PublishedOct 27, 2024 1:00 AM EDT
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Nothing makes me feel more like a queen on an ordinary day than a fresh twist-out and a great pair of gold hoops. After moving from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, I knew I needed a throne devoted to my weekly washday ritual. My vanity is where I sit to do my twist-outs, apply my makeup and jewelry, and mist on my perfume. It is where I remind myself each morning that “I am enough,” and where I return each evening to remove my hoops and retwist my hair.
I moved to Seattle nearly two years ago, into a 650-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment built in the 1930s. There is not enough room in my bathroom to get ready, and certainly not enough to do my hair, so a vanity was never purely an aesthetic choice—it was a practical decision to carve out a place for self-care. The right piece had to meet two criteria: it needed to fit on the wall opposite my bed frame, and it needed to read as worthy of a chic hotel—think Hotel Peter and Paul in New Orleans or the Santa Monica Proper in L.A.
I scrolled Facebook Marketplace, combed the city’s wealth of vintage stores, and checked the usual big-box suspects—West Elm, CB2, Urban Outfitters Home. Every option was either too costly or built from questionable materials at the price. Then my good friend Michele Price pointed me to Studio McGee’s Ogden burled-wood console at Target. It bore a strong resemblance to CB2’s Niche burl-wood console, except at $300 rather than $500. It was rich with potential.
For starters, the scale was exactly right—just 3’6” wide and 2’6” tall. Shipping was quick, and assembly was lightweight and simple, with only a handful of parts. The instructions were refreshingly straightforward for a person who loves to wing it.
I converted the console into a vanity by pairing it with my favorite wood chair from Brooklyn furniture brand Raini Home. Above it I mounted a black-framed half-oval mirror (courtesy of Amazon). On the vanity sits a smaller vintage IKEA mirror found at a local shop, a ceramic bowl scooped up on a Brooklyn sidewalk—ideal for stashing jewelry and perfumes—and a stack of jewelry boxes by Seattle-based brand Faris holding my finer pieces. In the nearly two years since, my Studio McGee x Target console has weathered its share of makeshift hair-salon sessions and coffee spills. Though built from wood composite rather than its CB2 counterpart’s solid stock, it remains a sturdy stage for my daily adornment.
Because the Ogden has been around a while, it now appears to be available only at select locations, so if you want this vanity—or entryway—setup for yourself, you may need to travel to another store. If it is unavailable to you, here are four other similarly sized consoles at Target that can do the job.
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