Hayworth Collection – Designing Goldilocks

What’s your interior-design style?

Do you know your interior-design style? Or better yet, do you have a design style?

Or maybe you don’t have a design style but want to aspire to one.

I can relate with you.

Glitz and glamour

When I planned the style for my new home, I envisioned Hollywood Regency.

The glamorous lifestyle from Southern California, circa 1920s through 1950s. Think movie stars sipping cocktails in luxurious loungewear. The style is opulent and rich.

My love for this style started several years ago when I discovered the Hayworth Collection at Pier 1 Imports, smoky mirrored furniture pieces that pack a stark punch in my living room and master bedroom.

Rich textures and bold colors round out the look with black-and-white striped rugs, throws and accent pieces.

Declutter

But as time has gone on, I’ve evolved into a mix of Hollywood Regency and Minimalist. I still love the glitz and glamour of the furniture, but I have held back on flashy wall mirrors and velvet finishes.

Besides a few crystal pieces I keep in a curio cabinet, the decor items I go for now are faux plants to add some nature to the mix. Some green to the sea of grey. I have found affordable plants at Target and have had fun setting them around the house.

Find your style

But back to my original questions. How would you find your style? Well, it’s easier than you think.

Let’s start with furniture and home-decor stores that sell the items you’re drawn to. If you said Ikea, your style may be Scandinavian. Simple and functional furniture pieces.

If you said Ethan Allen, you may be modern or contemporary. Heavy wood or metal furniture, matching rugs and throw pillows, and sensible artwork.

If you said Pottery Barn, you may be coastal. Tall lanterns on the porch and patio. A sea foam color palette. Nautical decorations.

If you shop online at Wayfair, Bohemian may be your style. Colorful area rugs, furry throw pillows and white-upholstered sofas.

Other ways to find your style include flipping through design magazines or replicating the sets you see in movies or on TV shows.

If you have friends or family members whose styles rock, you may resonate with one of their themes.

And while decor is all about the visual, it also should be about the feeling. In other words, how do you want to feel in your home? If you say relaxed, Zen could be your vibe.

This and that

But to be honest, homeowners these days are gravitating toward a mix of styles. I rarely see a staunch French Country or a true Modern in real life. These looks only exist on TV or in magazines.

This may be because most everyone I know cannot afford to execute one style from floor to ceiling. The main components of a look may be there, such as stainless steel appliances and exposed ductwork for the Industrial loft.

But the sofa, dining table and artwork may be contemporary pieces from the popular furniture warehouse down the street.

If you’re following my instagram account, @designing_goldilocks, you’ll notice that my account name is Farmhouse Glam.

I came up with that name because the exterior of my house resembles a farmhouse, which happened to be the elevation the builder pre-selected for the lot I chose. But the interior of my house has the glam furniture from Pier 1.

Farmhouse craze

While farmhouse ends at my front door, the farmhouse style is arguably the most popular design style today. Think white kitchen cabinetry, shiplapped walls and wooden signs with comforting messages like, “Blessed,” and “Home Sweet Home.”

The style is light and bright with virtually every flat surface decked out with hydrangeas in vases, stacks of books, and baskets upon baskets. Farmhouse homes are cozy and inviting with the upkeep to match.

So what design style are you?

I’ve provided you a lot to think about. Whether you know your style or not, interior design is always evolving. Like me, you start with one vision and morph into a mix of them. Or maybe you’re one style through and through. But whatever it is, the discovery phase can be as fun as the execution.

My interior design style is Hollywood Regency with minimalist finishes. Photo by Cindy Hernandez

Demise of a decor store

One of my all-time favorite home decor stores announced this week that it is going out of business. Pier 1 Imports.

I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised.

The company earlier this year announced that it would be closing some of its stores and filed for bankruptcy.

Then the pandemic hit, putting a financial strain on non-essential businesses and hindering Pier 1’s ability to find a new buyer. Now the company is looking to close all of its stores.

People just aren’t buying furniture and housewares like they were decades ago. Nor are they spending the kind of money that one would need to shop at Pier 1.

Just this week I posted about shopping at the store’s clearance section for the Hayworth pieces I have been collecting over the years – smoky mirrored furniture reminiscent of the opulent Hollywood Regency era.

But even before the bankruptcy, I had a sense the store wouldn’t be around for long. So after John and I decided to buy the new house, I shopped for as many Hayworth pieces I could afford and moved them into storage until the house was done.

Over time I became known at the Pier 1 near my condo. The salespeople would see me walk in the door and immediately show me the newest Hayworth piece to move into the clearance section, sometimes offering an additional discount in order to unload the piece.

If it hadn’t been for my gut telling me to drop into the store to see what new pieces had been marked down and if it hadn’t been for the salespeople’s personalized service, I wouldn’t have the furniture I do and at the price I could afford.

If Pier 1 gets its way, it’ll dwindle down its inventory. And if I get my way, I’ll have a few more discounted Hayworth pieces to add to my collection.

The dresser from the Hayworth Collection at Pier 1 Imports has been on my wish list for years. Photo by Cindy Hernandez

Shop the clearance section

A favorite piece in my house is the buffet from the Hayworth Collection at Pier 1 Imports.

I had been eyeing the piece for years, picturing dinner parties with charcuterie boards set out for guests to enjoy. A glass of wine in one hand and an appetizer plate of meats, cheeses and nuts in the other.

The problem was I lived in a 1,000-square-foot condo with absolutely no space for the buffet, let alone guests. In the new house, space was not a problem.

The hurdle now was the buffet’s $1,000 price tag. The Hayworth Collection is not inexpensive. Even on sale, the prices can be steep, which is why I always headed for the clearance section.

Even before ground broke on the house, I shopped for Hayworth pieces in the hopes of finding a bargain. My persistence paid off when I found a buffet for $200.

The piece had minor scratches I could live with and a loose foot that John and my Dad easily fixed. The buffet moved straight into storage where it waited a year for the house to be done.

Today it serves as a sofa table on the main floor between the living and dining areas. It’s the first piece I see when I come downstairs in the morning. It’s the first piece I see when I walk in the front door. It’s the first piece I see when I come in from the garage.

But what I love more than the buffet itself is the deal I got just by shopping the clearance section.

The buffet from the Hayworth Collection at Pier 1 Imports was only $200 in the clearance section, a savings of $800 because of minor scratches and a loose foot. Photo by Cindy Hernandez

Wherefore art thou Curio

The curio cabinet in the living room wasn’t supposed to go in the living room. It was meant for the bar room to hold small bottles of booze. We bought the curio about a year before the house was ready and stashed it in storage.

When the house was done, and the bar pieces and curio were in the bar room, we realized there was too much furniture and the space felt cramped.

We also realized the Guinness collection deserved to take center stage in that room. The plan was to position the bar at an angle and hang the mirror on the same wall as the window.

But after we moved in, and my parents were over for a visit and a tour, my Dad said the mirror deserved to be on a wall of its own. This was the same wall that the curio was supposed to go against.

A week later, my Dad mentioned again that the room would look better with the bar and mirror as the main components in the space. (Yes, my Dad giving decorating advice.)

John and I agreed. But that meant the curio would have to go. Fortunately, the curio matched the pieces in the living room. It now holds crystal pieces from Waterford and Tiffany & Co instead of Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark.

But I am not completely sold on having it in the living room. Not that it looks bad. I just doesn’t look like the plan I had for the space.

For starters, there is only one spot in the living room that I can put the curio- against the pony walls that divide the bar room and living room. But that means it blocks the sight lines that should have run through the area.

I’m also not a fan of displaying crystal. The look is too 1980s. But you can’t have a curio and nothing on the shelves.

I’m sure it looks nice. It provides another piece of the Hayworth Collection to the space. But the curio is an example of not being 100 percent happy with the outcome. Then again, are designers every 100 percent happy with the outcome?

*The curio cabinet moved from the bar room where it took up too much space to the living room where it holds pieces of crystal, a look I’m not particularly happy with. Photo by Cindy Hernandez*

I get it from my Mama

Growing up, I remember our house always being clean. Decorated. Updated.

I remember going to the store with my Mom to buy a new piece of decor, or to just look around and see what new items had come in.

I remember my Mom rearranging the furniture in the house because it needed a refresh. She still does that today.

I think that is where I got my bug to decorate. To make sure my house is always presentable.

I remember my Mom hosting interior decorating parties at home. I remember going to other women’s houses and my Mom being able to call out which items were from interior decorating parties.

I remember items in the house not having a purpose; they were “just for looks.” And carrying that idea into my own spaces as an adult.

I remember the formal living rooms being for company and off-limits to the kids. I think that is why I still hold a soft spot in my heart for floorpans that have the formal living and dining rooms.

Formal. Does formal even exist in the design world anymore? Everything is cozy. Relaxed. And there is nothing wrong with that. But cozy and relaxed can still look nice. There is no reason for a house to not look beautiful at best or well put together at worst.

Today, my Mom shops at dollar stores. If she allows herself to splurge at Kohl’s, it’s always with a coupon. And not a holiday goes by that she doesn’t show up at my door with a table runner or matching spoon rest and bowl. It was my Mom who pointed out the Hayworth Collection at Pier 1 Imports that now outfits my living room and master bedroom.

For years, I just assumed this is what you do. You buy a house or condo or even rent an apartment, and you decorate it. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that a decorated home is not everyone’s reality.

So it must have been something that was ingrained in me at an early age. Or maybe it’s hereditary. Or maybe I just became accustomed to living in spaces that were organized and put together. But whatever it is, I got it from my Mama.