Nester-iffic!

I left school during naptime today and fortunately both of my children were asleep (hallelujah!) so you better believe I left them there!  I came home to a messy house and instead of cleaning it up, I spent the afternoon with the Nester.  Well, I didn't actually spend time with her, just her blog.  Isn't she brilliant?  I wish she was my best friend, or better yet, my sister (isn't her sister the luckiest gal in the world- well, I think her sister is amazing as well, so maybe it goes both ways!).

I know they'll probably never visit my dinky little corner of the world wide web, so please don't think I'm trying to butter them up- I really do think they are both awesome.

Anywho- I just love to look at Nester's pictures that she posts of her home.  She uses the most fabulous techniques to decorate and she is so good at creating a home that appears touchable and lived in, yet a teensy bit fancy country with all that fabulous toile and fringe- that girl loves her some fringe!!!

After spending the afternoon with her, I decided it was high time for me to start loving my home home (I will refer to our home as our home home because sometimes I will talk about our beach home and I don't want to get you confused because I'm pretty confusing at times!).  Since hubs and I purchased our beach home, we have found ourselves nitpicking (I think that is the first time I have ever actually typed that word and it just hit me what it must mean.  Gross.) each and every corner of our home home.  We hate the layout.  We hate that all the walls are the same color.  We hate the drab brown curtains in the living room.  We hate that we haven't gotten around to hanging things on the walls or purchasing rugs.  We have seriously neglected our home home!

So, today I studied the Nester's decorating techniques and realized that I could "shop" my house and rearrange items to make neat, cozy little spaces.  I started in the laundry room. 

Our laundry room is the room you enter from the garage.  When you walk through the garage door, the washer and dryer are on the left, with a sink in the middle.  On the right is a large pantry that used to be a coat closet, and beside that is a countertop with cabinets underneath.  The counter space is nice for dropping my keys and purse, but it also collects change and random objects that are emptied from pockets so I thought it would be nice to have a little catch-all and maybe humanize it with a picture of hubs and I and a little lamp.  What do you think?

There is a cabinet above the space so I couldn't use a tall lamp, fortunately I already had this teeny one and it fit perfectly!  Now we have a little tray for keys and golf tees and the small white bowl is perfect for change.  The small vase is horsehair pottery and in front of that is a tiny kitten that CC painted a couple of years ago.  What a neat little nook!

Several weeks ago my son ripped the apron hook off the wall beside this little nook and now we have no where to hang our aprons, so......

I remembered this coat rack that I got many years ago from Pier One.  I found it, hung it and voila!  We have a place for our aprons!

Oh, but I didn't stop there!  I moved into the kitchen.  I cleaned the counters and swept the floors.  I rearranged things and moved barstools and cleaned the stovetop.  Then I realized that I had two empty spaces that were begging for some love!  The first space is beside our cabinets and the second is the wall between the counter and cabinets (most people have a backsplash, but we do not).  So, I started hanging things and ended up with this:

Now, I know it's just peanuts compared to what Nester would do, but you gotta start somewhere, right?  The spot to the left of the cabinets was perfect for a couple of tin items (I think I need one more on top) and under the cabinets I hung tin cookie cutters!  I think this will be a fun display because it can change with the seasons!

As you can see, I have some snowflakes mixed in, but I could always switch them for flowers or bunnies or four leaf clovers or whatever my heart desires!  I love it!

I suppose I will move on to the living room tomorrow, but for tonight I will call it quits.  If you need a little design inspiration, head over to visit the Nester, you are certain to find some there!