The Guest Nest: Second-Guessing Every Single Design Decision

Legitimately, I cannot contain my excitement. We’ve made so much progress in the Guest Nest that I must interrupt our regularly scheduled programming in favor of an update about the paint color and flooring instead! And the new windows!! IT IS HAPPENINGGG.

There’s always a turning point in a renovation when it finally comes together, the vision becomes apparent and the hard work pays off. For the guest room project, this weekend was that turning point—and one that’s been very badly needed for the sake of morale.

Let’s start with the windows, easily one of my favorite upgrades we’ve made to this room and maybe the house so far?

I genuinely think I’m addicted to putting new windows in now. First, I find it enormously fun to cut giant holes in the exterior of my walls cuz, like, when do you even get to do that in real life?? And if you’re anything like us, chances are the holes are going to be open to the elements for at least 1-2 business weeks meaning that every morning you get to open the door to see if any woodland creatures have come to visit in the night. It’s fun!

My guy Larry chose almond-colored window frames when he built our house, so nowadays that’s a special order, meaning that a new window usually takes a month before it’s ready for pickup. And honestly, the almond is growing on me. It worked really nicely in the guest bathroom, complementing the wallpaper tones. And I’ve really come to appreciate the softness of the almond instead of stark white. Thanks for helping me to expand my design palate, Larry. 🫶

BTW if you’re local-ish to us and need new windows, I highly recommend Lyndale Glass in Mount Vernon. Justin is super-patient in explaining all the options and just truly lovely to work with. And if you’d like the exact details of our windows:

And here they are installed—and with the walls painted!