west elm meets walmart
We moved this year. In the middle of a pandemic, we packed up and got ourselves a literal change of scenery. One of the biggest reasons for our move was school districts … so we found this great house just a block away from a great school - a school that our five year old is currently attending via Zoom calls in her bedroom. But I digress.
After ten years in a “charming” little duplex, we moved to a new home with lots and lots of big windows and big options. Pandemic, shmandemic. It was time to design!
The new house had a living/dining combo room. We needed everything. I absolutely hated our sofa, and conveniently the chaise was on the wrong side for the new room. Our dining room table was a treasure that my husband had built with a friend, and while I was unwilling to part with it, the cracks and wear and tear made it better suited for an outdoor space at this point in it’s life. Our TV console was IKEA and also past its prime. Everything we owned was just done.
So I got to start fresh. I got to look at the space and really design a room we would love. It was still a rental, so the oak floors that were much too warm for my taste weren’t going anywhere, and there wasn’t much I could do about the oddly cut molding around the window, but oh my goodness was it an upgrade from the berber carpet cave that was our last living room.
The first thing I purchased was the rug. Sofa color of course needed to be considered, but I hadn’t chosen a new sofa yet. I knew we didn’t have the budget for the giant cognac leather sofa of my dreams, so I went with my second choice: gray. I was looking for a rug with a gray base, but one that gave me some other options as far as full color palette for the room went. I had seen this one in a Threshold ad for Target and it just really stuck with me. I love the vintage look, and the soft, faded colors. When it went on sale I knew it was a sign that it was meant to be my anchor piece.
Ordering a new sofa during a global pandemic is a story that could take me years to write, but I prefer to keep this blog an upbeat place with happy thoughts, so we’ll just say after our first order, placed in May, didn’t come through for us multiple times, we moved on and I found myself on the West Elm website on Labor Day weekend. And there it was - the perfect size sofa, the perfect color sofa, and with the Labor Day discounts, the perfect price sofa. And I’ll never forget those two magic little words right next to the price: IN STOCK.
Now before you close your browser and find a design site with pieces you can actually afford let me tell you two things:
You better believe I put that West Elm sofa on my Target rug and next to my (gasp) Walmart dining table. More on that later.
We shopped so long, we shopped so hard. We went to SO many local, “budget” places in San Diego. Ashley, Jerome’s, a couple mom and pop shops, Living Spaces, Mor, Home Goods. We didn’t want to order online because we really wanted to sit on it before we bought it (after I found the sofa I wanted on westelm.com I went to the store and put my butt on it). But that sale was great and the size we needed was relatively small for a sectional, so our West Elm sofa was only minimally more expensive than the original one we ordered from the much less fancy place the first time around.
Moral of the story: try to shop sales for big purchases and check out places you don’t think you can afford … you may be happily surprised!
Ok let’s circle back to that Walmart table. I of course spent hours on Pinterest pre-move-in, but I also sometimes go to sites I like but can’t usually afford (Pottery Barn, West Elm, Anthropologie) to see how they’ve styled spaces to get inspiration. I loved a West Elm dining set I saw but it was WAY out of budget. So I took a screenshot and kept looking … and I stumbled upon the Better Homes and Gardens line at Walmart. Hello knockoff! I found a ridiculously similar table with benches for a fraction of the price. Same thing for the velvet dining chairs I picked up to go with it - I found a pair at Target that look almost identical to the ones casually placed all over the West Elm storeroom floor. I got the look for less, if you will.
The console and ottoman I choose are both from Home Goods. I’m lucky enough to live within 15 minutes of three Home Goods stores, and as soon as they opened back up (don’t even get me started on the stress that comes with moving while all Home Goods were closed indefinitely) I masked up and started making rounds. The blanket ladder and little gold drum side table are the only things from the old house that made it to the new.
With all of the windows, and knowing we were going to mount our tv, the wall space was limited and I knew I wanted two things for sure - a small gallery wall with family photos and a round mirror. The mirror was a fairly easy find a Target (Chip and Jo approved) and I was really loving the vertical gallery walls I was finding on Pinterest, so I chose thin, gold frames to sit on the wall next to the large wood dining table. The gold legs on the dining chairs really pull that look together for me.
The very last thing I found was the tapestry above the sofa. I tend to have a hard time with BIG walls. I can do fun things with small spaces all day long, but give me a giant wall and I’ll agonize for weeks (okay maybe even months). I used to just pick something that fit the space, because scale is oh-so-important and I can’t live with something that looks like it’s the wrong size. But I’ve tried to challenge myself to take my time and not just fill a space to have it filled - but to instead wait it out until I find the perfect piece that I want to look at every day. So after endless trips to Home Goods and an insane amount of time scouring online art websites, a friend suggested Society6. I loved the idea of a tapestry to soften the look of the modern sofa, but there I was again, spending night after night browsing the thousands of selections online.
So here’s the thing - my husband and I absolutely love New York City. We’ve had NYC artwork in every single home we’ve lived in together. And true New Yorkers can call me out for being cliché or touristy, but I just love the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a whole vibe and I’m totally here for it. My friends know this, my family knows this, but photos of that iconic bridge can feel so cheesy sometimes and the last thing I wanted for my beautiful new space was a tacky photo on the wall. And then I found this close up shot from an interesting angle that I really did love, and after a few glasses of Rosé, I hit purchase. I was hoping that the medium and the content were original enough that together they’d make an old classic feel new - and to my delight, they did! I’m so happy with this tapestry and that we’ve kept our NYC artwork tradition alive.
I know when most people think West Elm they think very modern - and while my inspo was based there and my large pieces are mostly modern in style, I’ve tried to soften it a bit with some rustic and even some boho touches. Modern farmhouse is close - minus the cows. But as I’ve found in a lot of areas of my life, I’m hesitant to lean fully into one category, because I find so much beauty in the blending of ideas and styles. If you can find a few common elements you can mix styles really beautifully and still pull off a very clean and comfortable look.
photography by Megan Elizabeth Photography