2010 February - Fresh Nest Design

Bathroom Remodel by Guest Designer Jessica McKay

Posted February 26, 2010 by deb under Before & After

Thanks to Jessica McKay, our Guest Designer this week from Birdhouse Interior Design for sharing tips with us! We love your talent for working with what you have and designing in any budget.

Here is a bathroom remodel from the Birdhouse portfolio. We wanted something a little bolder and updated but didn’t have a huge budget to work with so we mixed both local retail sources and major chain store items in order to get a custom look for a reasonable price.

Beautiful, right? Here’s where we found the goodies:

Vanity – Home Depot
Light – Lowe’s
Floor tile – Lowe’s
Wall tile – McKean’s
Mirror – Target (on sale!)
Paint – Valspar Semi-Sweet

I think it is more important to design an appealing space with nice lines and comfortable layouts than focus entirely on sourcing everything through obscure vendors that can be extremely pricey. I believe in mixing high and low priced items and doing the most with what you have. There is no need to be snobby since there are stylish and chic pieces everywhere. If you find something amaing that really speaks to you then that may be worth splurging on.

Tags: bathroom, Jessica McKay

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Home Tour: Cara’s Kitchen Remodel

Posted February 25, 2010 by erin under Home Tour

Cara Jean from the blog DI Denizen combined DIY ideas and thrift store finds to redo her kitchen! Isn’t it fabulous? Here is her kitchen before the remodel:

And here is her After:

Can you believe the difference? Her total cost was just above $1000 and she was able to make a completely different space! Be sure to visit her site to see how she completed it and tips on how to find the best stuff at your thrift store! Great job Cara!

Want to show us your great DIY projects? Contact us here.

Tags: renovation

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Mom 2.0 Summit Recap

Posted February 24, 2010 by deb under Inspiration

{Getting my hair done at the Mad Men Party– picture by Christy Nelson}

Hello everyone! I finally have my feet back on the ground after attending Mom 2.0 this past weekend. It was a-maz-ing! I’ve never been in a room with so many well dressed and smart women in my life.

You may remember us mentioning a little while back about how Mom 2.0 last year changed our lives. Looking back, attending this conference change nearly everything about my life now. For the better. It made me realize what I really wanted to do and how I could make that happen. It’s been a whirlwind of a year with Fresh Nest Design starting and me helping other companies succeed online and announcing CraftyCon. It’s going to be another great year and Mom 2.0 didn’t let me down this year.

{Gwen Bell, Me, Marie LeBaron speaking on a panel at Mom 2.0– picture by Christy Nelson}

Mom 2.0 is really about discovering your passions, making them happen and doing it smart. What are you good at? What do you really want to do with your life? Make it possible and make it happen. Cause there’s no time like the present. Here are some of my favorite tidbits from this weekend:

Gretchen Rubin saying, “Knowledge plus challenge equals happiness.” Yes. Yes, it does.
Heloise saying, “It’s not who you go out with or where you go, but it’s who you meet when you get there.”
Laurie Smithwick saying, “If you don’t think you can design yourself, you’re probably right. You should get a designer to help.” Amen. That’s exactly what we’re here for.
Hearing from Dooce, Maggie Mason and Gabrielle Blair– the mothers of blogging as we know it now. They all agree that this is hard work and there’s not just one way to do it. They all encouraged us to do what we are passionate about.
Gwen Bell starting our panel session off with a little chair yoga. “Put down your smart phones and close your laptops.” I was worried for her life when she said this. Do you know how attached we all are to these? But everyone played along and it turned out to be my favorite part of the conference. She said “Make sure you are here in this space.” And I have modified this into my motto– “I have arrived. “ I want to be sure that wherever I am, I am present. I am there and I am listening. So many time the digital age can get in the way of making things happen. Thank you Gwen.

{Nintendo Yoga Lounge– picture by Gabrielle Blair}

And speaking of yoga, I loved the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus lounge. It was a great start to my Friday morning.
The Bloggess being crowned a czar by the Mayor of Martindale will be unforgettable. Jenny said, “I never thought I’d be a czar so soon.”

These are just a few highlights from the weekend. And I of course loved spending time with friends, and meeting new ones along the way. Thanks to Christy for being a great roommate and laughing with me until wee hours in the morning.

I also want to thank Homespacing {a division of Canvas Corp} for making it possible for me to attend the event. Their Homespacing kits are affordable {$7.99} and so easy to use. They have specialized kits for your children’s bedroom, your bedroom, outdoor space, living room and they each come with pre-measured stickers with every piece of furniture you can imagine. It makes planning your space so easy and in the long run can save you a lot of time and resources.

On the flight out, I played with one of the kits and designed my son’s room in 15 minutes. In the kit, you are given a ruler with graph paper and I easily drew my son’s room and furnished in. Now I just need to find the textures and pictures of the items I want to put in his space. It’s an incredible tool and they are offering all of our readers 20% off any of their goods by using the code MOM2.0 at checkout. {Be sure to check out the leather bound tape measure and picture hanging tool kit}.

Tags: Canvas Corp, conference, Homespacing, mom 2.0

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Making Mass-Market Work For You by Guest Designer Jessica McKay

Posted February 23, 2010 by deb under How to

We’d love to welcome Jessica McKay as a Guest Designer this week. Jessica is an interior decorator located in Omaha, NE. and is the owner of Birdhouse Interior Design Consulting which specializes in affordable and accessible design. Birdhouse’s services include interior decorating consultations, remodeling consultations, online Client Files and custom furniture redesign.

I like to look at decorating like I look at getting dressed in the morning {or let’s be honest, sometimes the afternoon} – use what you have and make it unique to you. That means you have to blend high, low, and every price point in between to get your desired look. Most people can’t dress in head-to-toe Prada and can’t furnish their home with nothing but designer pieces. In my opinion, even if I had the money to do that, I wouldn’t want to because when you never have to think about cost and can look at a showroom or the runway and snatch up exact looks, then you will never develop your own personal style.

So let’s break this down. I shop wherever I want and can afford {I’m not too proud to pop into Wal-Mart on the rare occasion}. I can’t afford many {if any at all} designer duds so that part of my wardrobe is very, very limited and probably only purchased at a discounted rate. My budget affords me to buy department store prices, which can limit the originality that will go into my closet. But, I love peeking in anywhere from the Gap to my favorite store of all time, Target. I know that I can find something there that will allow me to build on with more unique pieces. Those unique pieces often come from thrift stores, hand-me-downs from the women in my family, random little boutiques that I pop in while traveling, etc. Then, I blend everything together and it comes out original to me.

This is how one can approach interior decorating. You don’t have to look like a showroom, and quite frankly it’s boring if you do. You can find an awesome lamp at Target and place it atop an inherited side table like I did here. The marble side table was my grandfather’s.

Mix in some books, personal accessories– that red jar was my husband’s grandfather’s and where he kept his tobacco– and you have a unique, little vignette.

Or take a look at what Elizabeth from the blog Peacock Feathers did in her bedroom. She mixed a thrifted little bench with a K-mart lamp that she spray painted to make it even more unique, and other personal accessories.

Start thinking about what is important to you. Think about what you love and would be thrilled to incorporate into your décor. When you add personal touches and original pieces, any stylish mass-market piece will fit seamlessly into your space and people will think you paid much more for everything then you really did.

Tags: Jessica McKay, Mass-market

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