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Nothing makes me feel more like a queen on a regular basis than a fresh twist-out and a great pair of gold hoops. I knew after moving from Washington, D.C., to Seattle that I needed a throne dedicated to my weekly washday ritual. My vanity is where I sit to do my twist-outs, put on my makeup and jewelry, and spray on my perfume. It’s where I remind myself in the morning of things like “I’m enough” and come home in the evening to take off my hoops and retwist my hair.
I moved to Seattle nearly two years ago, into a 650-square-foot, one-bedroom, 1930s-built apartment. There’s not enough space in my bathroom to get ready, and there’s definitely not enough room to do my hair, so buying a vanity was about more than aesthetics—it was a practical decision to carve out a place for self-care. The perfect piece needed to fulfill two criteria: It had to fit on the wall across from my bed frame, and it needed to look worthy of a chic hotel (think: Hotel Peter and Paul in New Orleans or the Santa Monica Proper in L.A.).
I started scrolling Facebook Marketplace and checking out the wealth of vintage stores in the city and the usual big-box suspects like West Elm, CB2, and Urban Outfitters Home. All of the options I came across were either too spendy or made of questionable materials for the price point. However, my good girlfriend Michele Price put me onto Studio McGee’s Ogden burled-wood console table at Target. It looked a whole lot like CB2’s Niche burl-wood console, except it was $300 (not $500). It was full of potential.
Ogden Burled-Wood Console Table
For starters, the size was just right, at just 3’6” wide and 2’6” tall. Shipping was quick and the assembly was lightweight and easy with only a few parts. Plus the instructions were super-straightforward for a girl who loves to wing it.
I turned the console into a vanity by pairing it with my favorite wood chair by Brooklyn furniture brand Raini Home. Above, I mounted a black framed half-oval mirror (thanks, Amazon). On the vanity, I have a smaller vintage IKEA mirror I found at a local vintage store, a ceramic bowl I picked up on a sidewalk in Brooklyn (it’s perfect for storing my jewelry and perfumes), and a stack of jewelry boxes by Seattle-based brand Faris where I keep my finer pieces. In the nearly two years that I’ve owned the Studio McGee x Target console, it has weathered plenty of makeshift hair salon extravaganzas and coffee spills. Despite being made of wood composite unlike its CB2 counterpart, it remains a sturdy place for my daily adornment.
Because the Ogden table has been around for a while, it appears to only be available in select locations now, so if you want this vanity (or entryway!) setup for yourself, you might have to journey to a different store. If it’s unavailable to you, here are four other similarly sized consoles at Target that are also up to the job.
