Decorate with Confidence: Insights from Myquillyn’s New Book

I have shared many times about my favorite decorator, Myquillyn Smith at The Nester. This year she published a new book, House Rules. It’s a huge book filled with pictures from her home. What I love about her is that she doesn’t tell you to “go buy this,” or “You need this.” She tells you how to create a home you’ll love with what you have now.

Recently when I was at my library I had a question in my head about whether or not our library might have her new book. I was THRILLED to find it on the New books bookshelf!

There are 100 Rules she’s written about decorating. Each one is so inspiring – not restricting! I thought I’d show how I’ve implemented some of those rules in my home. Here’s one – Everything that sits out is decoration. That means your box of tissues, the pill bottle or your stash of pens. Therefore, if you want it to be a pretty decor, make it so! Here’s how I fixed my tissue box that was sitting on the side table in the living room.

Myquillyn says, “We want our house to look like spring, but we go buy plastic decor.” I don’t remember the exact wording but this rule is about using real foliage from outside, rather than artificial ones.

She also encourages buying down pillow inserts so pillows can be re-fluffed. I even have one of my grandsons “fixing” the pillows back into place after it’s gotten mashed into the sofa!

The picture above also shows the down pillow insert, but it also shows another rule about not having your home all come from the same time period. The old bookcase and the weather vane on top of it all give an old feel to the newer slipcovered sofa.

I hope this gives you enough to inspire you to check out Myquillyn’s new book. It’s full of great, helpful information that you’ll love reading! Who knows – maybe your library has it on their shelves!

Do any of these ideas inspire you to change something in your home?

Refresh your home rules,