Urban Nest

Urban Nest is an online forum for design ideas, creative inspiration and the resources to make it yours.

We are three women, currently nesting in Richmond, VA. Our backgrounds are varied, but we share our enthusiasm for fresh design, relaxed living, and making it happen.

We’re thrilled to share our ideas and inspiration with you! We thought we would start with a favorite thing from each of our homes, to help you get to know us a little bit.

{clockwise: Rachel's velvet slipper chair; Stephanie's vintage mirror; Juliet's hand-me-down dresser; nest from Stephanie's backyard}

Meet STEPHANIE.
One of Stephanie’s favorite things is a vintage, white mirror she stumbled on at an antique shop in Luckett’s, VA. (More on this pot of gold in a future post!) She purchased it on a whim with a vision for her first floor powder room. Due to some structural quirkiness true to older homes – hers was built in the 1940’s – the mirror didn’t fit.

Rather than the inspiration she hoped for her powder room, the mirror ended up on her dining room wall above a painted dresser and opposite a window. The ornate scrollwork and fresh white paint work in perfect harmony with her modern colors and contemporary design.

“I like mixing vintage pieces with classic and modern, so this fits perfectly. And also reminds me that I would one day love to have a room in our house where everything is white.”

Meet RACHEL.
Rachel toiled with an empty living room and numerous design ideas, floor plans and color schemes before locking her eyes on two of these custom upholstered, peacock blue velvet slipper chairs.

The chairs, alone, inspired a sophisticated, comfortable and now, colorful, entrance to the two-story bungalow she shares with her husband and their daughter. The rich blue is complemented by ruby red, golden yellow, crisp white and metallics at various times of the year, as the mood strikes!

Meet JULIET.
I have loved this dresser for as long as I can remember. It’s an old piece that my parents bought secondhand to fit a particular space in their bedroom when I was little. I love its rich honey color and simple lines. Its quality and character have been a source of design inspiration for me as I develop my decorating aesthetic – from eclectic living with roommates post-college to the cozy little cape where my husband and I live now.

While it’s really quite different from any other piece of furniture we own, it somehow embraces our style and fits comfortably wherever we put it. Right now, it defines our front entrance and is where we drop our keys, phones and mail every day.

Join us tomorrow for a fun how-to in our weekly feature, “Building the Nest.”

Tags: about us

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 3:43 am and is filed under Feather the Nest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.