it started with a pillow

Sometimes all you need is one small item to inspire an entire room. This orange and red pillow was one I found at TJ Maxx about 5 years ago when I was still living in Boston. I probably bought it for $20. This was at a time when I couldn’t be spending too much on my space, and I had no direction for how to upgrade it. But for some reason… I saw this pillow and I just loved it. I mean, it’s not so special or anything, but somehow it has stuck with me for this long and has inspired the color palette of my bedroom over all these years. It somehow has driven the identity of this space that inspired Nestia in the first place.

I found that with this pillow, I didn’t focus on the beige, the gray, or the red. I was drawn to the orange. A color too bold for some, but I don’t believe in “too bold.” There’s always a way to make color work whether you want it in high doses or tiny bursts. You’ll see that reflected in the many colorful rooms that fill my Pinterest boards… In my case, I have slowly added more and more color to my bedroom over time while keeping some consistent neutrals throughout. I have white walls, a white comforter, and other neutral furniture in the space that keeps the harmony of the room from becoming too busy.

I narrowed in on the orange and pulled that color out in small doses with a bedside planter and an accent pillow on my chair. I purchased a little rug for the end of my bed, and that’s where my color palette for the room began to expand. This rug has plenty of orange with pops of pink, turquoise and mint blue.

This is where I really started to have some fun. While in quarantine, I painted the mural on my wall that had it’s own time to shine in the New York Post. After debating so many designs and color palettes, I decided to pull in my theme of orange, but compliment it with mint and turquoise so I could start folding more colors in through out the space. Now I have a wide range of colors in my wall art and planters that play off one another while still keeping within the theme of orange, turquoise and mint. Which now of course, have inspired Nestia’s very own brand colors.

All this is to say, always keep an eye out for the things that might spark inspiration for your home. It could be a piece of art, a plant or a rug, but that one item might just change the design direction of your home. These days, the feeling our homes bring to us is more important than ever, and boy am I glad to have found that bright, bold pillow 5 years ago.