go sit in on one of their free classes. Most stores offer occasional classes in the morning before they open their doors. If nothing else I was curious to see if it was the kind of thing I would recommend to my staging clients.

So while my family lazed around this am I got up and showered, grabbed a coffee to go (from my Keurig!) and off I went to the mall (a place I rarely go lately!). I can tell you I have not been in a actual Pottery Barn store in a while. It's just best to just stay away from those places sometimes, you know. Don't send a alcoholic to the liquor store and all that! Anyway, so fun to go in while it is closed and lounge around like you are in a friend's house.

And look! A nice Cloche! He, he (you think I joke but that one followed me home!)
It was a small group - only about a dozen people - even one poor hubby. The gal next to me said she had been there before when it was pretty crowded. As in standing room only! This class was How To Accessorize Your Home. They did a lot of chatting about their products (to be expected). They discussed decorating your neutral sofa with pillows and changing them for the seasons. I was drooling over their Jute Braided Pillow.

Then they went over how to decorate your coffee and console tables, bookshelves and other surfaces. They highlighted their lanterns, vases and fillers. Botanicals seem to be really popular right now including mosses, stones, ferns and another natural type substances. And wrapping books in craft paper (I would use paper bags) to use as risers or even bookshelf decor.

Mostly I would say this particular class is great for a novice or someone who has a lot of trouble decorating. I mean, I am pretty sure I could figure out myself not to put bigger items in front of smaller items on a bookshelf. Huh?

  But wait! Don't stop reading! Here is the awesome part of the class and the reason I will definitely go back. After the class they gave everyone a 10% off coupon to use that day. Now I know this is not a huge savings but here is the great part. The 10% off was off of EVERYthing. Even sale and clearance items! So I definitely scored some deals! While everyone else went straight to look at the items the instructor had highlighted, I went to the back of the store to the sale and clearance sections. Yep, that's how I roll. I am cheap like that - hence the name of this blog!

So. Here is my haul:

Whoo - that looks like a lot, eh?! Oh, and yes. Yes that IS two more cloches I got. I am going to have to admit here, PB has pretty decent prices on these. I mean, I look for them everywhere: Salvation Army, barn sales and even my fave Lucketts Antique Store! They are hard to even find secondhand and since they are so popular now the saving is usually not that great. That small one (8" tall) was only $14.50 regular price and the other with the mercury glass pedestal base was $49 (plus my lovely 10% off coupon!).

PB has all their baskets on sale this month for 20% off. That made 30% off for me. Woot-woot! So I grabbed this one - original price $99 for $71.10!

Love it!

And now my best deal! I found this gorg' lamp back in the clearance section for the best deal! (sorry for bad iPhone pics today! I was excited and impatient. Hopefully it makes you appreciate my regular bad pictures more! Yes?)

Anywaaaaay... This sucker was originally $170. It was marked down to $54 because it has a small crack in one of the horizontal seams around one of the bulb-y parts (technical term) and the harp that holds the shade in place was all loose. I tried to just tighten it but it clearly has a bigger problem than that. So I rigged it up with some twine covered wire.

I thought it looked "rustic"...? Maybe not. Well once I find a shade I like you probably won't even see it. I might redo it with some wire or even epoxy or something. Final price on this was only $49.97 though! What, WHAAAAT?! Uh huh! Sweet!

See? I just love a deal!

I also picked up some Robins Eggs...

And that boxwood topiary that was way too expensive but I have been searching HomeGoods for-EVA' and I can't find one. So that was a splurge but at least I got a little discount. Did I mention my 10% coupon?

The only bad part of my day was seeing these cute guys:

Freaking cute, right? That brought up my feelings of loss over the ones I had in my cart from... Was it Joss & Main or Antique Farmhouse...? I don't know but they had a set of two for only $29. I had them in my cart and then forgot about them.  These PB ones are $29 each! Argh. Anger and loss, anger and loss. Please, please, please if ANYone sees this back on whatever site that was let me know!

Wow. that was way long for me! Sorry. I'll keep it shorter from now on! Toodles!