The Nesting Place Giveaway
Today I am featuring a fabulous decorating expert The Nester who has just released a FABULOUS book. {I’m giving away two copies today!} I love her philosophy that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. Here is a short interview with The Nester about this new project.
Tell us a little bit about what life is like around your place these days.
Well, since I wrote the book proclaiming how we moved 13 times in 18 years of being married, we’ve actually moved yet AGAIN! House number 14 is a really special place for us. For years our dream has been to purchase a little house with some land. And we somehow convinced a bank that we were responsible adults and they gave us a loan for a house on 12 acres outside of Charlotte, NC. We moved here in August and have been fixing the place up ever since.
EVERY surface is begging for our attention. We are doing lots of the work ourselves –that’s code for this place is a mess and it’s gonna be that way for a few years. We tore down walls and made a new kitchen, we inherited a pool where everything is broken (it’s currently green) we are fixing up a barn so that we can have gatherings and swap meets and craft days, and we even have chickens! We are slowly learning what it means to live in the country and once again, I’m having to remind myself that it’s possible to live beautifully within the imperfection. And this is the most imperfect house we’ve ever lived in.
When did you first become interested in decorating?
I see the world through house-colored glasses. I always have. When my sister, Emily and I used to play Barbies, she was always annoyed with me because I didn’t care about their backstory or who was dating who, I just wanted to decorate their houses. So I guess it started when I was a little girl.
You say “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” That is such a wonderful philosophy but how do we live that out in an age of Pinterest perfection?
Pinterest and beautiful shelter magazines are there to encourage us. If we look at them and leave feeling shamed about our home, then we are abusing them and looking at them all wrong.
I don’t compare the photo my son took with my phone to my neighbor’s wedding portrait and then feel bad and give up hope of ever looking pretty. None of us do that. We all know that a wedding portrait is a special once in a lifetime event where it took specialists and a team of people to get the perfect shot.
It’s the same with the homes in magazines and pinterest. I know this for sure because my home is all over pinterest and in magazines. Photo-shooting a home is actually messy business. The cords and extra pillows and extra stuff is all just out of range of the camera lens. When the shoot is over, we usually have to take a minute to straighten up so the house goes back to normal.
If my house always looked like it did that day it was in a magazine that would be tragic, kitchens are for making a big mess making fudge and enchiladas and craft rooms are for crafting and being messy. Beautiful messes are signs of life. Let’s embrace that!
What do you hope women gain from reading The Nesting Place?
I hope we can all start loving the home we are in, and stop waiting for the next house. I hope we can welcome people into the imperfection openly because we realize that imperfections put people at ease. I hope we make decorating decisions not out of fear but out of freedom. I hope we embrace the true purpose of our homes and realize that has much less to do with heavy crown molding and much more to do with our attitude. I hope we finally are convinced of what we have all secretly hoped was true, that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.
The room in our house that needs a complete “makeover” is our bedroom. We have lived in this house for almost 28 years and every other room in the house has had something done to it – new floors, paneling painted over, (a couple of times in some rooms) etc., but our bedroom looks just like it did when we moved in – old brown paneling and the saddest part is that because of the shape of the room, the furniture in there has been the same for all 28 of those years. Yes, a makeover is definitely needed in my husband and mine’s bedroom – couldn’t help but add a little spice to our lives :)
I love the premise behind this book. This is my 19th move in 37 years. (my husband was in the Navy for 20 of those years. He is retired now) I am hoping we stay in this house for a long time…unusual thought for me. I am currently working on our great room/dining room, so I would like to say one of our spare bedrooms that I would like to be a combination office and prayer room.
My spare room which is my catch-all room at the moment…it so needs a makeover drastically!!
My front room, which is supposed to be my Living Room. It just has a couch in there…nothing else. I am stuck on how to decorate it
My kitchen needs some serious help!
My living room. Furniture and window coverings are really tired. Thanks for a chance with the give away. Looks like a good read.
Sadly every room in my house needs help. I would love for our house to be lovely but I don’t have a decorating bone in my body. If I had to pick one room thoug,. I would say living room so we could have a nice place to be when friends come over. Currently we have a couch with holes, a stained glider, an antique table and a window missing a shade!
Mine and hubby’s bedroom. Our walls have been white for 15 yrs. absolutely no color in it. We need a makeover to make it feel comfy, special and fun to be in, not just a place to sleep.
We have 3 sons, the oldest left for the military in January…didn’t take long for the “room shuffle dance” to occur. Our other 2 sons immediately “traded up” and the youngest’s room will eventually become my prayer & crafting room! It is TINY = cozy. Wasn’t a bedroom as there is no closet. I welcome ideas of how to “nest” as my hubby and I become “empty nesters!”
All of my rooms, but we really need to knock a wall out footprint more room.
My living room needs some updating – with a small budget!!
My first thought was our den/laundry room…. but… as I look at our twin black cats we adopted from a shelter almost 2 years ago now, I’m reminded of the candlewax they spilled all over our bedroom carpet when we first released them into a room larger than the 3x3x3 square they’d be sheltered in since birth. They were a year old when we adopted them. So, I’m thinking our bedroom definitely needs a makeover… we cannot seem to get all that candlewax up!
My bedroom! It needs to be a sexu, romantic place for the hubby and me instead of a multipurpose room.
I’m working on my living room. We’ve lived in this house for about 20 years and I’ve just now decided to take down wallpaper and paint to make it our style. It’s really a big step for me to try and decorate on my own! Any help would be appreciated!! Thank you!
Since I have no basement, my spare bedroom has become the catch-all room. THAT would be my make-over room. My teenage daughter wants to make it her bedroom because it’s such a big room. It would make a terrific room for a teen girl! BUT what to do with everything else!??
For sure my kitchen. I try to pretend it is it’s vintage Mediterranean but it’s really 80’s country kitchen. I need some help.
Our basement, we have finished a bedroom and bath in the basement, which is only 1/4 of the space. The remaining portion of the. Basement needs finished, the house was built 12 years ago and we really want to get it finished
Master bedroom. Outdated wallpaper. Need I say more?
Lol
The only room that needs a true make over is our master bath. It is the only room that hasn’t been touched in years.
My living room needs help. I have never have been the decorator type and really don’t know where to start.
No makeovers here but a “start over” once we get some rooms again :) Six months from when an EF4 tornado destroyed everything, one brutal winter, and an uncooperative insurance company leaves us still waiting to dig out the foundation and begin again. Rooms are just in the dream stage now. This lovely book would be a nice addition to the process :)
My two 10 year old boys who share a room. Twins? You ask, no.
One is my wonderful son and the other is my sweet step-son.( 5days apart)
I would love to give them a a make over and make then feel they each of a part in
Their room. :)
My family room…which has kids toys in it and is really like a kids play room. The space is not very big and not designed well…but I’m sure it could look better than it does now! :)
If I had to choose a room it would be the living room. With two boys, two dogs, a husband and working full time our living room is in disarray! I would LOVE to give it a makeover!
Our basement. It looks like an ongoing yard sale.