This Cabin Couldn't Be Cozier

In the six years that Danica and Chris Gadeken spent gutting and renovating their 1,000-square-foot home near Lincoln, Nebraska, they picked up lots of skills — but the biggest lesson they learned didn’t involve a hammer or nail gun. “I realized that walls do talk,” says Danica, “and they will tell you what style your house wants to be.”

The message for this one came after the couple replaced the worn exterior siding with greenish-brown board-and-batten: “The home whispered that it felt like a cabin,” Danica says, and she and Chris ran with the idea. They installed wood planks in nearly every room and chose furniture that fit with the look. The transformation is exactly the kind of project Danica dreamed about taking on when she was in design school, and it’s now the basis for her blog, Nadine Stay. “I want to show that anyone is capable of creating a beautiful home with their own two hands,” she says.

Chris and Danica painted their house three times to find the right color: Muddled Basil from HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams.

The couple bravely started their reno with the most complicated room in the house. “It was trial by fire,” says Danica. After taking the kitchen down to the studs, they installed engineered beech flooring, IKEA cabinets and subway tile. To create the island, Danica and Chris topped a trio of cabinets with butcher block. “Black cabinets felt risky at the time, but we love the color as much today as we did on day one,” she says.

“Everyone wants tall ceilings, but I’m drawn to the warm and cozy vibe that comes with a low one,” Danica says. “And it’s easier on our utility bills!” She and Chris spend all their free time by the fireplace, which they transformed with white paint, a sanded mantel and pine boards they stained walnut. The window treatments are drop cloths that Danica stitched into drapes. Danica refinished the coffee table — it originally had a more yellow stain.

The white walls felt too sterile, so Danica and Chris spent two weeks installing 400 pieces of MDF to create wainscoting, then they painted it a mossy green (City Arboretum by Valspar). Chris swears it was worth all the effort. “I can’t imagine a better expression of our style,” he says.

This room shows off some of Danica’s best tricks. For the closet, she replicated the look of custom double doors by adding trim and a second handle to a solid-core bifold door. “It’s my favorite hack in the world,” she says. The vintage-inspired printed rug is by Chris Loves Julia for Loloi.