Before my annual fall open house, the creative team at Nell Hill’s and I have fun creating a plethora of dramatic fall displays at the stores and in my home. We start getting giddy the moment the fall merchandise arrives from market. Then our excitement steadily builds into full-fledged creative mania as we start tearing into shipping boxes filled with the new fall goodies. Our assignment is to use these treasures in inventive new ways to create show-stealing displays.

If you’d like to perk up your home with a few gorgeous autumn displays, here is the quick four-step approach we follow when fashioning table displays at Nell Hill’s. (more…)

I have hardwood flooring in nearly every room of my old home. While I love the charm of wood floors, I confess that I think of them as a blank canvas just waiting to be dressed up with the right area rug.

Areas rugs are a key component of a well designed room. They must be the right size to anchor the room’s furnishings and the right style to complement the room’s décor. Plus they must be tough enough to withstand lots of abuse and still look lovely. Picking a rug that can accomplish all that is not an easy feat.

If you’re on a quest for a new rug, read on for tips on how to pick a rug you’ll love. Then, plan a trip to Nell Hill’s Briarcliff because during the entire month of September, all our area rugs are 20% off. (more…)

During these last days of August, Kansas is blistering hot. Despite the heat, I have nothing but the cool, crisp days of autumn on my mind because I’ve been decorating my home for my annual fall open house. The Nell Hill’s team and I are having a blast filling my house with the bounty of the season, adding a lavish display here, a tiny tweak there. (I hope I’ll see you in Atchison on Sept. 10 and 11 to tour my historic home—you’ll leave with lots of fresh ideas you can use to make your own home beautiful for fall. For more information on the open house, see www.nellhills.com.)

Decorating your home for fall can sound like a daunting job. But it’s a lot of fun and really easy to do when you have the right tools. Through the years, I’ve come up with a short list of must-have decorating building blocks I use over and over again to create memorable fall displays. Here are a few of my favorites … (more…)

I still remember the glee I felt when I moved into my very first apartment. After years of decorating and redecorating my childhood bedroom (and every other room Mom would let me get my hands on), I finally had a place of my own to trick up. To stretch my decorating dollars, I liked to hunt for finds at flea markets and antique malls. It was in these dusty gold mines that I fell hard for furnishings and accents made of wicker and bamboo.

Today I’m still just as smitten by the organic lines, rustic texture and romantic grace of wicker and bamboo. And through the years, these natural wonders have become an integral part of the Nell Hill’s look. Here are some tips for incorporating these beautiful and Earth-friendly pieces into your home.  (more…)

Mirrors make fabulous decorating tools, adding style, brilliance and glamor to myriad spots in your home. These twinkling treasures became especially dear to me when I moved into my historic home and learned that years ago, when houses were built to protect against the weather, people relied on mirrors to brighten their interiors. I tried this trick in my home and was thrilled with the results. Since then, I’ve been calling on the power of mirrors to add sparkle throughout my home.

You don’t have to live in an old or dark home to be wowed by mirrors. Here are just a few ways you can use mirrors to add some flash and dash to your home’s interior. (more…)

I have a deep and abiding respect for lamps. How could you not admire these workhorses, which not only brighten up our lives, but look like a million bucks while doing so? Like fine pieces of art, lamps bring character to our homes and help finish a room. And, like art, high-quality lamps can be pricey, so it’s important to pick lamps that look perfect in your home and that will capture your heart for years to come.

If you’d like to brighten your home with a new lamp, read on for some illuminating advice from Nell Hill’s designers Rich and Beth and myself. Then, join us for the Barbara Cosgrove Lamps Trunk Show at Nell Hill’s Briarcliff on Sept. 24, from 1-4 p.m. Barbara’s amazing lamps have been featured in publications like Elle Decor, House Beautiful, In Style and Metropolitan Home. Come meet Barbara and check out her new lighting lineup during this special engagement.  (more…)

Coffee tables are on my mind this summer because I just got one of the new coffee table ottomans we’re carrying at Nell Hill’s, which are upholstered with antique rugs. I’m smitten with mine because the rug covering my ottoman has tiny snags in it that I imagine came from someone’s kitty, generations ago. Dan can’t imagine why on earth I would buy a piece of furniture with cat scratches on it when we already have several in our home, thanks to our ornery kittens. Call me crazy, but the thought of some lazy cat snoozing on this vintage rug makes the piece all the more special.

Now I have to decide how to accessorize my new coffee table. These little islands perched in the middle of our living rooms can be challenging to decorate, can’t they? They need to walk the line between form and function, sporting displays that are interesting but not obtrusive. If you’d like a new look on your coffee table, here are a few ideas to inspire you.   (more…)

Each morning, while it’s still dark outside, I pour a cup of strong coffee, snuggle into my favorite chair and mentally prepare for the day. No matter how haywire things may go, the day always starts out right, thanks to my comfy chair.

I asked Beth and Rich, two of the talented interior designers on the Nell Hill’s team, to join me in sharing secrets you can use to pick the perfect chair, so you can start your days out right, too. (more…)



Dan is on a healthy eating crusade, which means now I have to watch everything I put in my mouth, too. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I’m against eating healthy. Far from it. It’s just that in the mad rush of the day, I usually grab what I can on the go.

But now that Dan’s filling our home with fresh, organic produce, I’m enjoying the benefits. My skirts are fitting looser … and I have access to the most amazing decorating tools created by Mother Nature herself!  When most people see a bundle of carrots, a stack of tomatoes and a head of lettuce, they probably don’t have an overwhelming compulsion to arrange them into a centerpiece, like I do. But when you really look at this harvest of colors, textures and shapes, they are perfect pieces of art just screaming to be showcased in your decor.

Got veggies? If so, here’s how to turn them into fun, inventive displays. (more…)

I love it when customers bring in photos of their biggest decorating dilemmas. Sometimes, they just don’t like a room but they don’t know why. As I look through their snapshots, it’s easy to see what’s bugging them. Even though they have filled the rooms with beautiful furniture and nice accents, they are usually missing one important element: artwork.

In my opinion, nothing makes a room feel warmer, infuses it with personality or makes it feel “finished” like artwork. If you’d like to fill your walls with arrangements of art that look stunning, here are some tips to get you started. (more…)