dining room in Brentwood, TN

Number one easiest way to make a room feel fresh and new is a new coat of paint. Maybe even a fun color! Above is a photo of one of our favorite client’s home in Brentwood, TN. They updated the look of the space with a hip shade of turquoise, some patterned curtains and a funky retro brass chandelier for a complete transformation of the room.

living room in Brentwood, TN

Another option, if you prefer shopping over manual labor is to add a rug and some throw pillows! This client’s living room was updated with a fun rug and some throw pillows. It is amazing what a little color can do!

office in Brentwood, TN

The above photo shows an office where we added some patterned chairs to liven up the space. The overall effect is hip and cool.

guest bedroom in Brentwood, TN

This guest bedroom was updated with a soothing paint color and a patterned bedspread and pillows from West Elm.

Hope that this helps you now that it is time to put away the tree and start fresh!

But there are a lot of great things about Finland I miss and one of those things is their unique design. So I thought I would share some of the things I learned, saw and love now about Finland and Scandinavian design.

Scandinavian design is characterized by simple designs that are minimalistic, functional and often low cost with mass production (like Ikea, its from Sweden!). Scandinavian design often uses wood since there are a lot of trees as well as plastics or pressed steel.

Love the raw wood table and cool plastic chairs!

Such a cool kitchen. Again I love the wood table and all of the white walls. Check out ckeinteriordesign.com for all of their great kitchen designs too!

Tree trunk on caster wheels! Creative and great use of nature in a space!

Love the strong lines in this Scandinavian kitchen. Check out kitchen designs in Nashville by cke interior design! http://ckeinteriordesign.com/portfolio/kitchen

long hungry creek farm in tennessee

Long Hungry Creek Farm is one of the oldest (30 years) and largest (300 acres) organic farms in Tennessee. The goal of the Long Hungry Creek Farm is to grow the highest quality farm products possible, while enjoyably developing an economically viable, aesthetically pleasing and humus-rich farm which remains relatively independent regarding its own feed and fertilizer needs. We’d like to continue researching ways to do this and to demonstrate and promote the idea that such a farm is a valuable and beneficial addition to the landscape and atmosphere of the 21st century.

The most important thing is that food grown on live soils gives health to humanity. In nature, everything is interrelated. Biodynamic farms keep hedgerows, wetlands, forests and meadows not only for their beauty and wildlife, but because they harbor forces beneficial to the cropland. We try to imagine the forces hidden behind what our senses perceive. Biodynamics has fostered the development of a new marketing strategy, too. People used to be able to make a living selling garden produce, and now, through Community Sponsored Agriculture, they can again.

A group of thirty or forty customers cover the farmer’s annual budget, and they in turn receive weekly baskets of produce during the growing season. The farmer is thus salaried and guaranteed an outlet for the farm’s produce, which gets to the consumer without any extra costs for the middleman.

Equally important to cke interior design is the usage for the space. Consider all of the activities that will be used in the renovated space and design around those activities. Consider all of your needs for when you start inhabiting the space.

Pull together your vision for the space. Collect ideas from magazines, sketch different vignettes of the space or describe in words what your intentions are for the space. Keep everything organized in a notebook or on a corkboard so that you can easily refer to your ideas whenever planning the renovation.

Now that you have a clear idea of what you want for the space consider your budget. How much are you willing to spend to make your dream a reality. If need be alter the scope of work to fit your budget.

Once you have your budget together it is time to put together your team of interior designers, contractors, engineers, or whomever else you may need to make your dream a reality. Together with your team you can complete the renovation.

toast of music city

As you may or may not know, Carrie England and Kristina Eckert of CKE interior design were recently voted one of the top three interior designers of Nashville, TN, courtesy of the Toast to Music City.  Carrie, Kristina, and I attended the Toast Awards on Thursday, July 22, along with many other nominees ranging from best plumber to best salon.  The voting was open to the public during May and June.  The girls ended the night by walking away with the first place honor of Nashville’s best interior designers, and we could not be more thrilled.   If this is brand new information to you, here’s a quick re-cap.  The nominees for the night’s Interior Design category were as follows:  Redo Home and Design, Anderson Design Studio, and yours truly CKE Interior Design.  Now, no one’s counting, but this is CKE’s second win in a row.  Congratulations to all nominees and winners!

For the second year in a row, cke interior design won best interior decorator in nashville.  thank you for your support!  it is an honor!