BEFORE It’s an exciting day over here!! They are finally cutting through the brick exterior to add windows to our kitchen! You can read about why we decided to have this done HERE. I have a feeling you know about all of the building supply shortages in the country right now. Well, windows are one of them. When we decided to add windows to the kitchen we could NOT find anyone who could get us custom size windows in a decent amount of time. Brett decided to order double pane glass from a local glass company and build the windows himself! I am so impressed with how well they turned out!! Our contractor first started by demoing the wall in the kitchen from the interior. We had to have a plumber come out to reroute the gas line that ran behind the wall, and they also had to scoot down some of the electrical wires. Then they cut out the brick from the outside of the house and framed in the beautiful windows that Brett built! One of the workers snapped this photo for me while I was out of town! The anticipation was killing me! They sheet-rocked the wall, started the backsplash (you can find our backsplash HERE, we have the large star and cross in the color Sand Dune – I”M OBSESSED) and hung the frame for the range hood that Brett built! We had them go ahead and add sheetrock around the range hood as well. We plan to add plaster to it, but honestly I am loving it SO much already!!!! THE BEFORE ONE MORE TIME FOR THE DRAMATIC EFFECT LOL AFTER I truly CANNOT believe this is my kitchen!! EEEEEK!!! It has so many features that I love so so much! Next up we plan to tackle the island. We want to square it off and add some trim to the front! Stay tuned!

Does your home have a weird nook like ours did? Why do builders think we need these? We knew when we purchased this home that we would be knocking this wall out. It was too rounded to hang art on and I knew we could make it into something really special! THE BEFORE: Our weird nook.. If you haven’t read THIS post yet, it talks about our kitchen plans and how they have changed. We originally were doing two custom, floating cabinets but decided we would rather have windows! So we needed to find a place to repurpose the custom cabinets we had already ordered. We decided to make them into built-ins! We started with demo! YIKES! The mess what BIG, but we got it all cleaned up! Brett built a base for the cabinets to sit on! Then, we stacked the cabinets on top of each other! We framed in both cabinets with primed pine from Home Depot. We found this beautiful running trim from Wayfair. I really wanted something that would make this look like a unique piece of furniture and I wanted it to have Anthropologie vibes. Nailed it, huh?! We added a 1×2 on its side across the bottom to act as the bottom of the piece. Then I sketched out the legs I wanted and Brett cut them out of a 1×8. We finished off the wall by adding small trim pieces in the corners and painting!! I smile when I walk by them, and I am so happy to have somewhere to display some of my favorite decor pieces!! Also, since we have a plug in the back of the bottom shelf, I plan to hide our Alexa in one of those baskets 😉 SCROLL & SHOP THE POST!

It’s bound to happen when you’re in the middle of renovations. I really try to plan everything out and draw up design boards to make sure I am going to love everything before we purchase anything…BUT…. Here was the original design plan! A few things have changed along the way. All changes that I am SO excited for!!! When we got the custom cabinets that we ordered hung up in the kitchen I just knew they were too big. Not too big in general, I thought they were GORGEOUS and I am the one that ordered the exact size of them. But I really, REALLY want our custom backsplash to be the star of the show and I just felt like the cabinets were going to hide a lot of the backsplash… I also knew I didn’t want floating shelves… So we are adding WINDOWS!!! WHAT?! I am a little nervous because this is a big project, and the exterior wall is brick. But we have an amazing general contractor and I know he is going to do a great job. One problem… windows are almost impossible to find in stock right now, just like so many things! To order a custom size window you are going to have to wait 8-10 weeks minimum. This would be fine, but I have kitchen content that is due way before then. So we are now on a mission to find 2 windows that will work for our kitchen! We are going to check out the building surplus store in our area. Fingers crossed!! And now for the question you’re all asking yourselves… “But what are you going to do with those pretty custom cabinets!?” I am so happy you asked 😉 The only way I was okay with switching up our kitchen design was if we had a spot to use the custom cabinets, because I truly loved them so much! We are going to build them into our entryway! We started on this project yesterday so I will be sharing more details soon but it is going to be so beautiful!!! Make sure to follow along on Instagram, @thebloomingnest, for behind the scenes videos of all of our projects!

The project that took 2 months to finish! 242 spindles to tape and paint around!! It really was not a difficult project whatsoever, just super tedious, and we have soooo much stair railing in our new home. Not fun to makeover, but it is what makes our home feel so open and spacious! From taping off each spindle, to the amount of coats of paint, caulking and sanding, it took us a while to pull this one off, but it was SO worth it! We saved thousands by making over these newel posts and railings ourselves rather than having it all replaced. Keep reading to see how simple this makeover was and how you can do it yourself! I started by painting all of the trim and handrails on the stairs. You can read all details about that HERE. The we grabbed a saw and started cutting off the little balls, that were not so very Blooming Nest style, on top of the newel posts! Many of the inso pics that I liked had very simple square newel posts. I knew we could achieve the same look by just removing these balls. Too bad they didn’t just screw off. Next, we sanded down the tops of the newel posts for a smooth finish! We bought a bunch of 1/2 half circle dowels from Lowes. We cut them to the length that we wanted them to hit on each newel post and cut the top end at a 45 degree angle, using a miter saw, for a softer edge. Then, we nailed them around each post! This was so gratifying because slowly they covered up the part I didn’t love about the original posts! Three dowels fit perfectly on each side with a tiny gap in-between them that we would fill with caulk. We made sure to nail downward into the post, making sure the dowel was fully secure. To finish them off, we caulked all the seams, wood filled the nail holes and painted 2 coats of Accessible beige! Pretty simple, huh!? If you have a normal amount of stairs this would be such a fast and easy project to makeover your traditional newel posts. I love the modern vibe they bring to our home and I am a sucker for anything with a scalloped detail. BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS You can read about the gallery wall on our stairs HERE. You can read about painting our stairs HERE.

YAY! This is one of the spaces that kept me up at night before we moved into this house! I kept designing it over and over in my head. Did it turn out exactly like I thought it would? NOPE! It turned out even better!! I knew I wanted a large gallery wall that took the shape of the stairs. I wanted just a few large frames and for it to be very cohesive. I also really wanted to incorporate a lot of texture in the frames rather than filling each frame with art prints. I ordered a pack of dried palm leaves and framed them in some inexpensive poster frames! I love how they turned out. The pack came with 5 stems so I ended up doing them in two separate frames! The three square frames have vintage fabric fragments in them! I got these from a small shop called Sew & Cloth! They sell beautiful pillow covers and sometimes have leftover fragments that you can purchase! (The square frames are from Hearts in Colors). We are still working on the stair makeover so this space will look a little different very soon! We also have plans of ripping out the carpet on the stairs and adding beautiful white oak stair treads with a rug runner. I can hardly wait to see it all come together. Our wall color and trim is Alabaster by Sherwin. Our stairs are painted Accessible beige by Sherwin. Shop This Space Below!

It is amazing how much of a difference cabinet hardware can make in a kitchen! It really finishes off your cabinets, and makes them more functional! We finished installing our hardware this past week and I love the way it turned out. We went with champagne bronze hardware and the color contrasts so beautifully with our new Pigeon Cabinets!!! (You can read about having our cabinets painted HERE). The drawer pulls that we went with were super easy to install!! You drill holes for two screws and then slide the bar onto the screws and tighten! It also makes it really easy to level them perfectly. Brett was really impressed with them and they didn’t make him want to rip his hair out during install like most drawer pulls do. We chose to do double drawer pulls on the drawers that were wide and had two cabinets above or below them! We also made sure to add hardware to the “faux” drawer fronts below the sink and the gas cooktop. Even though these drawers aren’t functional, it is still important to add hardware to them, in my opinion. This will help make your cabinets look complete and have a more high end look! I will link both the pulls and the knobs below! They are different brands but are both champagne bronze and match each other perfectly! They are super affordable and come in packs! The only hardware we haven’t installed yet are the handles for the custom cabinets with glass fronts! I ordered 4 of the rattan pulls pictured below for these doors. I think they are going to make such a subtle and beautiful statement. Shop Our Hardware Below!

YAY! This is the room we spend the most time in and I am so excited to share our plans! You have already seen quite a bit of it. I revealed the gallery wall on my Instagram this week (@thebloomingnest). Can you believe that large piece of “art” is our tv!!?! You can shop it below, worth every penny in my opinion. The cute art surrounding our TV is from Minted! I love their art selection and how they support real artists! Plus, you can get your art framed at any size and any frame option! I actually struggled quite a bit getting this gallery wall just right. If you have been around for a while you know I love symmetry! I wanted this to be an asymmetrical gallery wall while still being balanced. The key to making it something I love was adding in something other than frames to make it feel complete! I had some round wall planters in my decor room and I love the texture and shape they added to the wall! Things on our playroom to do list: Frame out the windows and french doors off the back of the room Hang two swings! We already have one from Lawson’s room at the old house, so I am saving my pennies to buy another. Hang curtains high and wide! I am still looking for the perfect ones. I linked some below that are gorgeous but aren’t long enough for my room. I may buy them and lengthen them like I normally do. No matter what I go with I know I want to pull a warm color from the rug! One of my goals I’ve written down for this house is “no boring curtains!” Add hardware to our tv/storage cabinet as well as add caning to the backs of the doors to hide the toys that are piled inside! Thats pretty much all the plans I have for now! I don’t want a lot of furniture in this room so there is a lot of space for playing!! If you want to read about the couch that we redid for this room click HERE! Scroll and shop!

It’s Pigeon!!! My kitchen is PIGEON! I am so happy I could cry. My favorite color is in the heart of our home and it is bringing me JOY! I wanted to share all of the details about hiring out to have out cabinets painted! By the way, if you don’t know about the color Pigeon, I chat all about it in my “pigeon” highlight bubble on my Instagram profile, @thebloomingnest! It is a color by Farrow & Ball. I usually get it color matched at Home Depot or Sherwin Williams! We also lightened it by 25% for this project! Here is a photo of the exact number code we used! We knew when we bought this house, and they wouldn’t let us change the cabinet color, that we would be having them painted after moving in! I did not trust myself to tackle this project on my own because of the prep work it takes, so we decided to hire out! I asked in my neighborhood facebook group if anyone had recommendations on cabinet painters. A name popped up a few different times so I called him to come out and give us a quote. I knew right away after chatting with him for a few minutes that he was a great fit! Very professional and I loved that he explained how the whole process would go. If you want his contact I would be happy to give it to you! His name is Louis Jasso at Inov8tive Paint out of Humble, TX. We picked a date for them to come pick up our cabinet doors and drawer fronts. They took them to their shop to prep and paint them and then would come back a week later to paint the cabinet frames and install the doors! On painting day they prepped the kitchen for a couple of hours. Taping off the whole room and covering countertops and floors. They also set up a large fan to extract the fumes out the back door! It took them from about 9am-3pm to finish painting and reinstalling the doors and drawer fronts. This was great because I was really only out of a kitchen for one day! When I walked in to see the finished product I was so so happy!!! The paint was so smooth and the color was perfect!!! BEFORE Prices will range depending on where you live and who you hire. But we paid around $3900 for this job. It was an expense we planned in our budget when buying the house and is was 100% worth it to me! But there are plenty of DIY tutorials out there if you decide you would rather tackle it on your own! Read about how we added the cabinet molding to the ceiling HERE!

It’s finally time to dive into our Kitchen reno!! I feel like I’ve waited a lifetime for this! If are curious about all of our plans for our kitchen, you can read all about it on THIS blog post! We are hiring professional painters to paint the cabinets. It is a project I’ve told myself I will never try to do on my own. I know myself, and I don’t think I would be patient enough to do all the steps so that it would be durable. The painters are coming to pickup the cabinet doors and drawer fronts on Thursday! They will take them to their shop to paint them and then come back next week to paint the cabinet frames and install the doors. I can hardly wait to see the transformation!! Anywho, since they will be coming to paint the kitchen soon we wanted to go ahead and have everything in place that we are wanting painted. We went ahead and reconfigured the wall that the refrigerator is on. You can see a picture of what it currently looks like below. There will be two large drawers where those holes are. Brett did all of this himself! I am SO impressed. We also wanted to go ahead and have the molding installed above the cabinets. So today I want to give you a step-by-step on how we did that! This is a project that will TOTALLY transform your kitchen!! If your cabinets don’t go to the ceiling and you currently have decor placed above them… grab a ladder, remove the decor and follow the steps below! 😉 You’ll thank me later! What we used: primed pine boards (we used 1×3’s, 1×4’s, 1×6’s and 1×2’s) nail gun or trim screws wood clamps drill/impact driver miter saw & wood glue (if you need to make a corner piece) Measure We started by measuring the distance between the top of our cabinets to the ceiling. We made sure to take a few different measurements because ceilings aren’t always perfectly level. Our gap was about 12″. Design Then we decided on a design for our molding based on our measurements. In the photo below you will see how we stacked our boards to get to 12″. Build We attached the 1×6 by screwing straight through the bottom of the 1×3 into the 1×6. *Brett tip* Keep your wood clamped throughout this entire project! We also made sure that the 1×6 was placed 1 5/8″ from the “front” of the 1×3. This ensured that the overhang would be flush with the cabinet door fronts. Then, we attached the next board in our line up! We nailed a 1×2 into the 1×6. We made sure that it was pushed all the way to the front of the molding, as shown in the photo below. The next one was the trickiest! The next board to attach was a 1×4 on its side. We clamped it in place so that it wouldn’t move, drilled pilot holes at an angle on both ends (pictured below), and then secured with trim screws. We also nailed at an angle from the front of the 1×4 through the 1×2. We used 1 1/2″ nails instead of our normal 2″ nails to minimize them poking through the back of the molding. BUT, it’s okay if they come through the back. No one will ever see 😉 Back to easy pieces! YAY! We nailed the next 1×2, pushed all the way to the front again, and then nailed the last 1×3. We left a half inch overhang for this last piece to give a stacked effect. Install It was time to install! We lifted it into place and used a level on the front to make sure the bottom 1×3 was flush with the cabinet doors. Then, we nailed into the tops of the cabinet fronts at an angle. We also nailed into the walls and ceiling. Corner Molding If you have a space above your cabinets where you need to make a molding piece with a corner, here are a few things we did! We followed all steps above, going one level at a time, but this time attaching two mitered boards together. To attach them, we used wood glue, miter clamps and trim screws, in that order. Read about having our kitchen cabinets painted HERE!

Whew! This is going to be a HUGE project to tackle! We have sooo many stair railings in our new home. This also means that making it over will make a huge impact because it’s the first thing you see when you walk in! The builder chose very modern balusters and very traditional newel posts. When we purchased the house we figured we would just replace the parts we didn’t like, but you know me, I had to give it a shot and try to make it over on a budget! Spoiler alert! I think I’m going to be so happy with it! It’s giving me Anthropologie vibes 😉 BEFORE I went back and forth on what color to paint it. I decided to go with accessible beige by Sherwin Williams. I AM IN LOVE. It’s so creamy and warm and looks perfect with our alabaster walls and trim. I started by taping and taping some more! So much taping! But it makes the painting part go really quick! There were a couple of the shoe moulds that they forgot to glue down so I just lifted them out of the way. I used gloss finish in Accessible beige and my favorite paint brush from Zibra Painting. It took 3 full coats of paint on the parts that were already white and 4 full coats on the parts that were dark stained wood. I did not sand or do any prep besides tape. The paint covered great and I have no worries about it chipping because of the finish I chose. I am so happy with how it turned out…. that is, the tiny portion I have finished ha! Follow along because I have fun plans to make these stairs even more my style! Im going to makeover the newel posts next!

YAY! It’s finally time to chat about our kitchen design plans! I have changed my mind about paint colors, backsplash, cabinet placement so many times, and I am sure a couple of things may change here and there but I wanted to fill you in on what we are planning to do! BEFORE DRUMROLL PLEASE!!! Can you say PIGEON?! I went back and forth and back and forth but I am GOING FOR IT! I am so stinking excited and I think it’s going to be beautiful. I don’t want to make boring design decisions in this house and pigeon is practically a neutral for me 😉 I think we will have the color lightened by 25% for the cabinets. They will start the painting process the end of next week!! I fell in love with this star and cross pattern tile. You can find it at a few different places. The one I have pictured below is from Fireclay Tile! We are having two custom cabinets made for either side of the custom vent hood we plan to build. I really didn’t want to do floating shelves in our reno. One, because they aren’t practical for storage (no matter how much you try to convince yourself they will be ha!). Two, because I wanted to do something classic! I already ordered the beautiful pendant lights but they were way too big! I purchased the 20″ size but with our ceiling height in the kitchen I am going to order the smaller ones instead (13.5″). We ordered our appliances the other day!!! It’s stressful to spend so much money at once but it takes months for them to come in and I know they will be worth the splurge! Shop our appliances and lighting choices below! Our fridge wall was a big issue. The upper cabinets were shallow making even a counter depth fridge look like it is sticking out way too far. We decided to remove the countertop space, add two large drawers and bring the upper cabinets forward so the fridge will ultimately look built in. The new fridge that comes in in a few months will be counter depth and will look completely build in when we are finished! We got a head start on this project so it can be done before the cabinet painters come! BEFORE PROGRESS oh! And we plan to add beadboard to the entire ceiling of the kitchen area! A few other plans we have… Remove microwave and add in a custom vent hood – we plan to plaster it and possibly make it a unique shape! Remove upper cabinets next to microwave and replace with custom cabinets with glass fronts – (we will reuse these cabinets in the laundry room where I currently have NO storage, win win!) Rip out current subway tile backsplash and replace with new backsplash all the way to the ceiling! Add molding to the tops of the cabinets – all the way to the ceiling add a farmhouse sink Square off the island – (counter top and base) Possibly tile the front of the island with an accent tile I can HARDLY wait to get started! It already feels like Ive waited a lifetime. Who’s ready to see this pigeon kitchen come to life!? Shop The Post!