By Linda Lee
New from Walmart, Flower Home from Drew Barrymore, is a complete line of homewares. It includes flower-printed shower curtains and pink-velvet sofas, dinner plates and platform beds. Drew loves animals so there are dog beds and dog art. And clearly Drew loves flowers.
There are throw pillows with flower prints and flower-print chairs. There is even a see-it-want-it item, a flower globe, called a World Map of Flowers, 13 inches tall, $76.
The line, which Drew Barrymore considers an extension of her Flower line of makeup and fragrances, is meant to appeal to all levels of the market, including Walmart shoppers looking for a $20 cheap-chic ceramic vase or wall art (a framed picture of a rose), floral throw pillows ($39), or the elegant, oriental-feeling 16-piece place setting for four that has one floral plate interspersed with tasteful combinations of solid linen, pink, dark blue and black plates and bowls, $60.
That 16-piece place setting will also appeal to Walmart’s mid-market level, at jet.com and to its upper market at hayneedle.com. We know. It’s like discovering that Coca Cola makes Dasani water and Glaceau vitamin water and BonAqua Water.
Walmart took one look at Wayfair, the wildly successful online furniture and homewares site, and decided that people didn’t have to heft a dresser to buy it. Walmart still has its big box stores, which increasingly serve as grocery stores as much as department stores, but they are now selling large pieces of furniture online. Walmart has also started its own modern, or MoDRN Scandinavian/industrial/midcentury line of products, from dishes to bedding, chairs and outdoor furniture.
Drew Barrymore decided to design or shall we say “design” all of those things as well.
Synergy!
She swears she has a hand in every one of these designs, and insists on quality in her products.
Often “floral” is an excuse for “tacky.” These pieces of furniture are modern, relaxed and clean-lined. Not everything has a floral print. There are lots of solids, many pieces made of wood, rattan, ceramic.
Some prints are abstract or vegetal, like the upholstery on this Vintage Palm Barrel Accent Chair, $499.
There are pieces that might please a girly girl, like a floral platform bed for $799, or flowery curtains. But other pieces could be safely brought home to a mixed household: a husband and wife. There are bohemian items like a rattan hanging light, $72; a circular mango wood shelf, $69; a Galway green vase, $18; and a jute rug, $99 starting at 5 feet in diameter – all part of her bungalow line.
The Drew Barrymore items turn up across all of Walmart’s online markets, including jet.com and Threadneedle.com. But Walmart.com has her entire line and seems to be her home place.
She confesses that nothing makes her happier than curling up and paging through home design magazines.
It looks to us that she has done her homework.