Garrity - Nell Hills Rooms We Love

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

E VERY YEAR AT my Nell Hills stores, the staff and I consult with thousands of customers who come to visit us, seeking advice and inspiration. Projects can range from finding the perfect pillow for their sofa to the mirror in the entryway to whole house makeovers. No job is too small or too large for usall design challenges energize us. The ultimate goal, no matter the size of the project, is to help our customers add sparkle or sizzle to their homes.

My personal passion is to work with homeowners to make the rooms intheir houses beautiful, colorful, functional, and special. In Nell Hills Rooms We Love , I hope to share some of my favorite roomsrooms we all fell in love withduring the process of offering our decorating solutions. These are rooms thattruly reflect the goals of our customersit is our honor to work with them andwatch their dreams come to life.

If it is a big project, like a whole room makeover or even a whole house design,we can help customers decide everything from the rugs for the floor to the trim onthe drapery panels. It is a big challenge to think about redoing a room in a housecommitting to a paint color or wallpaper, dozens of yards of fabric, new upholstery,area rugs that you will be living with awhile, and then theres also the investmentof dollars and time spent on the makeover. In these pages, I hope to demystify theprocess by showing you through rooms that we think capture the spirit of Nell Hillswhile calling out details that go into making the room successful.

To me, success in decorating means that I succeed in helping customersidentify their own personal style. While my stores are packed full of roomsettings, tableaus, and both big and little surprises, I believe that people have a personal style that is uniquely their own. Our goal at Nell Hills is to help youdiscover your style by offering some simple guidelines for your decisions.

Even though it has been more than ten years since I published my first book,I think you will see that there are certain guiding principles at work here that stillinform my advice on design. At Nell Hills

• We believe that your style comes from mixing old with new, showcasing yourkeepsake treasures as well as your newly discovered surprises. I often remindcustomers to remember that your home is not your mothers house, but yourmothers keepsakes can be beautifully accented in new ways.
• We believe in comfortcozy, inviting rooms that provide spaces where you can sit down with a book or get comfortable with your guests, who should always find a special amenity waiting just for them.
• We believe that a beautiful room always offers an unexpected delight.
• We believe that you should try to bring the outdoors inside, using gardenstructures year-round in seasonal decorating.

In this book, my staff and I will apply Nell Hills principles of design to allnewchallenges. Even though design styles and trends have changed significantlysince my first book ( Style at Home ) ten years ago, we will rediscover those sameprinciples at work in four very different houses. In the following pages, we will visitrooms inspired by the needs of each of the four homeowners and will see howthey transformed their rooms using Nell Hills inspiration and tricks of the trade.We will study

• A century-old English Tudor in a city neighborhoodreinvented by Marseeand Mike Bates, who are now empty nesters
• A suburban teardownredesigned for Anne and Andy Epsteins growing family
• The traditional country home of Julie and Marc Wenger that was rebuiltbecause of structural problems but retains its old soul.
• A sweeping country manorbuilt by Beth and Mike Fox, with one-of-a kindrooms

Finally, we will revisit my home, where I will update you on changes that Ihave made that are influenced by trends and color.

While traveling through the pages of these homes, we will reconstruct theprocess and provide readers with the blueprint to use for discovering your ownpersonal styles. You will see that the function of the room, color trends, fabrics,accessories, and whimsical touches help inform decorating decisions.

At the back of the book, you will also see the style boardschoices that setthe mood for the projectthat we developed with each homeowner. In this DesignPortfolio that starts you will see the home reassembled with thehomeowners fabrics, paint colors, and the patterns that informed their decisions.

Chapter by chapter, we will tour stylish rooms from different homes and I willpoint out what elements went into the design of each room. I will share with youwhat informed the design decisions that each homeowner made. We hope you willbe inspired by these roomslike I amand will come away with creative energyto make your rooms beautiful, functional, colorful, and comfortable.

Fondly,

CHAPTER ONE

M ORE THAN EVER before, people areentertaining at home, and in this chapterI would love to show you through rooms that make great use of space. Theconcept of a living room that is off-limits to the rest of the family is no longerviable, and people are learning to live larger in smaller spaces. Or in largerspaces with oversized rooms, we are breaking down the functionality of theroom into multiple-use areas.

Organization is so important with the addition of mudrooms and largerlaundry areas. Bathrooms are now home spas where all of the toiletries andaccessories needed for relaxation are close at hand. Well-organized rooms canbe beautiful and functional, as you will find out in this chapter.

Empty nesters are turning bedrooms into home offices. And guest roomsare equipped with all the amenities for when your children and friends do comefor a visit. Playroomsfor grown-ups and little onescan coexist with style andwhimsy.

Or if your family is in a growth spurt, why not consider that the design ofthe room can grow with the children and can evolve with your kids over time.