Our Nannie Inez exclusive, made in Austin, Energizing Sugar Scrub was in Refinery 29’s Editor’s Best Beauty Products from 2015–according to the pros list!

Perhaps I’m a bit biased but I must agree! It’s super invigorating because the blend of rosemary, peppermint, and juniper essential oils make you feel like you’ve been in a plunge pool. The fine grain organic sugar is okay even for sensitive skin.

Check out the article on Refinery 29 here.

Those of you who have followed us for a while know that we love the designers behind Menu. We’ve carried their accessories for several years now because not only are they functional, they are elegant pieces. I love when an everyday tool becomes elevated to a higher level simply by the process of good design. You don’t realize how much a well-designed everyday object can bring you pleasure until you have one of these wonderfully created pieces.

 Recently Menu began offering more furniture and because of the respect we have for the designer, we were eager to make these new items available for you. Like their accessory offerings, these furniture pieces are an ideal blend of beauty and functionality.

No. 1 Turning Table— This table is very cool. The brass detailing is very smart and will sharpen any room, but more than that, this tabletop opens up, giving you a place to hide away those not so attractive, but necessary items, like remotes.

No. 2 WM String Chairs — These chairs are perfect for outside. I can just picture myself sitting back, sipping an afternoon cocktail on the patio. These chairs are the essence of minimalist design: visually lightweight, yet still impactful.

No. 3 Lounge Chair – What can I say about this chair? The proof is in the pudding with them: attractive to look at and so comfortable. You’ve got to try it.

No. 4 Synnes Dining Chair – Supportive, comfortable, but never bland. I love that Menu can take practical wants and elevate them into works of art.

Nannie Inez has been featured again in Wallpaper magazine’s new article: 5 concept stores of every type of shopper. To say we are excited and thankful is an understatement! Check out the article here.

A question we’re often asked at Nannie Inez is, “Where do you find these things”.
My answer? I’m always looking. This is true but my favorite, favorite source is travel. Recently we visited Amsterdam for shop inspiration and were acquainted with designers, Scholten & Baijings. Their latest products have just landed at Nannie Inez! 

Known for their use of vibrant colors paired with clean lines, design duo Scholten & Baijings have produced furniture, ceramics, paper and textiles and have collaborated with the likes of Hay, Maharam and 1616 Arita. The couple’s Amsterdam home was recently featured in New York Times and I highly recommend checking it out! See the home tour >

Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings in their Amsterdam studio.

The main workspace in Scholten & Baijings’s studio.

The green tint in the couple’s bathroom is cast from fluorescent yellow curtains.

The dining room console.

While there may be disagreement on whether investing more in the kitchen or the bathroom will result in a higher rate of return, there is no disputing that picking the right location for your home can have the greatest impact on your investment and your quality of life.

After spending most of my adult life away, my return to Texas had me feeling a mixture of anticipation and angst. When I moved here many years ago to attend university, the most important factors in my decision of where to live were cost, proximity to student life, and easy access to campus. When I returned to Austin as an adult, I found a city in transition, which was fitting, as my list of priorities for a home had also transformed since my days here as a student. The first step I took in making this decision, began the same way I make most important decisions, with a list. As we all know, life rarely if ever gives you everything you want, but I find writing down lists always gets me at least what I need. I started with my must haves, which of course included everything under the sun. Once I got that out of my system and returned to reality, I whittled my list down to my truly must haves: After living all of my adult life in large metropolitan cities, I craved nature, so a little outdoor space with access to good light at least part of the day, was a must. While living in Austin without a car is damn near impossible, I wanted to live in a neighborhood within walking or biking distance to restaurants, bars, shopping, public space, and proximity to some form of public transportation. My final item will make any native Austinite laugh, but I wanted to live in an affordable neighborhood in central Austin! Next I listed things that would be nice to have, but that I could live without: Lots of trees, interesting and friendly (not overly friendly) neighbors, easy access to the airport, and an easy commute to work.

With my list of priorities in hand, I moved on to research. I wanted to find out the property values in different Austin neighborhoods so I could determine where I could realistically afford to live. Deciding where to find information on areas in Austin can seem a little daunting, luckily there are several good sources, many of them free. The first and most obvious place to start is a real estate agent, I mean these are professionals who’s job is to sell homes, right. The best ones come referred, so ask your friends and family for recommendations.

While popular sites, like zillow and redfin are good sources for learning what’s out there, ultimately the realtors’ MLS website maintains the most quality and accurate listings. A good realtor will either set you up with access, or send you daily listings based on your criteria. Last, but not least, talk to locals. No one knows the city better than it’s residents and we found that Austinites are more than happy to give you the good, bad, and ugly on this ever changing real estate market. Finally, two often overlooked sources for statistics and data like demographics, schools, and property tax rates, are the city of Austin website and the Austin chamber of commerce website.

Once I completed this research, I had my top 5 list of hoods I wanted to live in. Next I had to decide between buying a newly constructed walk in ready home, renovating, or buying a tear down and building my own. Having never built anything, initially I looked for the walk in ready. After a quick look at what was available, it didn’t take long to figure out that nothing quite met my design wish list, so I decided to look for renovations or tear downs. Going this route required I start researching the cost of construction, which quite honestly, kind of scared me (this story will be told in a future post in this series.)

Then like a hungry momma cheetah on the hunt for a kill to feed her cubs, I actively watched and waited. I relentlessly stalked every real estate source I had, checking them daily. I also received email listings from real estate sites that I had set up informing me of every new listing that met my pre-set criteria. Then of course, I spent many weekends with my real estate agent viewing property, after property, after property. After two years of searching through what seemed like hundreds of listings, visiting dozens of properties, and losing multiple bidding wars, I found it. I was actually out of the country for work productively using my jet lag to what else, search property listings on line. Nearing my whits end with this entire ordeal, I was just about to call it quits for the day, or night, I can’t recall which it was, when I found a small old house built some time around 1947. I couldn’t tell from the photos if it was liveable, or a tear down,  but what I could see in the listing, was what mattered most to me, the asking price was in my budget, and the zip code was at the top of my neighborhood list. After too many losses, I wasn’t going to miss out on this one. I emailed my offer right then and there.

You will read these words often in my posts in this series, be patient and thorough, and don’t give up your must haves, because after all this is your home, and for most of us, this is the most important and largest investment we will ever make.

On the next post in this series I’ll give you my thoughts on when and how to select an architect.

I’m sometimes asked why I decided to start a business given all of the risks, uncertainty, and high rate of failure. While there are several positive reasons like creating something that is your own, deciding how to make your living, and the interaction with loads of interesting people, the biggest reason is to positively impact my community through local investment. With the holiday season upon us, I truly appreciate having access to so many wonderful local Austin shops to choose from to find the perfect gifts for loved ones and maybe, just maybe a few things for myself.  As a local business owner, I am always blown away by our supportive customers. It’s truly so awesome and one of the most rewarding, heart warming aspects of our business. Many of you may be surprised to know the impact that shopping locally has on the community. If you spend $100 at a local business, roughly $68 stays in your local economy. If you spend the same amount at a large business, only $43 stays in the local economy. At Nannie Inez we are well aware of this and it is part of our goal to grow with our community by spending our business capital locally at every opportunity.

In this spirit, I wanted to share with you some of the ways your support of Nannie Inez is spread throughout our Austin economy.  Although I don’t know exactly how or where other local businesses spend their dollars in the community, I’m 100% sure that their story is very similar to ours.

- Hiring local graphic designers and photographers for marketing

- Purchasing shopping bags, wrapping paper and gift boxes through Trophy Paper, a local business

- Purchasing gift certificates, price tags, post cards, product labels and stationary for love notes to our customers are printed at McCarthy Print, a local business

- Purchasing merchandise for sale in the store from a number of local designers

- We outsource the cleaning of the shop to a local cleaning service

- We outsource our bookkeeping and accounting to a local company

- We buy more plants and flowers from The Great Outdoors, a local company

- Your sales tax stays in Austin benefiting public services and schools

- Most importantly, we invest in our associates’ personal income

Just a little something we think is rarely discussed, but invaluable to the growth of a positive community.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes

When I first told people I was going to build a house, most responses were some variation of the following:
Wow, really?
Have patience.

Almost 2 years into the process, still with no home, I think the more accurate responses would have been :
Are you really up to that?
and
Be prepared to spend sleepless nights fighting off noisy critters in the ceiling of the tear down you bought and will be living in during planning and construction!

I know, what you’re thinking is geez, it can’t be that bad, if it were, why would anyone build a house?! That is a good question.  My answer is simply, that I wanted to create the closest version to my utopian sanctuary that I could afford. My vision was no doubt impeded by the feeling that as both a lover and member of the design community, I felt I had something to contribute to the urban identity of this lovely city I call home. And what better way to express this than through the most impactful and physical medium I had access to, construction.

Looking back now, the warning signs came early, but I just chose to shrug them off merely as the kinds of fears that come from those lacking vision and courage to conquer the unknown. Ignore them I told myself, of course it will be difficult. If it were easy, everyone would do it, because who doesn’t want to design and build every last piece of what is the place they planned to spend a large portion of the rest of their lives. As with all successful projects, this would require no more than a talented and competent team, a clear and reasonable plan, and a little luck. While I have found these three things to be essential, they unfortunately haven’t made navigating the capricious maze and the numerous obstacles involved in constructing a home, an easy process. While still underway, this journey has taught me more about myself and this world, than I’d ever expected.

If you care to join me here over the next few months, I’ll share with you frequently, infrequently, and when ever I feel the urge, all that I have learned. While I can’t guarantee that you will share my vision for the home I end up with, I do hope that my story gives you the determination to persevere and the appreciation for the ability to take the journey, should you choose to build your own sand castle.