Hey y’all! I am so excited to share my family’s Texas beach house on the blog today! This is our happy place and we would spend every moment here if we could! I grew up going to my Mamaw and Papaw’s beach house and this is where I learned to love the beach. When that special house was destroyed in Hurricane Ike we were absolutely devastated. The entire house was washed away and we lost a lot of special things that belonged to my Mamaw and Papaw who have passed. But my parents had always dreamed of building a new beach house and this just motivated them to do it quicker. My parents drew up the plans and my dad did almost all of the building! I am just amazed at how talented they are! My mom knew exactly what she wanted the inside to look like, lots of shiplap and lots of white! (this was even before Joanna Gaines was around! haha) Mom started collecting decor from Homegoods and stashing it in her closet, then when the house was finally finished my mom, sister and I got to decorate! My dad built so many beautiful details into this house that I can’t wait for you to see, he even covered the walls of his garage with reclaimed wood! We have had so many memories in this house already, and have even been spending our Christmas holiday’s down there, and I have to say, nothing is better than Christmas at the beach! Hope you enjoy the pics! LETS GO INSIDE! I hope you enjoyed the tour of our Texas beach house!

Hi there!! I am so excited to share this DIY pipe shelving entertainment center with y’all! When we decided to do this we thought it was going to cost way too much and take forever to build, but neither of these were true! Yes it does cost money, takes some planning and a few hours to get it built, but I think it is so worth it and it turns out to be such a statement piece! Seriously, anytime we have someone at the house whether its the DirectTV worker, the furniture delivery guys or just family and friends they are always asking questions about it, and we get nonstop compliments!! But let me just say, we did not come up with the idea of industrial shelving. It is all over Pinterest, but we did not see anyone who had done an entertainment center, so we were slightly creative! ha! I keep saying “we” because I could not have done this without my handy husband! He is so helpful and really has an eye for design! Anyway, I hope I can make this as simple as possible for you! Please let me know if you have any questions and if you do decide to take on this project I would LOVE to see pictures!! Here is a before and after picture of our living room, if you’re interested in doing this yourself or are just curious about how we made it, keep reading! Here is a quick before and after! Step 1: Plan and Purchase! This part did take a while.. We had to make sure of the exact size we wanted our entertainment center to be, keeping in mind the size of our TV. We decided to do it 10 feet wide so we could just buy 10 foot lumber and not have to make multiple cuts, this would save us time and money. The height is totally up to you and what will fit in your home, we wanted ours to go almost to the ceiling. The bigger the better right? After lots of planning we made a big list of what we would need. And today is your lucky day, because I am going to give you our list! If you wanted to, you could order everything online and have it shipped to your house, I have linked all products below to Home Depot because that is where we purchased all of our supplies. *Keep in mind when figuring out your dimensions, unless you choose to buy a pipe wrench to screw in the pipes completely, you will gain about an inch every time you connect the next set of pipes. We chose not to tighten our pipes all the way because we liked the “ridges” showing. So I would recommend subtracting about 4-5 inches from how tall you want it. Some of the terminology may sound confusing because I’m guessing you’re not a plumber who uses tees, nipples and flanges everyday! But Home Depot employees are always super helpful and I bet if you printed out this list they could help you find all of the piping pieces that you need! Below is what you will need to purchase before you get started building.. 4 small cans of Cordovan Brown by Behr – This is our favorite wood stain, as I have mentioned in most of my blog posts so far! We ended up needing 3-4 smalls cans of this stain to finish this project, but you could buy one bigger can if you would like. (This stain is semi-transparent and for exterior use) 4 Furniture Felt Pads – We bought these to put under the flanges, (the round pieces of iron) that were going to sit on the floor, just so we wouldn’t scratch our new laminate flooring. I have linked these to Home Depot, but they do sell them at Walmart, and I have even found them at Homegoods. 4 pieces of 2inx8inx10ft Pine Lumber – We got treated pine because it is cheaper (and was the only option in that size at our Home Depot), and since it is treated you need to use exterior stain. Make sure you stain it within 48 hours of bringing it home to make sure the wood absorbs the stain correctly. You will need to have one of your pieces of pine cut so that you have two 30″ pieces. This is for the shelves that go on the sides of your TV. If you don’t have a miter saw you can get it cut at Home Depot or Lowes in the back of the store by the lumber. 4 3/4″ Black Iron Elbows – These are for the very top of the shelving unit. You will find all of the black iron piping in the “plumbing” section of your home improvement store. These are easy to remember because they look like elbows! 8 3/4″ Black Iron Flanges and 16 1/2″ Black Iron Flanges – Flanges are the circular pieces in the picture above, these are used to mount on the wall and the pieces that actually sit on the floor. We chose to do all of the piping for the front of the shelf in 3/4″ inch pipe so that it would be thicker, but we used 1/2″ pipes for all of the piping that the boards are sitting on because you can’t see them. This saved us quite a bit of money! That is why you need the two different size flanges. 16 3/4″ 3/4″ 1/2″ Tees – Im not sure why these aren’t on the Home Depot website, but you need the tees that aren’t “reducing.” Only the “hole” (for lack of a better word) that sticks out the side of the tee should be 1/2″ the other two should be 3/4″. It’s also easy to remember what they are called because they look like “T’s”! 8 3/4in. x 24in., 8 3/4in. x 18in., 16 1/2in. x 12in., 4 3/4in. x 12in.  and 4 3/4in. x 4in. Nipples – Phew, thats a lot of nipples! ha! I know it sounds so confusing, but it really won’t be once you go in the store and are able to look at all of them! Don’t forgot to grab a shopping cart on your way in! Lots of little pieces!! Not pictured, but you will also need a drill and lots of drywall screws! We actually didn’t worry about finding studs in our walls, and even if we had tried there is no way they would have been in the right places. But since the whole shelving unit sits on the floor it is secure and sturdy! ** I think by the time we collected all of our supplies we had spent around $450, which is a lot of money BUT this is such a huge piece and if you could buy something like this in stores i can guarantee that it would cost at least $1,000! Step 2: Stain! One of my favorite hobbies is staining wood, so this was so fun for me! Just grab your pieces of lumber (you should have 3 long pieces and 2 short pieces) and a paint brush and start brushing it on! I always prefer using a paint brush to stain, because I think it goes on better than using a rag. We brushed it on quickly and tried not to layer it because we wanted it to look really natural, but this was our preference! Do what you think will look the best in your home! Step 3: Build! Luckily my husband was taking pictures while we were building this, because if he hadn’t this would be a lot harder for you to visualize. I am going to try and explain how we built this the best way I can in words, but at the end of this if you have any questions please comment! I am going to give it my best shot! So let’s jump right in and start building this thing! First thing you are going to do is take your 4 Furniture felt pads and stick them to your 4 3/4″ flanges! Easy Peasy! Next, screw in one of your “felt pad flanges” that you just made into a 18in. nipple (you can go ahead and do this for all four of your felt pad flanges) and set aside for a second. Now grab 4 of your 1/2″ flanges and screw them into 4 of your 1/2in. x 12in. nipples Now grab each of the pieces you just made in steps 2 and 3 and screw them in to a tee so that you make an “L” shape (pictured below) then do this 3 more times so you end up having 4 “L’s” Set one of your “L’s” on the floor felt side down and then the flange at the other end of the “L” should be sitting against the wall. Screw it in (4 screws per flange)! Do this step with your remaining “L” shapes. Once you’ve completed these steps it should look something like the picture below! Now just place one of your long pieces of pine on top of this “shelf” and were on to the next step! **You can put these four pieces wherever you need them to go so that your tv will fit in between the middle two. Ours are, (from left to right) 26 inches between the first two, 69 inches between the 2nd and 3rd and then 26 inches again between the 3rd and 4th pieces. Now we just go up and up! Here are the main steps that you will use for the rest of this project! Listen carefully! Grab one of your 3/4″ x 24″ nipples, and screw it on top of one of your “L’s Then grab a tee and screw it on to the nipple that you just put on and leave that there for a second Next screw one of your 1/2in. x 12in. nipples into a 1/2″ flange Are you still following? I know it’s getting tricky but once we finish this step you will know how to do the whole thing!! With the piece that you just made (flange and nipple) you are going to screw this into the tee that you previously added to your wall shelf. (you may have to slightly unscrew the tee so that you can screw this piece into it) Once that is attached to your tee just slowly turn the piece until the flange is flat against the wall and screw this in with 4 screws! wow! that was a lot of explaining. Honestly now you just continue doing that last step… tee, then flange + nipple piece, screw into the wall. Do all four for every level and then lay a piece of lumber down! And up and up you go!! As a side note, from top to bottom, the nipple lengths we used on the front were 4in., 18in., 24in., 24in., and 18in. You are more than welcome to leave your shelving unit like this, but we wanted our very top shelf to go back into the wall. So just a few more steps until the finished product! Take one of your 3/4in. x 4in. nipples and screw into the first line of piping, just like you are going to add another shelf This time instead of using a tee you will use one of your 90 degree elbows. just like before, go ahead and make a piece that consists of a 3/4in. x 12in. nipple and a 3/4in. flange screw this into your elbow, rotate until the flange is flat against the wall, and then screw into the wall! Continue this step on the rest of the wall shelf and YOU. ARE. DONE!! Pat yourself on the back, and snap a picture! You may want to start hosting get togethers at your house so you can show this beautiful thing off, that you worked so hard on 😉 We want to build more of these in the future so next time we do we will make a video! Step 4: Decorate! Although the whole project was fun and enjoyable, mostly because I got to spend quality time with my hubby, this step has to be my favorite! One reason I was so excited to build this was so I would have a big space to decorate! It has been so fun! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that is was pretty straight forward for you! I would love to see your pictures! Thanks for stopping by!

Hey y’all! Yesterday I went to a wedding shower for a beautiful friend, Haley! When deciding what to get her I knew I wanted to do something creative because SHE is creative! Before my husband and I got married my momma bought us a little frame from a boutique that said “I love you because..” and had a little clip for us to leave each other notes. Little did we know that this would turn out to be our favorite thing to do! I mean we actually do leave each other notes like all the time. It helps us build each other up and remind each other how thankful we are to have each other! We have written so many notes since we got married, that I recently made them into a book so we can always look at them and remember. This is what our “I love you because” frame looks like… I decided to make Haley one for her shower gift, since I figured I could make one a little bit cuter 😉 This is how it turned out.. I just printed out “I love you because…” on a piece of scrapbook paper, (In one of my favorite fonts- Eyes Wide Open), and then super glued a clip and a pretty metal flower to the frame! Pretty straight forward and easy! I hope whoever is reading this will make one! Even if you’re living in a dorm with a bunch of girl friends! It is such a great way to say “thank you” and remind our loved ones that we do realize the things they do for us! *Wrapping paper is from TJmaxx and the “C” is from Michaels!

Happy Thursday! Today I am going to share with you how I made my DIY large chalkboard. We don’t have much “large wall” space in our home, as in most of our walls have windows! This is great because it is always full of natural light. We only have two “big walls” downstairs and one of them is filled with our industrial wall shelf/entertainment center. But figuring out what to put on the other wall was more difficult. Large wall art can be so expensive so I knew I needed to find another way. Back in November, my mom, sister and I went to the Magnolia Market in Waco and I left with one of their signature Magnolia wreaths (How could I resist?). When I got back home anxious to find the perfect place for it I was disappointed to realize that I didn’t really have the perfect place to show it off. So since then it has been on a wall in my bedroom. I decided on a large chalk board for the second living room wall because I felt like I needed to add something black instead of a lighter color. Our new couches that arrive TODAY are white and so I was afraid everything would be too light. You can find lots of Chalkboard DIY’s on pinterest, but here is how I made mine! After walking around Hobby Lobby trying to figure out how to take on this project, I quickly realized that if I bought everything there it was going to end up being way more than I wanted to spend. I knew I had to find a large piece of artwork to start with because Hobby Lobby didn’t even sell an empty frame big enough. The very first Goodwill that I went in had this large painting for $20! I couldn’t pass it up, and didn’t take the time to look around anywhere else. This painting was almost as tall as me! It would be the perfect size for my wall. While I was at Hobby Lobby I grabbed a small thing of black chalkboard paint (pictured below). I am glad I purchased the small container because it went a long way! I still have half of it left after painting this HUGE chalkboard. I think it was about $4, and if its not on sale you can use a coupon! You will also need my favorite wood stain. Me and Brett joke that eventually everything in our house will be stained with this color, because we love it so much! You can find the link to the wood stain in my last post. But it is called Cordovan Brown by Behr. Next, I ran in Lowe’s to get wood for the frame. I grabbed 2, 1x4x6’s and 2, 1x4x4’s and went to the back to get them cut. Note to self, don’t forget your measurements at home so you don’t have to wing it! Luckily it still worked out for me. ha! Also, I would recommend getting your wood at Home Depot instead because they don’t charge for wood cuts. Lowe’s charges 25 cents a cut, which is like nothing, but still save where you can right? So the first thing I did was paint on the chalkboard paint. I painted one coat vertically, let that dry for an hour, and then one coat horizontally. Then I let it dry for 24 hours. p.s. I hate when that is part of the process… my middle name is impatient. 😉 While that was drying I was still able to start on the frame. I quickly stained each piece of wood so they wouldn’t be too dark, and literally just screwed them onto the existing white frame of the picture. I’m getting pretty good with Brett’s drill! I was originally hoping that I could just attach the frame with wood glue so there wouldn’t be screws showing, but that was wishful thinking. After you have waited 24 hours for the chalkboard paint to settle, just lightly go over the whole thing with the side of a piece of chalk. This is to set the chalkboard paint so that it won’t leave chalk marks in the future. Then just wipe it off with a wet paper towel. And viola! You have a huge piece for your empty wall! This ended up costing about $45, which is so much less than you would normally spend for a piece of wall art this big! Here is the finished product! **Wreath is from Magnolia Market and the ribbon I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $2.00!! I hope you decide to make a large chalkboard for your home! I love changing mine for every season! You can see how I change it up on my instagram, @thebloomingnest! See you there!

Hey y’all! I am so excited to share my DIY affordable table setting! The downstairs area of our house has a very open concept, which I’m definitely not complaining about, but sometimes it can be hard to make sure it still feels cozy and doesn’t look empty. This is what inspired me to do a simple table setting to leave out as decor. Me and brett never eat at our dining room table, we always eat at the bar. So it makes sense for us during this time in our lives to leave a table setting up, but for some of you this may not be practical at all, in that case it is still a great idea for when you are hosting. Plus, I really wanted to display our mint Anthropologie dishes that I love so much! Napkin rings and charger plates can be really expensive, so this is an inexpensive way to get the same look. You will be surprised how affordable it was! Also, I have to give credit to my Dad and husband who built this beautiful table for me. At least i can say that i was the one who painted/stained it! Here is what you will need: 1. Raw wood napkin rings (I found these at Michael’s for 99 cents each!) 2. Bag of rocks (Michael’s, i think the whole bag was like $3.00 and then i used a 50% off coupon!) 3. Whicker/Straw charger plates (Marshall’s $4.99 for a pack of 4) 4. Behr Premium Wood Stain Semi-transparent (MY FAVE! Home Depot, for less than $4.00) 5. Fabric Napkins (Marshall’s, they came in a pack of 12 for $3.99) So i only spent around $20.00 for the whole project, because i already had the wood stain! A lot of times you can’t even find a set of napkin rings for that cheap. And that’s it! Now let’s get to what i did! First thing I did was stain the napkin rings so they could be drying. I just took a regular paint brush and painted it on. The cool thing about this stain is that you can keep adding layers if you want it to get darker, or just put a thin layer if you want it to be lighter. This took all of about 3 minutes to do. Next, I noticed that I didn’t really like the color of the charger plates, they were a little “yellow-y” and didn’t really match my stuff. So hey! The stain was sitting right there and i grabbed the paint brush and started painting it on. I couldn’t believe how much better they looked. I only painted one side of them to save on stain (because i use it so much). Then just choose the rocks that you like best out of the bag and hot glue them onto the napkin rings. Lay your charger plates out, then your dishes, pull your fabric napkins through the napkin rings and there you go! Super fast, super cute and super affordable table settings! And I learned from Fixer Upper which direction the napkins are supposed to lay on the plate. So if it looks wrong, Joanna said so! ha! * Adding the rocks to the napkin rings is completely optional, if you are just looking for some everyday napkin rings but can’t find any that are affordable this is such an easy option! You could get creative with adding to the rings too! If you try something new please comment below with a picture! I would love to see! ** The decor in the center of the table and the table runner is all from Homegoods, which you will begin to see is where i get most of my stuff!

Hey Girlies! There is no better way to start out a blog than a freebie! So here is a free printable with my favorite quote and signature TBN peonies! All you have to do is sign up for my e-mail list on my home page so I can e-mail it to you! This is a PDF document and can be printed to frame somewhere around your house/dorm or slipped into the front of your binder for classes! Hope you enjoy! xo- Regan Here is what I did with my printable! I had this extra frame in my “decorations closet” (Yes i have one of those), and it ended up looking great! I love this quote and it is such a great reminder for all of us girls! Can’t wait to see pictures of where you used your free printable!

Hey Yall, My name is Regan! I live in Houston, Texas with my handsome & hardworking husband. I am blessed by him in so many ways. I have learned so much in the past 7 months of being married, we have grown more in love everyday. My husband is an accounting manager at a company 10 minutes from our home (THANKFUL), and I run my own etsy shop selling simple and comfy dresses, which means I get to work from home! We are both in every sense of the meaning “homebodies,” and although most people are traveling and exploring during their early years of marriage, we want nothing more than a relaxing Saturday at home doing projects around the house. But thats just a little bit about us, check out the “about me” tab for more about our life! The name of this blog was inspired by our life, where we are now and where I hope we will always be. “Blooming” as in our home is growing and blossoming, not only just by the amount of home improvement projects but also by love. This is a state I hope that we will be in for the rest of our lives, always “blooming” together and growing in our love for one another & more importantly for God. Also, the “blooming” part clicked because I love to decorate with lots of botanicals as you will see in future blog posts! The “nest” part is pretty straight forward, as in our home together. (side note: I feel like my biggest calling in life is to be a momma, and that is something I pray that God will bless me with one day. So another reason the “nest” part was perfect is because one day I hope to blog about my “littles”). I am just so excited to share my passions with all of you and hope that I can inspire you in some way! I plan to fill this blog up with budget friendly décor ideas and DIY’s, affordable beauty products, and things that I have learned during the short time that I have been blessed to be called “wife.” Thanks for following along & feel free to pin any house pictures, just simply “click to pin!” Here’s a little sneak peek at what you will be seeing on The Blooming Nest Blog! xo- Regan