Summer may be almost over, but for Jamie Chung, the party is just getting started.
The Once Upon a Time star recently had the outdoor space of her Los Angeles residence renovated, with the help of the home services company, Thumbtack. As Jamie—who shares 10-month-old twin boys with husband Bryan Greenberg—tells E! News, the change of backyard scenery for their family home was necessary.
"We certainly wanted to keep the integrity of the mid-century design as is," the Real World alum shared of her new deck. "But we felt like even just a freshener up—if it was sanded down and repainted, it would really brighten up the space because it was so dreary."
Now, as Jamie explained, with the gorgeous new touches that include a redwood deck, their space makes all the difference—even if you're sitting inside.
"It brightens everything up even on the interior," she shared of her deck. "I am looking from my kitchen and it just gives this beautiful glow."
She added, "It's just so fresh and so clean and we do host a lot outdoors regardless, even when we had our super crappy deck. And now…we want to kind of stay out there all day. Now that we have the dining areas set up, you know, we'll throw more dinner parties outside when it gets a little bit cooler."
As for just how cool the process of renovating actually was? Read on for all of Jamie's details that will have you ready to design your space in no time:
As Jamie—who also owns a home in New York City—shared, the process this time around was much smoother than the past. "To be quite honest, I have so much PTSD from home improvement projects from New York because I didn't work with Thumbtack," she tells E! News. "I love that they make it so easy to find a pro on the app. You have the security knowing that they cover $10,000 with a protection plan [with a membership]."
Describing the process as a "dream," she added, "I feel like I had a vision, but I don't know all the terminology and I don't know what I should be using. And so, I need a lot of hand holding but as…a homeowner, something always needs to be improved on."
As for how long it takes to download the app? Well, as the actress noted, it takes just seconds and has every feature you can think of.
"It kind of steps you through like—what kind of house do you own? Is it one floor, is it two floors? How many square footage is it?," Jamie recalled. "What's the kind of project that you're looking to do? And there's all these different categories to choose from. So, like with the outdoor space, it pulls up—we want to redo the deck for example, or outdoor like greenery—and then gives you the pros that they have that are available. And it's great because you kind of see all the reviews right next to it. And it's just a click of a button."
The Lovecraft Country star revealed she and husband Bryan Greenberg decided to update their outdoor scenery to make it a safer space for their 10-month-old twin boys.
"The first big thing was our deck because we use our outdoor space so much and it was like totally falling apart," Jamie said. "It was unsafe. We had nails sticking out. One of our boys was like out there just kind of bouncing around and we looked on the bottom of his feet and he had all these like little splinters and we're like, ‘Okay, this has gotta go.'"
Although their space was in need of a renovation, Jamie explained that the couple still wanted to keep the original charm.
"We certainly wanted to keep the integrity of the midcentury design as is," she said. "But we just felt like even just a freshener up—like if it was sanded down and repainted—it would really brighten up the space because it was so dreary. And now that the redwood is in, we decided to keep the natural color of it and use a clear stain and it brightens everything up."
Although Jamie used the app for her renovation needs, she was pleasantly surprised to know just far their services extend.
"The great thing with Thumbtack is it gives you a list of all those things per season of how to upkeep your house," she recalled. "And these are things I never learned before. My parents owned a house, but they were working all the time. We never cleaned the gutters. And we always had water issues in our home growing up. There are so many things to update and maintain and it is all on the app, which is very helpful."
As the actress shared of the app, "It's great for first time homeowners to have a checklist of all the things that you need to do in order to prevent more problems in order to maintain your home and maintain that it's safe. Nothing like shelling out big bucks when it's a total catastrophe."
Now that Jamie and Bryan's kids are "just starting to move around a little bit," having a completely finished deck for them to explore is ideal.
"They love being outdoors. And before you didn't want them to step around on the wood," she shared, noting how big of a difference their new space has been for her growing kids. "It just adds more space for them to explore and it's safe. It's beautiful."