I had the privilege to travel to Des Moines two weeks ago to tour the Better Homes and Gardens headquarters, it’s one of those things I’ve dreamed of doing for years so it was thrilling for me! There was a group of us invited to the BHG Style Showcase event where the focus was on the new line of BHG products available at Walmart.
The big highlights for me were touring the facilities including the photo sets, prop rooms, photography studios, and test kitchens and gardens. When you admire a magazine for over a decade (and have the opportunity to work for it too!) it’s so nice to get a peek at where all the magic happens.
The studios have a dozen stages where they construct scenes for photo shoots for various projects and publications, here they are photographing BHG Products for Walmart in a bedroom scene.
That set becomes this lovely “bedroom”, how pretty are these layers and touches of aqua? And that headboard is really gorgeous in person (it comes in linen fabric too).
Here’s another scene being shot for a future issue of DIY Magazine where they team is creating a living room and photographing some projects for an upcoming spread.
We got a peek into a few of the prop rooms, hello can you imagine?! They’re a stylist’s dream, I could have played in here for DAYS.
Our tour led us into a photography zone off of another kitchen where the magazine was shooting a delish dish.
Editor and Stylist Eddie Ross gave a presentation on adding your own twist to basic decor, he’s so talented, here he is demonstrating how he decoupaged a basic frame with tortoise shell paper to give it a high end look, love that!
In the design kitchen, Nancy Hopkins the Senior Food Editor gave an inspiring talk on creating easy centerpieces using seasonal fruit and flowers with some of the new holiday platters (coming to stores soon) and basic white dinnerware.
Nancy whipped up three displays each within five minutes, encouraging everyone to keep decorating and food styling simple and mix herbs, flowers, and produce, on plates and platters, she was so much fun!
Around the corner was the BHG Test Kitchen where they test all the recipes that make it into the magazine. You guys, it SMELLED LIKE THANKSGIVING in here because they were COOKING THANKSGIVING RECIPES in these multiple galley kitchens along several rows, and we sampled a sage/apple gravy and savory herb scones, that was very cool.
The group was led on a tour around the botanical gardens which are open to the public on Fridays during summer (as I recall) and it’s one place where they grow and cultivate many of the garden stories that appear in the magazine. Worth a stroll if you’re ever in Des Moines!
This is somewhat random but along the tour we walked through an atrium filled with all of these metal pom poms suspended from the ceiling, very colorful and whimsical, I loved them.
The main focus of the event was to kick off the BHG Live Better partnership between BHG and Walmart. Now Walmart carries BHG products that possess their style and quality at affordable prices. We got a sneak peak at what’s arriving in stores and there were so many pretty accents and furnishings in the collections.
It was an exciting event and I’m grateful to be part of the larger group in attendance, I loved every minute! I hope you enjoyed my tour of the tour. Thanks BHG for the invitation and to the BHG Live Better Network for the introduction to the new line of decor from tabletop to bedroom, bath, and patio. Look for posts here every two months on seasonal related topics featuring BHG products.
|
*All transportation to and from the event paid for by BHG products at Walmart.
.
what a cool tour!
I just bought 4 of those green greek key pillows. Very nice quality!
Thanks so much for the tour, Kate! Such cute stuff.
I would love to tour their office one day! It looks like you had a wonderful time there
My favorite home accents are the Coolidge Area Rug (Cheveron) and Fish Hotel by Umbra White – how CUTE! I just bought my first home and would love to go crazy online shopping at Apt 2B! Ahhh!
Looks like so much fun!
Those lamps clustered in the corner of that blue bedroom are so beautiful. I love their position in the room and the design of those lamps. It must have been a great tour.
How interesting was that!!!! Thank you for sharing it all with us.
I saw a few things I would love to take home!!!!
The countertop by which Nancy is standing is spectacular, it looks like granite to me, if I remember well, brazilian or South African (?), I am in awe. How lucky you were.
Very eye opening!
They start with their featured product and then design the room around the product, including putting walls, windows, doors, fireplaces, etc. wherever they want them. Then they surround the featured product with their choice of acres of free accessories from the warehouse. How very unrealistic and unrepresentative of the way the majority of us approach our everyday decorating dilemmas. How about showing their products in the homes of real Walmart customers that have been decorated within their actual budgets?
It would have been like being a kid in a candy store touring their props area! What a fun experience!
Would like to check out the headboards. Are they sold in all stores or just specific Wallmarts?
Thanks for a fun post!
Elaine
http://Www.OMGlifestyle.com
Wow! What an amazing experience! Absolutely drooled over their prop rooms :) Thanks for sharing all the photos with us!
Love the tour! Thank you for sharing!
Wow, what a fabulous opportunity!! I’m happy you got to go! Thanks for sharing the behind the scenes snippets! I look forward to seeing more BHG items at Walmart.
@Jane
…. That’s what blogs are for!
OMG!! You are really living a dream life Kate! That looks like so much fun!
I would love the fish pillows. will they be at walmart?
Yes Pam, all products will roll out at Walmart over the next few months, many are already in stores. :)
What a cool trip?! Love the behind the scenes pix!
http://erinstaussdesign.co/
Great to see all the “stuff” at Walmart. I saw some pillows I need to check out. Off to Walmart in the morning.
What an amazing trip, Des Moines sounds like a great place!
It’s was great to see you! Love your recap :)
Debbie