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The story of my first apartment, for example, was a story about a group of college students who bickered constantly about whose turn it was to clean what, who had little time and money to furnish or decorate the space, and who wouldn’t have agreed on what to put in the space if we had. (The common areas were mostly decorated with posters of dirt bikes, in a nod to one roommate’s hobby; the sole wall decoration in my bedroom was a poster of the cover art for Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a book I had not especially enjoyed but whose old-school, pulpy cover art I found irresistible.) I suspect a lot of people’s first apartments tell similar stories—about people with limited time and resources who aren’t quite sure what they want their homes to look or feel like yet.
Over time, though, that story changes. We find things that speak to us and fill our homes with them. Sometimes we receive those items as gifts or as part of an inheritance, or encounter them as lucky finds on a shopping trip; Nolan Kurtz’s home is filled with both. Anne Parker sometimes brings home items she finds in the course of her work as a prop stylist and designer; she’s also filled her home with items she’s found while traveling around the world. Often, your home tells a story about whom you share space with; Sarah Minnick bought her home with her sister more than 20 years ago, and continues to live with family only steps away. All of the homes in this issue of Nester are monuments to the inhabitants’ creativity, but carpenter and artist Nial Nutter tore his Northeast Portland home down to the studs and rebuilt the entire interior guided by his creative vision and his family’s needs. Tay Nakamoto, too, has made her Beaverton home a canvas, remaking each room so the space is both usable and suits her cheerful aesthetic. We also spoke with five local creatives about what they bring to their design work.
And if you’re inspired to make some changes to your home after reading these stories, we can offer some jumping-off points. Maybe you’re intrigued by the idea of multigenerational living and want to create an ADU for a family member; we’ve put together a guide to help you get going. Or you’d like to unleash your DIY spirit on a piece of upholstered furniture that could use a refresh. Or maybe you simply want to learn more about the story of your own home.
The idea behind these stories is not to create a perfectly curated aspirational home. (More than one of our profile subjects confided there are rooms or spaces in their home that aren’t fully finished yet. Every home is a work in progress.) It’s to make a space that works for you and also helps tell a story only you can tell. Whatever that story is, we hope you’ll find some inspiration here.
