Clever Design Hacks Turn a 1990s Fixer-Upper Into a Hip Family Nest

If you logged onto Instagram in early spring 2021, you might have spotted a video of a pregnant Cait Pappas and her husband, Jason, standing in the garage of their suburban Arvada home, surrounded by enormous cardboard boxes. These contained custom kitchen cabinets that Cait designed and ordered from online retailer Cliq Studios, and the couple was giddy about them. They jokingly debated the terms of the damage-return policy (neither could remember the timeframe the company gave them) when suddenly they heard a clatter in a corner of the garage where their then-2-year-old son, Joe, was playing. There was laughter (Joe was fine; the cabinets were fine), and the video ended.

This is one example of the controlled chaos associated with home renovations—particularly the DIY kind. And for Cait, a seventh-grade teacher turned interior decorator, Instagram influencer, and DIY design blogger (known online as @Nest.Out.West and @CaitPappas), documenting that chaos is part of the design process. Cait’s 80,000-plus Instagram followers are invested: They’ve been watching over the last three years as she and Jason, a self-taught builder, have transformed the unremarkable yellow-pine-, black-granite-, and beige-carpet-clad interior of their 1990s fixer-upper into the photo-ready dream house it is today, and they’ve even weighed in on some design choices (voting for the kitchen’s brass drawer pulls from Rejuvenation in an online poll, for example).

Entry way — Cait outfitted built-in Ikea cabinets (Sektion cabinets with Lerhyttan doors) with gold hardware found on Etsy. The warm metallic tone is echoed in the nearby Chelsea frame by Framebridge. A Rejuvenation pendant crowns the space. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

A living room — The statement wall, featuring pieces of plywood in a herringbone pattern, was designed and built from scratch by homeowners Cait and Jason Pappas in two days. The floating console is made of Ikea’s Besta storage cabinets mounted to the wall and topped with a stained wood slab. The entire how-to (with every tool you’ll need, including how many construction screws to buy) is available on Cait’s blog, nestoutwestco.com. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

Album covers mounted on acrylic record ledges from Amazon double as art in the music room. A reclaimed-wood Pottery Barn media cabinet houses the Music Hall turntable, while a midcentury coffee table and vintage, caned armchair (both discovered on Craigslist) round out the vignette. A moody wallpaper by A-Street Prints cozies up the space. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

Cait designed the kitchen’s storage wall using cabinets from online retailer Cliq Studios—and glammed them up with brass pulls by Rejuvenation. Neolith’s Himalaya Crystal slab countertops (from the Stone Collection) and Cloe square ceramic wall tiles (by Bedrosians) deliver variations on white, while floating shelves (from Ultra Shelf) warm it all up with wood. The floors are wide-plank engineered French oak from Hurst Hardwoods. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

Rough-sawn white oak from Denver’s Austin Hardwoods clads the walls to delineate the breakfast nook. An iron-legged Universal Furniture table and side chairs offer more contrast. Softness comes courtesy of the vintage area rug from Revival Rugs and a delicate, burnished-brass chandelier from Scout & Nimble. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

A child's nursery — Anthropologie’s Daisy Capiz Flush Mount light is perfectly paired with McGee & Co.’s Poppy wallpaper on the ceiling. An Ikea crib got a custom treatment with a coat of Benjamin Moore’s Fatigue Green paint. The wall paneling is actually decorative trim installed by Cait and Jason and painted with a semi-gloss finish (rather than matte, used elsewhere in the house). Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

A nursery's dresser — Cait found the nursery’s 19th-century antique dresser on Craigslist for $150 (her restoration tips are available on her blog). The assorted, gold-framed bird paintings are by Christine Sweet Fine Art. A Loloi rug warms up the oak-laminate flooring laid in a chevron pattern. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

A bathroom — The renovated bathroom’s showstopping fixtures—a Bastian Teak Double Vanity and Winifred Resin Freestanding Tub—are from Signature Hardware. The geometric wall tile (the Boho Diamond Mosaic pattern from Atlas Concorde) extends into the glass-enclosed shower. A bit of rattan (including a trio of lanterns and a drum pendant found at Lowe’s) play off the warmth of Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee paint color on the walls. The construction of this room coincided with the birth of the Pappases’ second child, Everleigh, so the couple hired Parker-based Red Beard’s Home Services to do the general contracting. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

The main bedroom. Photo by Kimberly Gavin, styling by Natalie Warady

“Jason and I are very hands-on people, mostly because we’re also incredibly frugal people,” Cait says. “We both grew up in families where our parents did all of their house projects themselves, so it was a bit foreign for us to pay someone to do something we could tackle ourselves with enough research and planning. Most of our knowledge came from our dads and YouTube, to be honest.” Though she admits there are a few things she always hires subcontractors for: “drywall finishing, electrical that requires a licensed electrician, and paint, when it’s a ceiling or more than just a little bedroom.” Other than that, this renovation is a product of the Pappases’ sweat equity. “We’ve pretty much spent 90 percent of our weekends working on our house since moving here,” the designer says.

The week the family moved in, they ripped out wall-to-wall beige carpeting to make way for wide-plank French-oak floors. Since then, they’ve reimagined the function of certain spaces, like the barely used formal dining room, which they transformed into an open-concept office (after reserving some of the space for a larger laundry room). An old office became a cozy music room, where Jason, an accomplished musician, can play music and the couple’s two kids can dance to bluegrass records. The ultra-1990s main bathroom got a freestanding bathtub (in lieu of the old alcove tub) and elegant teak double vanity with brass finishes. And the all-pine kitchen received a well-dressed makeover.

There is something universally appealing about the mix of neutral organic materials, white walls, and metal accents that define Cait’s family-friendly design aesthetic. “I’d describe it as sort of cottagey, but with a definite modern-minimalist spin,” she says. “Looking deeper, some rooms have perhaps a more Scandi vibe, while others might have a more art deco feel to them.” She says she’s “loath to cut and paste” a look from the internet into her own home (or the homes of her design clients), but she does turn to fellow online designers for jolts of inspiration, including Shea McGee of Studio McGee, Joanna Gaines of Magnolia, and Shelby Girard of Denver’s Havenly.

In turn, Cait’s followers look to her for design ideas and guidance. “My best advice for an aspiring DIYer is to trust yourself and go with your gut,” says the designer, whose online persona is the picture of confidence. But also, “Ask lots of questions, and do your research,” she adds. “We’ve learned a lot through trial and error.”