Dress Your Nest

I moved into the house I am living in right now back in August of last year and I have finally gotten my bedroom to look like it has some style.  When starting the design process of my bedroom and bathroom I used the Dress My Nest (a TV show on the Style Network) technique and looked to my wardrobe for inspiration.  I am telling y'all about this because I really think it is a helpful technique.  Sometimes designing a room can be overwhelming and you don't know where to start. 

On Dress My Nest they pick out "personal items" and "style items" to use for inspiration.  A personal item can be anything that has sentimental value and you like the look of.  A "style item" is something out of your wardrobe that suits your style.

Although my room is still a work in progress, I am happy with it enough to show y'all the pictures of it and explain how I used my "personal items" and "style items" for inspiration.  I wish I had a before picture to show y'all of what my room looked like before, but sadly I can't find one.  But rest assured, it was pretty ugly.  The walls were green and it had really old blue carpet.  The bathroom actually wasn't that bad, but I still had to change it up a bit because that's how I roll.

Here are the personal and style items that I chose to use for my room:

My antique elephant necklace that I got at an antique store in Ft.Worth, my hometown.  It was just a charm so I added the chain to it so I could wear it as a necklace.  I wear this baby all the time with almost anything.  It means "good fortune" in both Chinese and Japanese.  I guess it's sorta my lucky charm.  But mostly I just think it's beautiful and elephants are awesome.


My favorite color combo that I have in my closet: navy and white.  I have a whole section of just navy and white dresses alone.  I didn't even take a photo of all the navy and white tops.  I guess I love how classic the navy and white combo is.  It's almost as classic as black and white, but it's not as harsh of a contrast and it's a little more playful.  It's also very nautical, which I adore.  Anything nautical themed is automatically fabulous.  If it makes me think of summertime and the ocean then it makes me happy.

My cowboy boots I have had since I was I think 15.  I'm from cowtown.  What do you expect?  My cowboy boots seem to go with everything and they are so comfortable that it's worth getting these things periodically fixed and re-soled.  I like the old patina charm that they have, plus, they have traveled the country with me so they are full of stories and learned knowledge.

 This is how my style pieces translated into the decor of my room:

My elephant necklace inspired my bedspread and my elephant sculptures:

The intricate design and patch like color, as well as the colors themselves, reminded me of my necklace.  It also has a very Asian or Indian look to it, much like the necklace. 

                          

My elephant sculptures guard my room and bring me good fortune (hopefully) like my necklace.

The cowboy rustic charm of my boots are brought into my room by the wonderful black and white cowboy photos I hung on my wall and a few more cowboy accents here and there.  The photos were taken by great aunt who was a photographer.  Nifty, huh? 

And did you notice what color my walls are? Yep, wonderful blue.  The predominant color in my closet.  I made that black and white cushion for my white chair.  Adding a bit of a pattern is a good way to spruce up a boring piece of furniture.

The wardrobe inspiration continued into my bathroom:

Remember all that navy and white clothes? Welcome to my navy and white bathroom...

I am in love with my navy blue walls.   Love.  The navy up against the white wainscoting is so crisp and makes me want to hop onto a boat.  I used pink as a pop of color because I love pink in bathrooms. A girl's bathroom should be as girly as you want it to be.  Those white picture frames do not have photos in them yet (like I said, this is still a work in progress).  It's hard to tell, but I gave them a patina look by painting them first with a coat of pink and then painted them with a coat of white.  I sandpapered the white slightly in areas and voila, you have a shabby chic frame (remember the shabby look of my boots?) I wear a navy and white dresses a lot, and I add a pop of color like I did with my bathroom.  Here is an example:

                                             

dress and belt: SoLa last August, scarf: Luxe Apothetique about a month ago

So, the Dress My Nest technique worked really well for me.  I hope this post was helpful to anyone in need of some design help.  By the way, this technique works both ways.  You can use your home decor as inspiration for an outfit.  The designing never ends!

My favorite local stores where you can find some awesome home decor are Room Service (where I got my vintage 1960s silver and black lamp by my bed) on North Loop and Uncommon Objects on South Congress.


keep austin stylish