A Splash of Boldness

Pastel pink and white feathers for holiday decorations? Of course. The nontraditional but elegant décor in this holiday home reflects the design mind behind the creation. Jesse Bodine is fearless, and her work is a true thing of beauty.

Whether taking a leap of faith by changing career paths or starting a new business, this Columbia mom and entrepreneur knows how to trust and follow her heart. Her grandmother, a source of her inspiration, would be proud.

In 2011, Jesse was working as nurse in the neonatal unit at Boone Hospital when she started a home design blog, blog.scoutandnimble.com. A creative outlet, the blog enabled her to share interior design and before-and-after projects with friends and family.

“I’ve always been passionate about home design,” Jesse says. “As a kid, I was always changing up my bedroom creating floor plans. Light fixtures, blinds, bedding – I wanted comforter catalogs, not toy catalogs because I was always searching for products.”

In college, Jesse followed another one of her loves, which was a desire to help others, and studied for a career in health care.

“Design was my big passion,” she says. “But I didn’t know I could make a living at it.”

Her Scout & Nimble blog was a place for Jesse to record her home design projects from refinishing end tables to a kitchen makeover, and she had no idea the following that she would build. What was playtime for Jesse to indulge her passions quickly grew into something more.

“When I started to get requests for design help beyond family, I thought why not make this a business?” she says.

Today, Jesse offers interior design services locally in Columbia, but her reach is anything but limited by geographic location. Currently, Scout & Nimble has 36,900 followers on Instagram (@scoutandnimble), and Jesse leads a unique online retail operation that brings together designers from all over the world to design entire rooms for sale to the public.

“It’s a resource for consumers, designers and businesses,” she says about her website, which launched in 2014. “It’s not just a retail shop.”

At home in Columbia, Jesse is mother to Henry, age 7, and Oliver, age 5, and wife to Sam, her partner in www.scoutandnimble.com. When it comes to decorating for the holidays, she argues that you have more creative license to try things you might not normally.

“I love the holidays,” she says. “There’s a lot of fear for people when it comes to decorating. I love the fact that the holidays are the perfect excuse to do some bolder, riskier moves. It doesn’t have to be forever,” she adds.

The whimsical pink decorations that decked her home during the 2014 holiday season give evidence to the great results that come from doing things a little differently.

“I was loving all the blush colors I was noticing last year,” she says. “And with two boys, I don’t often get to incorporate pink. I wanted to give the space a sense of whimsy, relaxation and softness. I’m a big believer that space around you affects your life. A space should be a reflection of the person or people that live in it, and I tend to decorate rooms based on how I want someone to feel in a space,” she says.

For Jesse, the holiday season was the perfect time to pull in a soft, romantic look and create a soothing environment for herself and her family. The gentle pinks and sparkling silver, feathers, the soft texture of a sheepskin rug and various florals created the desired affect.

“This time of year is crazy,” she says. “I wanted to walk in and feel transported.”

Jesse encourages others to take risks with their designs, particularly during the holidays, a great time for a temporary change. Her advice? Start with the traditional then add a splash of boldness.

“Take the green or red and bring in a less common color. Find some of those pinks. An accent color goes a long way. Even if it’s only used in10 percent of a room, it can make it different.”

Jesse encourages working on a collection by buying one extra color of ornaments and following a direction.

“You don’t have to buy all new stuff,” she says. “It doesn’t take a lot to change up the whole décor.”

In the example of her holiday home, Jesse started with her existing white, gold and silver ornaments and decorations. She pulled sheepskin rugs from other areas of in her home to create the tree skirt. The boys’ angel wings Valentine’s Day project from the year before graced the chair backs. A trip to the Dollar Store leaded her to the fake pink floral bundles that she placed within the tree and used for the fireplace garland, which was an easy and inexpensive pop of pink.

“I don’t go out and purchase new items every year,” she says. “I will mix and match from previous years, shop other areas of my home for items that go with my theme and create new items by DIYing items or making small purchases to fill in any gaps.”

She also keeps her eyes on items her friends and family might be ready to pass on in order to add to her treasure trove. Tree stumps that a friend no longer wanted created perfect pedestals in the holiday design and added another natural element. Jesse also used her grandmother’s silver and crystal to hold small ornaments, florals and decorations throughout the house.

The story of Jesse’s grandmother reveals the meaning behind the name for her blog (and now retail site), Scout & Nimble. Marjorie Walbridge Henslee, or Yai-Yai as her grandchildren called her, was always an inspiration to her.

“Brave, strong, courageous, confident and determined are just a few of the adjectives that I would use to describe her,” Jesse says in her February 27, 2014 blog post about Yai-Yai. “She is my ultimate definition of a strong woman.”

Left on a New York doctor’s doorstep as a baby, Yai-Yai was given up by parents who couldn’t care for her and then adopted. As a young woman, for the sake of her four children, she made the difficult decision in the early 1960s to end her marriage, seek a divorce and relocate. She ended up establishing her own farm in Springfield, Missouri.

As a single mom, working a man’s job in a man’s world, Yai-Yai set an example of strength that was integral to Jesse’s personal growth.

“She was a woman who literally did not worry. She would choose a direction and then she’d fully go after it never looking back and never afraid that it wouldn’t work,” Jesse shares in her blog. “She knew that if it didn’t pan out, another door would open and something else would be there. Yai-Yai wasn’t afraid of a challenge or hard work and never feared going against the grain.”

When Jesse started her blog in 2011, choosing a name that tied back to Yai-Yai was only fitting.

“(Yai-Yai) named all of her vehicles and the two that sat in the garage were Scout & Nimble,” Jesse says.

Scout was the workhorse vehicle, “a blue International Scout that was filled to the brim with hay.” Nimble was a gray 1986 Buick Riviera, Yai-Yai’s going-to-town car for errands, church and social events.

The dichotomy of the two vehicles reveal both strength and social grace, traits Jesse has needed to launch a business that now connects with designers and decorators, professional and DIYers, all over the world.