In just one setting, you can spot right away the Pottery Barn aesthetic: casual, comfortable, layered and inclusive. It is a look that is built on a 65-year-old heritage, when Pottery Barn started as a ceramics company in Chelsea, New York City, in 1949.
The richness of these layers is at turns fun stylish, and shabby chic, and for its opening at Central Square in Bonifacio Global City, the theme is summer, bringing back sunny days by the sea, dinners outdoors and prints associated with water.
The vignettes in the 1,500-sqm. two-story store — housing Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids — will inspire every homeowner to add a little fun to their spaces. In fact, they can make their home look fresh and new every six weeks when PB brings in new products to the Manila store. Seventy percent of the items are the basics or the core products of the brand — including furniture pieces, dinnerware and soft furnishings — and 30 percent will be seasonal.
Jennifer Ozark Blanton, Pottery Barn VP of Global Inventory, says, “What we foundationally build our brand on is the basics. This color palette continues to work throughout the year regardless of the season we are in, but the seasonal items allow you to update your home easily and change your look very quickly.”
Michelle Hummel, VP of Global Merchandising, adds, “We want you to come in and feel that you can do something for your home. We don’t want it to feel too fussy.”
Pottery Barn likes to use a lot of layers in its rooms in both a metaphorical and literal sense. Its beds, for instance, range from romantic wooden and muslin-covered four-poster to upholstered straight-back bedframe — but the way they are made looks so comfortable it would be hard to get up from such a bed with its six pillows in plain and patterned linens, white Turkish bed sheets, diamond-patterned duvet, floral-print comforter. You literally peel back these layers and nestle in a cocoon of soft cotton covers. And as the seasons change, the blues of summer will become autumnal colors and then get ready for the holidays.
Leigh Oshirak, VP of Marketing and Communications, says, “Our bed and bath area is rich with pattern, florals and solid colors. The beds are inviting. Some might say it might be a little too warm for Manila, but it’s intended to look this way and you can peel it back and crawl under a more lightweight fabric. All these layers and textures make the bed a sanctuary for people.”
“It’s a very big deal for us that we’re opening our first store in Southeast Asia in Manila,” says Michelle. “We’ve seen what Anton Huang and SSI (Stores Specialists Inc.) have done in the retail scene here and we thought it was a perfect fit for us. Our goal is to offer an assortment of products sourced around the world, including the Philippines, and be competitive. We worked closely with SSI and we think we are positioned well for the level of quality we’re bringing.”
Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids each have a design studio with a trained designer to help customers choose their pieces. In fact, the designer can even visit a customer’s home to help design the space.
Potter Barn Kids, founded in 1999, was the brainchild of four Pottery Barn employees who felt that homemakers want continuity when furnishing their children’s rooms along with the rest of the house.
When visiting the store, one must not miss looking at the PB classics: the white dinnerware, the twill-upholstered sofa, the Bench Right dining table, the lanterns, the flicker candles, and the melamine outdoor dinnerware (the glazing is so good they don’t look like melamine at all).
The prints on Pottery Barn’s accessories may be a bit overwhelming to those who like their spaces in solid colors, but if you go by the past couple of years’ trends, design is moving toward more fun and color.
The rule of thumb when furnishing your home, says Leigh, is “to layer your spaces and let go of matchy-matchy. Be confident of your choices and the mix of materials. One of the hallmarks of Pottery Barn is that there are no hard and fast rules. We want to help validate your choices and create a dream home.”
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Pottery Barn is located at Central Square, Bonifacio Global City.