My Staircase Moment

I don’t know about you, but I used to love watching The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo.  As a celebrity stylist, Rachel is the perfect mix of witty and ridiculously un-self aware.  I don’t have a fashion bone in my body, but I always loved how she referred to a great outfit as a “moment.”

I think about areas in my home as “moments,” too.  When I am working on different spaces, I think about how they may look from other parts of my home since we have a fairly open floor plan.  Recently, my staircase moment wasn’t working for me as I viewed it from my living room sofa, and I just couldn’t take it any longer.

Here’s what it looked like.

Now, let’s be clear.  The vast majority of this picture is my EVERYTHING.  I literally sit on my sofa and swoon at it – the feature walls, the built in desk, the rug on the wall, the red bar cart, the drum light, the Elvis painting.  But, my problem was the accessories on the green wall.  They were just too much going on right there and it needed to go away.

Luckily for me, an At Home has opened up just a few miles from my house.  This is dangerous, I tell you! At Home is a store about the size of a Target, but it only sells home decor items – furniture, rugs, lamps, pillows, bedding, accessories, patio stuff, and more.  It is literally a store I can spend 2 hours in and not see everything.  I absolutely love it.  They have many different styles – cottage, coastal, modern, industrial, traditional, etc. – so there is always something that I can use.

At the same time that I was “over” my staircase “moment,” At Home asked me if I’d like to head into their store and pick up a few things on them to rework a space in my home.  Um, yes!  So this week, I literally spent about 4 hours going up and down the aisles of my local store.  Between some of the incredible items I found and a few things I already had at home, I transformed this area into one that I truly love.

The first thing I did was take down the stuff that was on the green wall and patch/re-paint the holes. Then, I went on a recon mission to At Home.  I intentionally left my gift card at home so that I wouldn’t let myself buy the first thing that I saw.  I took pictures of everything that I loved so that I could go home and look at the pictures and look at the space and back and forth and back and forth until I decided what I wanted.  It’s super scientific.

But, then I saw this table.  And it was amazing.  And there was only one.  So, I ran back home to get my gift card in hopes that no one else would fall in love with it in the 20 minutes I was gone.

Success!  It got to come home with me.  At $79.99, it was the most expensive piece I bought, but it was a must-have in my opinion.

I made several other trips to At Home to find things for my staircase.  I bought a few things that I returned because they were too large or the wrong color.  The gals who worked the register got to know me, and they were really pleasant every time I came in – even with returns.  You know, that doesn’t happen in every store.

Eventually, this is what I came up with, and I am so very happy with it.

Oh, I love it so much.  It might not seem like a “major” change (pretend Rachel Zoe said that), but it really is in person.  It is styled, but doesn’t feel as cluttered to my eyes.  Let’s dissect it, shall we?

Other than the table, I also picked up the darling red lamp ($29.99) and black lampshade ($6.99) from At Home.  They have SO. MANY. lamps and lampshades that I think I spent 3 of my 4 hours in those two aisles.

Another thing I grabbed is the metal star.  It comes in various sizes, but I picked the small one for $9.99. Love it!  I already had the little succulent, pot and gnome stake, but At Home has all of those types of things, too.

I already had the candle holder on the bottom shelf of the table, and I put some of my kids’ cars and a tiny disco ball inside of it.

Here’s what this little vignette looks like from the 2nd floor.  So cute!

On the first landing of my staircase, I put a big basket which houses all of the stuff my kids’ need to take upstairs to their rooms.  I used to just pile it all up on the stairs, so now I feel fancy with my basket.  This particular basket was one that I had at home just sitting around, but At Home has tons and tons of baskets in all shapes, sizes and colors.

I thought that our computer desk needed a little bit more ornamentation, so I found a fun silver star at At Home ($12.99) to add to the right side of the monitor.  Doesn’t it look like it was made to be paired with my feature wall?

I think the prices at At Home are very reasonable, and I was able to buy A LOT with my $200 gift card. Other than the stuff shown above, I got a coir rug and rug pad to go by my back door to help my dogs wipe their paws.  I also found a really great vase that I refused to leave at the store.  It’s currently just hanging out in my dining room, awaiting its forever home.  And guess what?  I got all of that stuff, and I still have like $10 left to spend the next time I go to the store…which will likely be tomorrow if we are being honest.

Is there an At Home near you (here’s all the locations)?  Do you love it as much as I do?

Thanks to At Home for sponsoring this post!  I love my #AtHomeFinds!