A lot of people ask me for advice about styling their houses.  That's incredibly flattering, seeing as how I was born with zero sense of personal style.  It's something I've learned from watching and learning from my MUCH more talented friends.  I've learned everything I know about how to style a home from experts... experts I've begged to help me with my own home. Over the years I've made major buying mistakes ranging from desks to curtains to beddings.  I bought purple curtains in college, tie dyed bedspreads in my twenties, and a cheap desk from Target that I'm not sure I ever put together correctly and ended up throwing on the side of the road hoping someone would take it.  My advice is not to spend money on the most expensive pieces, but to make sure whatever you invest a lot of money in is white, black, grey, brown or wood.  In my mind, blue is a neutral too, so I say go for it. 

If you have a neutral backdrop, it's easy to keep the same basic decor for years and years and switch it up with art, rugs, pillows and throws - most of which are less expensive than a complete overhaul.

One of my favorite examples of this is a house I shot 8 years ago.  The furniture is all beautiful and timeless and is just as stylish now as it was then.

A few years ago my best friend in the world, Lindley Knight, came to work at Beacham & Co.  She's creative, funny, very smart, and goes out of her way to lift people up and be a good friend.  She went to graduate school for writing.  I thought she would be a great fit in the Beacham marketing department.  She came to work and spent her days writing press releases, agent bios, and social media updates.  The agents fell in love with her, and she was a wonderful addition to our office.  She soon decided to take the real estate class, and passed the test with flying colors.  Since then she's really devoted herself to being a successful agent, which is not an easy thing to do.  She's gotten a lot of business and poured herself into work.  I love seeing her happy and successful, and I am overwhelmingly proud of her.

Last week we went to take photos of her new listing in Toco Hills.  She'd met with the home owners and done a lot of work getting the house ready.  She stopped to get flowers before the shoot, and we rode together.  We arrived to a perfectly staged Vermont cottage... a little piece of hippie heaven.  Lindley went above and beyond to get it ready for me.  All I had to do was help arrange the flowers (she was doing a fine job, but I got really bossy and wanted to do it myself).  I spent a really long time photographing the house, wanting to do as good of a job photographing it as she did getting it ready.

Lindley, sometimes I forget to tell you how proud I am of you and what an amazing friend you are to me.  I do not know where I would be without you.  I love you so much, and I am so so so proud of your success and work at Beacham.  You should be very proud of all you've accomplished.  I love you!

Please enjoy these photos!  We both worked very hard on them!