Ashley Garner

About Ashley Ashley Garner is a multi- hyphenate artist, writer, designer, and maker from Knoxville, TN. She graduated from Belmont University with a bachelor's degree in Musical Theatre and returned to Knoxville in 2009 after living in New York City. In 2018, she turned her hobby of up cycling furniture into a full time career, after leaving an abusive marriage with three kids 8 and under in tow. "There was no 'real job', no real plan, just determination to make it on my own," she recalls. It was then that Nest was born. 
 Nest is a renovation and lifestyle business offering furniture flips, client commissions, curated vintage, antique finds, candles, event design, and home staging. Nest serves those who appreciate pieces with a story and those who seek someone knowledgable about the historical journey their piece has been on. Ashley writes: "There is too much good stuff already in the world to buy new all the time. Existing things and old things have so much character and depending on where they came from, tons of sentimental value.” Ashley lives in North Knoxville with her boys and dogs. She serves on the Mayor's Maker Council, Maker City Event Planning Committee, Maker City Summit Planning Committee, and is the 2024 Maker City Summit co- chair, an admin of Women in Entrepreneurship Knoxville, and fundraising chair on South Knox Elementary’s PTO. She has been published in Her View From Home, Today Parents, The Dollywood Company, and Knoxville Moms Blog. She adores her partner, Kyle, and the community she serves. Mostly though, she wants to pet your dog.