I came across a really interesting post today on one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy: a discussion about Pier 1's new "Loft 21" collection. While Apartment Therapy kind of set the tone of many of the posts to follow by saying, "Obviously, we do not have a high regard for this new development on the furnishings landscape," many of the later posters came to defend both Pier 1 and the new collection. Like many people, when I hear "Pier 1," I think wicker and papasan chairs. And while there's certainly a place for that kind of furniture in the world, Pier 1 has recently tried to modernize its offerings--whether due to sliding market share or to capitalize on the covetable "young urbanite" demographic, I don't know. Regardless, this seemed to offend a lot of the posters on principle alone (how dare this cheesy "global" store try to pander to design snobs!). So I decided to look at the collection and judge for myself. Loft 21 is part of Pier 1's "Urban Spaces" collection, which also includes "Brownstone," "Lake Shore Drive," and "Micro-Pod." Um, okay. There's basically one way to view the collection, which is to to scroll through all 8 pages of it.
The good news is that there's still a lot of rattan, as in the Martin chair, pictured below; palm shows up in this storage box; this frankly ugly hamper is woven out of some natural material that, on second thought, probably lets your laundry breathe better than a regular old plastic or metal hamper.
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There are also some totally bizarre items. Like, seriously, what are you supposed to do with these silver rattan balls?
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That said, there is some cool--and affordable--stuff to be had. After spending many hours shopping for armchairs, I can tell you this Bradford chair, currently on sale for $329, is a huge bargain--even with the matching ottoman, it's still less than a similar chair at Crate & Barrel or Room & Board. Of course, I'd recommend the sit test before you buy.
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I don't know how practical this onyx square shelf is for displaying knickknacks, but I really like the design. Heck, you can hang it on the wall and not put anything on it. at all!
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The Deirdre table with stools is also a great bargain--for $329 you get a glass-top table and four vinyl stools, one of those great space-saving ideas for when you have super-limited room (as in a studio). This is great for entertaining.
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But one of my favorite things is also one of the most affordable. People tend to rave about Pier 1's inexpensive but good-smelling candles; the Mella comes in a really cute (and probably reusable) retro glass container, and the scent sounds delicious.
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So, true, it's not as great overall as West Elm or CB2, but you have to give Pier 1 props for trying to modernize their wares. It's a decent first try that, hopefully, will only get better with practice.
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