Intentional haphazardness?

I love Pottery Barn. I really do. So much so that I often go online, fill up a shopping cart, and then remember that in addition to living a stylish life, I’d also like to send our kids to college. So I sadly edit the cart.

And while I fall in love with so much of their furniture, I so fall out of love with how some of the catalog pages are styled. I really don’t get it sometimes.

Big example from a fall catalog that’s presenting their wares in Halloween and fall holiday themes. While some of the juxtaposition of the ‘casual elegance’ kinda works, the one with the collage of framed depressing photos–including some people without heads–over the mantel doesn’t work for me. The frames are gorgeous. The mantel is lovely. The presentation just doesn’t make sense to me. And if the post-earthquake looking art isn’t enough to give me a puzzled face, the sad hat above the flaming fire really makes me nervous.