Pottery Barn's bold new move
Have you seen the latest Pottery Barn catalog? Usually, you can expect to see pretty tame designs and colors when it comes to this middle of the road, everyman store. Lots of beige, tan, brown, khaki, cream...neutrals. Pottery Barn has honed a "look" that is very identifiable- safe, kinda generic, nice, but not too nice. You know you've seen it.
They've teamed up with Benjamin Moore to bring their customers a "palette" every season to go along with their furniture and accessories. Which I find rather humorous, considering most of their pieces are so neutral to begin with, they go with just about anything. But I digress.
Spring 2008 selected color palette
Their latest catalog boasts bold, vibrant colors. Very cool for those of us who eat color for breakfast, but I'm wondering what their customer base will think...
This season's selections are intense and bold, a rather big leap from the traditional Pottery Barn look. Talk about bright, rather saturated colors! I can certainly see myself painting a room deep eggplant, but the general population who shops at PT? I'm not so sure.Anyways, what struck me the most was that Pottery Barn specifies particular paint colors for the rooms they've put together in the catalog. So, you can go out and get that exact color for your own home. 
Which sounds great, in theory. But think about this: how many times have you looked at a color in the store, then brought it home to find it's completely wrong? I have a friend who fell in love with Restoration Hardware paint colors-she thought they looked so clean, and spa-like.
Which sounds great, in theory. But think about this: how many times have you looked at a color in the store, then brought it home to find it's completely wrong? I have a friend who fell in love with Restoration Hardware paint colors-she thought they looked so clean, and spa-like.
image sourcePottery Barn images source
11 comments:
I too was a bit confused when I received the new Pottery Barn catalog. Color and lighting are so difficult that those who are used to neutral Pottery Barn may find themselves completely lost in the 'new' PB.
i'm glad i'm not the only one who noticed a difference. those colors are way off base from the traditional Pottery Barn "look". I wonder what brought about this new approach.
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Hmmm... very interesting. I am not a big fan of the colors they chose. But I also am not a PB customer. That's a really good point you made about the difference lighting makes on paint color in the catalog vs. home.
I'm a graphic designer and not typically a PB customer, but I found this new catalog extremely appealing. I've been tossing their catalogs lately w/o even opening, but this one I went thru page by page & wanted to buy lots of things I don't need. So maybe they are aiming at a new audience & taking more of a risk w/their color pallette. Or simply celebrating spring.
It will be interesting to see what happens. I think it was a great idea to team up with a paint company, instead of selling paint under their own label.
I love color, so I'm personally not afraid of it. BUT, unless you live in Florida, or some other tropical spot, you can't do yellow in a bedroom. It will burn your eyes and keep you up all night. Don't ask me how I know that!
yeah, cross marketing with BM was very smart. I put a call into their marketing/pr department to try and find out details about the change, but haven't heard back from anyone yet.
As someone who embraces color, this certainly drew me in, but their choices don't translate well into reality, and the colors people could stand to live with. .. yeah, except maybe in Florida or Mexico!
This joint venture between Benjamin Moore and Pottery Barn is not new. They've been putting out a paint pallet together for at least a year now. I noticed this last year when I first started looking at paint colors for our new place.
I like some of the new items (those lamps are cute!) but I agree that it doesn't look very Pottery Barn-y. Change can be good, though! It'll be interesting to hear how well this sells compared to their old offerings.
yes, that affiliation has been going on for a bit now. i always check out what colors BM has selected for that season's collaboration with PB. When I'm doing a color consultation for someone, and happen to mention that a certain color they're considering is being used by PB, that often peaks their interest and sells them on that specific color. true story!
You know what's interesting about Pottey Barn is that you are suddenly inspired by their spring look but if you really look, you'll notice not much has changed aside from accessories, pillows, wall color. Their basic, bread and butter oversized couches and solid wooden pieces could be cut out and placed in last year's beige room without a hitch.
Aren't they clever?!
exactly...just shows how you can update a room by simply painting the walls and adding some new pillows. Very smart.
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