Sneak Preview: The Art of Display

We like to think of ourselves as artists. Our homes are our canvases. It is late and I am getting really cheesy. But let's just say ... knowing how to organize and display your stuff is one of the most important parts of decorating. We have a saying in our home, "Everything looks better under a cloche." My kids often tease me by putting things under the cloches that obviously don't belong under cloches, like cats and so forth. But you have to admit, just about everything does look cute under a cloche. And if you don't know what a cloche is, call us right away!



We plan to have a post dedicated to displays- so stay tuned!

Office Perspectives

Sometimes you need to see things through someone else's eyes to see how bad it really is. My office is the perfect example. It was okay, definitely not horrible. But over time things had "built up" and maybe I had put a few too many things on top of that armoire just because there was no where else to put it. Then someone (not naming names) comes into your office and looks at it and says "wow, you have a lot of crap up there!" And then you really SEE it and you are ashamed. But it took literally one trip to HomeGoods, some painting and voila - not perfect but definitely not shameful!

Love Nests

Many people will ask us, "Do you have a specialty at Refesh Your Nest?" And we would answer, "Why yes we do - the Love Nest". I would venture to say that this decorating frenzy all began because of the oft neglected room of the house. Yes, we mean the master bedroom which so often becomes the laundry dumping ground and the storage space for the ugly stepsister furniture of the house. But we finally had enough and set on the quest to create a sanctuary. One trip to Target and we were on our way! (Oh how we love Target - we are sure to do a whole Target post in the future!)



We will soon feature some of the other love nests that have been popping up all over town!



I don't have Bobette's before picture, but let me just tell you it involved lots of red (which has since been purged from her whole house - no offense to the color red!)






My somewhat Before picture. I had already pulled off the old bedding which also involved some red.












Don't you want a love nest???

Kitchen and Family Room at the Keelers

Chinese snowballs from my garden. They are one of the few things that grow in abudance in my yard. I love this time of year!

Freshly painted counter stools with white seat covers - not so practical for the kitchen. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

We had to give in to the giant sectional. But somehow the arguments of where everyone gets to sit still haven't ended. What more can I do besides five lazy-boy chairs lined up in front of the tv? (Don't get any ideas Chris!)

Love my little silver tray from Matilda's Mouse!

Lucky Girls

The eldest Carpenter girls had the royal refresh done to their rooms. Are you loving the blue paint Brittany?

The picture above the bed set her back what was it ... 75 cents or was it 30 cents from Home Goods? Believe it!

Math Lesson for the day: Old Stuff + spray paint + decoupage medium = BEAUTIFUL!

Living Rooms and Dining Rooms

Can you tell which pictures belong together? It's funny how they all actually go together pretty well. Can you tell that we both love the stark contrast of black with white or is it white with black?

This was an impromptu photo shoot so don't mind the little things like the chandelier shades that are all off kilter. Remember how I told you this is real life decorating? I literally gave Bobette about 5 minutes advance notice. Amazingly, everything looked perfect!

...to our new Refresh Your Nest blog! We hope to be able to post lots of amazing before and after pictures of our decorating projects. Just keep in mind...This is real life decorating! (No professional photographers or set designers here.) We've been doing a bit of "refreshing" in our own homes. Here's a little peek.