Lifestyle Home Celebrity Home Tours Nina Dobrev Reveals She and Shaun White Took Months to Paint Her Home During Quarantine Makeover Nina Dobrev showed off her remodeled West Hollywood home in a feature for Architectural Digest By Naledi Ushe Naledi Ushe Digital News Writer, PEOPLE People Editorial Guidelines Published on October 2, 2021 11:02PM EDT Nina Dobrev . Photo: Ye Rin Mok/AD Nina Dobrev is a DIY kind of girl! The Vampire Diaries alum, 32, gave a tour of her "light and airy" West Hollywood home of five years in a video for Architectural Digest, revealing that her Spanish-style home was a mustard yellow before she decided to repaint the exterior as she remodeled the property during quarantine. "I always wanted to paint it white and for the first time I found myself having no excuse, and my boyfriend and I painted the whole exterior of the house ourselves and it took forever," she said, referring to beau Shaun White. Dobrev was first linked to White, 35, in March 2020. They made their relationship Instagram official in May that same year when the Olympic snowboarder posted a video of the Degrassi star cutting his hair. The actress admitted that she and White were "were really excited" during the first few days of the DIY project and "then by day three or four and into the first month, I was like, 'What have I gotten myself into?'" "But it turned out beautiful so I'm happy I did it," she added. Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder Remained 'Professional' on TVD Set After Split, Says Claire Holt Speaking to AD, Dobrev said, "Maybe it's the frugal side of me, the Eastern European Bulgarian girl that was like, I don't want to pay a lot of money to have a bunch of people come and paint this, and I'm bored." White was a major theme around Dobrev's home, with most of the walls paired with colorful decor to make the property cozy. "It was really important to me because the house was built in the 1920s, I wanted to pay respect to the original architecture and the Spanish-style influence," she said. "Even though we were redoing things, I wanted to use materials that were organic and felt like they could've belonged to the home before, while still refreshing and giving the house a facelift." Ye Rin Mok/AD Nina Dobrev and Shaun White Go on Double Date with Her Vampire Diaries Costar Paul Wesley and His Wife Dobrev kept original elements of the home such as the "creaky" wood floors, the blue-tiled bathroom with a classic white bathtub, the original white crown molding in her dining room and the "imperfections" in the texture of some of the surfaces. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday. True to her style, the home has mismatched pillows, bold statement colors such as green cabinets, several pieces of wooden furniture and an eclectic mix of decor from Italy, France, Canada and more. Among her personal touches, Dobrev showed off a print of a Ross Couper photograph of a "little Simba" that was taken while she was filming in South Africa, a print of David Bowie gifted to her by White and an Ikebana Japanese flower arrangement created by a friend. Close