Behind the Shade MN

Behind the Shade MN Pulling back the shade on some of Minnesota’s most colorful, creative, and inspiring homes.

A little over a year ago, I visited Palm Springs with one of best friends. We stayed at The Velvet Rope which has very c...
08/19/2026

A little over a year ago, I visited Palm Springs with one of best friends. We stayed at The Velvet Rope which has very cool themed rooms, a lovely cocktail lounge, and a stunning poolside view of the San Jacinto Mountains.

We also spent one night at the Trixie Motel which, too, has themed rooms. Our room was the Atomic Bombshell room, and it didn’t disappoint. Stunning murals, a MCM egg chair, a circle bed, a beautiful stained glass window, the Jonathan Adler console, the faux terrazzo floor. Not to mention, all the fabulous pink throughout the hotel. I can truly say the Trixie Motel looks just as amazing IRL as it does on TV. And if you haven’t seen drag queen Trixie Mattel’s HGTV TV renovation show, “Trixie Motel,” do yourself a favor and watch it. Trixie is hilarious, and the designs are AMAZING. Plus, there’s fun guest stars like Lisa Vanderpump and Orville Peck.

Now I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Palm Springs in August (🥵🥵🥵), but I would definitely recommend a visit. A lot of great vintage stores, cool mcm architecture, and interesting museums (I recommend the Architecture and Design Center. You’re also just a short drive from Joshua Tree National Park.

Homeowner Jenn Sayavong credits her grandmothers for inspiring her style, along with all the antique stores she visited ...
08/14/2026

Homeowner Jenn Sayavong credits her grandmothers for inspiring her style, along with all the antique stores she visited with her parents over the years.

“My grandmas both had immaculate homes. One was a lived-in home, and one was more of a showroom (the cookie jar grandma),” says Jenn. “I learned to appreciate them both, and I see them both reflected in myself. I try to keep my home photo ready, but also, we live here.”

Another design inspiration becomes obvious as you wander around Chris and Jenn’s home: Peewee’s Playhouse. The colors are vibrant; the humorous signs and tchotchkes are abundant; and the whimsy is unparalleled. Plus, there’s a vintage Peewee doll and a little Peewee sitting in Chairry. Photos by Jonathan Carnes

If it isn’t clear yet, homeowner Jenn Sayavong is a maximalist. “Color is neutral in my opinion. I like to mix patterns...
08/12/2026

If it isn’t clear yet, homeowner Jenn Sayavong is a maximalist.

“Color is neutral in my opinion. I like to mix patterns and textures in décor, and the same goes with my clothing,” says Jenn.

Part of Jenn’s vintage clothing collection is upstairs in her bedroom closet, but the bulk of it is in covered storage racks and boxes and bins in the basement. Jen and Chris’s bedroom has the original green s**g carpet, which continues into their attached bath, and the matching, original drapes. Jenn has also thrifted one of the most stunning vintage bedspreads I’ve ever seen.

Their bedroom, like the rest of their house, is a trippy mix of vintage, tastefully curated, but still comfortably lived in. Photos by Jonathan Carnes

While it might seem impossible to pick favorites among all her collections, homeowner Jenn Sayavong does have a few. She...
08/06/2026

While it might seem impossible to pick favorites among all her collections, homeowner Jenn Sayavong does have a few. She loves a brightly-colored, vintage Minneapolis poster that hangs in the basement. She and Chris found it in the closet when they moved into the house. She is also partial to her psychedelic Peter Max trays and the moose antlers that hang over the TV in the basement.

Some of her pieces are sentimental too, like the little boy mannequin dressed in the Roy Rogers costume. The costume was her dad’s from when he was a kid, and the mannequin and costume were a fixture in Jenn’s house growing up.

Jenn also has a Shawnee ceramic pig cookie jar, in a cabinet in the basement. The jars used to be her grandma’s prized possessions, and as a child she wasn’t allowed to touch the valuable cookie jars. However, these days, the jars aren’t worth much, except in terms of sentimental value for Jenn.

Even with her collections upon collections, Jenn admits this is the pared-back version of the house.

“I used to have a lot more; the entire basement looked like a hoarder’s museum,” says Jenn. “But I cleared it out and only kept the stuff I loved.” Photos by

Homeowner Jenn’s mom and dad were collectors too. Her dad, who has since passed, had an antique soda fountain and a coll...
08/04/2026

Homeowner Jenn’s mom and dad were collectors too. Her dad, who has since passed, had an antique soda fountain and a collection of coin-operated slot machines. Her mom collects antique photography and candy jars. Her parents were well known in the antique community. They even showed off their collection on an HGTV show, “Collectible Treasures,” which aired from 1996-2003.

However, Jenn didn’t always appreciate her parents’ collections. Many of the antiques were expensive, so Jenn wasn’t allowed to play in the basement where they were kept. This has informed the kind of home Jenn and Chris have created for their kids.

“Most of our stuff is from the thrift store, so if something breaks, it’s not as upsetting,” says Jenn.

That doesn’t mean the couple doesn’t have cool and valuable things. There’s a huge glass case with a taxidermy fox in it. Nearby sit treasures like stacked crocodile heads, a log with two raccoon heads peeking out, jaws, skulls, ceramic and brass deer, butterflies in a terrarium, and on and on. They also have an old jukebox and a collection of vintage lava lamps, one of which stands about 3 feet tall.

Upstairs, Jenn has a collection of swung glass vases in the living room. She has a beautiful set of Villeroy & Boch Acapulco Collection dishware in a midcentury modern China cabinet. Then there’s the small cabinet filled with Uranium glass. Photos by

“I like anything that is fun, funky, weird, wacky, and wild,” says homeowner Jenn Sayavong. It makes sense that she and ...
07/31/2026

“I like anything that is fun, funky, weird, wacky, and wild,” says homeowner Jenn Sayavong. It makes sense that she and her husband, Chris, bought a 1970s time capsule house with s**g carpeting, vintage floral drapes, original wallpaper, and bathroom fixtures in harvest gold and baby blue. The home is a 1,584 square foot ranch-style home with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and a 2-car garage in Cambridge, MN.

The family moved into the house in 2021. The woman who lived there before was the original owner, and she’d kept the home pristine. Even the original carpet was in great shape, from the magenta-red deep pile throughout the upstairs to the green s**g in the main bedroom and the rainbow s**g carpet in the basement.

But with kids and pets, Matilda Swan - The House admits that her family has “loved” it more than the previous owner, and they’ll eventually need to replace the vintage carpet. Their family has an elderly cat named Jepeto, a young black-and-white cat named Herman, Priscilla the Poodle, and two energetic corgies named Enzo and Seamus.

“Whenever that red carpet gives out, we’re definitely replacing it with red carpet,” says Jenn.

Chris and Jenn met in college and have been married for 17 years. They’ve lived all over Minnesota, but when this house was listed, they couldn’t say no. They loved all the 1970 details, but it had an even more important bonus: Jenn’s mom lives across the street.

For the family, the move was an obvious yes. When asked what she enjoys about living across the street from her mom, Jenn says, “I get to see her every day. She gets to spend time with my kids. They can go over there on their own, and we help take care of her dog when she visits my sister.” Photos by Jon Carnes

When I tour a new home, I often feel like I’ve seen my new favorite space. But this time, I think I really have. 🤩🤯 Welc...
07/28/2026

When I tour a new home, I often feel like I’ve seen my new favorite space. But this time, I think I really have. 🤩🤯 Welcome to this awesome 1970 time capsule home of Jenn and Chris Sayavong. 🕺🏻 You can read the full post on BehindtheShadeMN.com. Jenn has been collecting vintage, antique, and “anything cool or old” since she was a kid. Her mom and grandma also collected vintage clothing and décor. Her grandma even saved some of her great-grandma’s clothes. So, Matilda Swan - The House has some vintage clothing that dates back to the early 1900s.

Today, she loves finding fur coats and Gunne Sax dresses. Her oldest daughter, Chloe, who just turned 13, has also started collecting Gunne Sax dresses. Arizona State University Institute for Design and the Arts states, “Sometimes referred to as granny or prairie dresses, a typical Gunne Sax dress of the early 1970s featured a banded empire waist and a long maxi skirt. Lace trim, high collars and long sleeves evoked an amalgam of past eras and created an overall impression of demure femininity.” The dresses are much beloved by vintage collectors.

Jenn’s other daughter, Stella, is 6. Other than vintage clothes, Jenn collects, well, a lot of things.

“I like anything that is fun, funky, weird, wacky, and wild,” says Jenn. It makes sense then that she and her husband, Chris, bought a 1970s time capsule house, complete with the s**g carpeting, vintage floral drapes, original wallpaper, and bathroom fixtures in harvest gold and baby blue. Their home is a 1,584 square foot ranch-style home with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and a 2-car garage in Cambridge, MN. Photos by Jon Carnes

Maggie has purchased a lot of artwork for her home too. Some of it from local artists, and some of it from Facebook Mark...
07/25/2026

Maggie has purchased a lot of artwork for her home too. Some of it from local artists, and some of it from Facebook Marketplace. She also likes shopping at local stores carousel + folk 🪴 minneapolis vintage shop and findfurnish. A few of her art prints, from Paul Gauguin and Claude Monet, she bought on Marketplace. Her connection to Monet is sentimental; her mom really loved Monet.

Maggie has a strategy to get a good deal on Marketplace art. She messages the seller and says, “I really don’t need this piece, but if it doesn’t sell, I’ll buy it for half the price.” This technique works more than you might think. She shared that she was going to pick up another Monet print later that day. You can see more of Maggie’s art and home on BehindtheShadeMN.com. Photos by Jon Carnes

Homeowner Maggie Strom has been gifted many pieces in her home, like the beige chair with wood arms in her living room, ...
07/23/2026

Homeowner Maggie Strom has been gifted many pieces in her home, like the beige chair with wood arms in her living room, the living room coffee table, and a large vertical weaving in the dining room. These pieces came from Genna Golden, a designer in Portland, OR, whom she nannied for.

A large oak dresser sits opposite her porch door, which leads out to a small front porch and the front of the house. Maggie received the dresser from her neighborhood Buy Nothing Group.

Along with her sister’s photographs, Maggie’s family has passed on other artwork. The striking “collograph” hanging over her mantle is by artist Stanley E. Lea and was given to Maggie by her parents. Avant Arte states, “A collagraph is a collage of materials with different textures adhered to a printing plate, typically made of thin wood or cardboard.”ArtworkArchive.com states, “Lea was known for his experimental printmaking techniques and collage work.” It’s the first art piece her parents bought after they married.
A sculpture made of metal, malachite, and wood sits on one of the shelves adjacent to the fireplace mantle. It looks like four rectangular panels, and it folds up into a box with a latch. The sculpture was displayed in Maggie’s childhood home, and she inherited it from her mother. It was made by Charles Pebworth. Pebworth “was an American artist and educator of Choctaw descent, known for his abstract relief sculptures in metal and wood, cast-bronze and marble works, and figurative watercolor paintings.” You can see more of Maggie’s home on BehindtheShadeMN.com. Photos by

Homeowner Maggie Strom’s downstairs bathroom is also a masterful mix of tile and wallpaper. The floor tile is black-and-...
07/15/2026

Homeowner Maggie Strom’s downstairs bathroom is also a masterful mix of tile and wallpaper. The floor tile is black-and-white checkerboard, but installed in a way that it looks like plaid. It covers the entire floor into the shower basin. The shower is huge with a massive built-in bench and blush zellige tile on the walls. There’s another delightful, whimsical floral wallpaper from Spoonflower, with swirling leaves and vines in shades of green, pink, and blue. Designer Anya Kordonowy of designed this bathroom for Maggie too. Ornament also helped finish and design the basement space, which includes a large living room area and another bedroom along with the beautiful bathroom. Read more about Maggie’s house and see more photos by on BehindtheShadeMN.com.

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