1 Credenza 4 Ways: Midcentury Coastal and A VOTE!!!!

One Credenza, Four Ways. #4: Midcentury Coastal

It’s the last one in the series. I swear. More info on that at the end (thanks for your feedback). This one is called ‘Mid-century Coastal’. This is both my childhood and my future. I grew up on the Oregon Coast and we did have 1970’s seascape paintings in our living room. In fact when I was home last week I saw a couple of them still up in my parents house and I wanted to go around with a post-it marking ‘Emily has dibs’ on them, but then that seemed, you know, totally weird and morbid as my parents are thank goodness very young and healthy. But let it be known, siblings, that I have dibs on the seascapes … Also I’ll take the handmade 1985 five foot ET costume that is just so terrifying and wonderful, sure to send all the neighborhood kids running in tears.

Anyway. Here is Mid-century Coastal.

This one is more country/coastal and pretty much where I’m headed stylistically, especially once I buy my fantasy Oregon or Ojai house. It’s just so soothing and calm, but with a little bit of an edge to it that says ‘the people here are 35-years-old and kinda cool’.

Here’s why it works:

*Click through to see the rest of the photos and to vote on your favorite credenza …

1. The two lamps flank the credenza adding a bit of formality that contrasts nicely with the organic collection of seascapes. It could have been two different lamps, but with these paintings it can go ‘thrift store’ really fast. Having fresh, white, matching lamps helps it look higher-end and more refined.

2. The manzanita branch fills some of that horizontal space, but in a visually really ‘light’ way. That sounded super technical, but you know what I mean – it’s not this huge bulky thing that makes everything feel really heavy, instead it gives your eye a break from the art and books.

3. The color palette is refrained – blues/whites/woods/some gold (shocking, I know) which keeps it feeling calm, yet warm.

4. That country ladder back chair has simple lines which works so well with the credenza even though they are two drastically different styles.

Manzanita can be bought at the flower market and sometimes even stores like West Elm, Michaels and Jo Annes sells it.

One more gif because if I don’t see at least 1 gif a day I sob.

So there you have it, all four credenzas are finished, ready for you, America (and the WORLD!!), to vote. The winning credenza wins 2 tickets to the 50 Shades of Gray Premiere Party. I think pretty sure they are all every excited to win. So, which credenza/room would you want in your home?

Go on then. Remember, it’s your duty as american/world blog reader to vote and the next credenza that wins could change both you and your children’s future. You don’t have to give any of your info to vote, just click on the one you want below and if a bubble pops up wanting you to share, feel free, but just click the x or cancel if you don’t want to. Once you vote you can see who is winning. It’s VERY fun. If you are just joining the credenza water bucket challenge check out style #1, #2, and #3, too for all the details of the above and then vote.

*All photos by Tessa Neustadt

These posts are all experiments and I totally appreciate your feedback. At first I was going to do ‘1 credenza, 4 ways’ in one post but then that post was full of SO many photos and so much information/links/tips/gifs that I was like, ‘why not get four days of content out of it, eh?’. But some of you called me out on it saying that by the third post it started to feel ‘thin’. And while I personally think these are still way more substantial than a random photo of balloons saying ‘Happy Friday!’, you aren’t wrong. It’s also good to know that you have high expectations for content. Others said that it would be better back to back, which I agree and was the second plan, but then I felt that it would just be so redundant. Maybe the key is just doing 2 ways and then having them be in the same post. It’s so interesting/fun to have a blog because you get feedback on your product INSTANTLY. It’s not like I spend a year working on a prototype, focus grouping it, manufacturing it, hiring digital strategists to see how and where the product is performing, blah, blah. I shoot, write, push publish and get feedback immediately. It’s actually kind of amazing. The survey did help a lot, but the daily ‘I love this post’ or ‘I’m meh about this post’ really guides everything. xx