Our Hopeful Home: How I Do Pottery Barn

April 30, 2014

Today I'm going to share some tips on how to know when to DIY it, versus when to break down and buy it at Pottery Barn.

OK, I know my post title sounds a little bit, um, unorthodox. But you get what I'm trying to say, right? While I know that my goal as a thrifty DIY home décor maven is to churn out those PB knock-offs at a fraction of their original price, I just can't help myself sometimes.

But I certainly don't just go PB shopping all willy-nilly or anything like that. Oh, no. All the planets have to be in perfect alignment for that purchase to happen. Well, that, or the following three things need to happen first:

1. I have to r-e-a-l-l-y want a particular item. For, like, a long time.

2. It has to be something I don't think I can make any cheaper myself.

(Or, when being totally honest, I just don't see my lazy self ever getting around to making it.)

3. There has to be some type of sale/discount/promotion/freebie-ness involved somehow. Yes, freebie-ness is a word. Embrace it.
Then pat yourself on the back for maintaining this frugalista requirement.

Lucky for me, the awesome Mr. OHH gave me a $50.00 Pottery Barn gift card for Christmas. He purchased it through our cash back program with Discover Card. So the $50 card cost him only $40. AND he somehow scored a 15% off total purchase coupon -- with an April 30th expiration date. So time was running out, people.

Since we have a Pottery Barn store not too far from here, I've stopped in a few times since Christmas to see if there was anything I absolutely loved that I could actually rationalize buying. I also get their emails so I was constantly checking out their sale items online as well. And today I found this.

brown square Pottery Barn storage basket

Pottery Barn Benchwright Daytrip Coffee Table Basket

(No longer available.)

I'd been looking for a similar basket in thrift stores for ages, and had finally given up. And this one is nicer than any I've seen at Goodwill in a LONG time! I especially love the handles and the metal decoration on each corner.

I like the idea of using it as a tray for staging pretty décor items, as well as using it for purposeful storage and organization when need be.

How would you use it?

It was originally $59.00, which is way more than I would normally ever spend on a basket. But it met my three criteria for a guilt-free Pottery Barn purchase! And with the discount I ended up paying only around $14.00 for taxes and shipping. (They didn't carry it in my local store.) So all is right with the world today.

And tomorrow I can go back to making my DIY PB knock-offs. (See list at end of post.)

Have you ever felt guilty after making a big-ticket purchase, thinking that maybe you woulda/coulda/shoulda made it yourself?

For those of you interested in my many PB knock-offs to date, here's a list you can check out: