Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

Archives for January 2010

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Gettin’ Green With Martha

We recently walked into our second home Home Depot and what should we see but a brand new line of cleaning products on display right by the entrance. Apparently Martha has gone green. Her new line is called Martha Stewart Clean and it boasts 99% plant and mineral based biodegradable ingredients in everything from all-purpose cleaners, wood floor cleaners, laundry detergent, dishwasher liquid, and toilet bowl cleaners. They’re even certified by the EPA Design For Environment program, are 100% non-toxic (which means they’re totally safe for kids and pets) and have no artificial colors or preservatives. Which is definitely a good thing in our book. Especially when you think about how many cleaning products have

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Reader Redesign: Added Office

When Mary sent us her amazing closet-to-office makeover we just had to share it. Here’s her letter: I wanted to write to you to tell you how much I absolutely love your blog! You two have provided me with so much inspiration since I stumbled upon your site a few months back. Keep doing what you do! On another note, I wanted to share some before and after pictures of a little project I tackled at my house. We recently bought our first home and had to downsize a bit. We came from a 2,000 sq. foot rental home and moved into a 1,080 sq. foot home that is all ours. The only thing this

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You Know You’re Obsessed With DIY When…

1. You have a painting belt. Yes John has a belt that is specifically designated for painting. We learned early on that you can lose many an outfit to permanent paint drips so we each have one “summer painting outfit” (which consists of one pair of shorts and a tee shirt) and one “winter painting outfit” (which consists of one pair of jeans and a sweatshirt) to keep us from ruining everyday clothes all the time (and from having to dedicate an entire drawer to painting clothes). However, John did get paint on one of his belts pretty early on, so it has become an important part of both his summer and winter painting ensembles.

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Budget Blooms: Starting The Year Off Right

Thump. That’s the sound of us falling off the fresh flower bandwagon last October. From the first of 2009 through September we were enjoying one inexpensive (and even free) bouquet for each month of the year (a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs). But somehow the end-of-the-year madness (toss in a few holidays, a growing family, a bathroom gut-job, and an impending nursery makeover) sadly derailed our year of budget blooms. Well, John was determined to kick this year off right with a happy and cheerful January bouquet for me (actually purchased on 1/1/10- what a nice “fresh start” to the year). This month’s arrangement hails from the grocery store and only ran us

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Some Of Our Other Homies

First, we’re sending out a huge congrats to Remodelista for their win in the Apartment Therapy Homies awards this week! Though it’s pretty hard not to feel like beaming winners too (after being includes among such an amazing group of fellow bloggers and coming in at #2 after such a flattering show of reader support- thanks guys!). Oh and if you haven’t checked out the full list of over 600+ nominees on Apartment Therapy you should definitely give it a glance (just scroll down the the bottom of the page) – especially if you’re looking for some new reading in 2010. We also recommend a glance at some of our other homies: our “da bomb”

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Reader Redesign: Getting The Hang Of It

When Bethany sent over her simple yet oh so chic message board project we had to share the goods. Anyone can do this in an afternoon to add function and beauty to a kitchen, office, mudroom, or more. Here’s her letter: Thank you so much for your upbeat positive attitudes and for all that you do to inspire creativity! I wanted to share a project that I completed a while back that was extremely simple, cheap and totally DIY. I think it’s a good fit for anyone who wants to feel more organized but doesn’t want to sacrifice style. I spray painted a garage sale picture frame and used leftover chalkboard paint to paint the

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Romantic Traditions: Displaying Keepsakes Like Chopsticks!

We love sharing little household traditions with you guys. There are just so many cheap and easy ways to commemorate special dates and display unique items in your home that can make it feel more personal and meaningful.  For example, we whipped up these vacation jars a while back… … and also explained that we love sending a postcard to ourselves to help remember all the details of every vacation that we spend together (they look great tossed in a large glass vase): We also shared how we framed old keys to commemorate all the places we lived before moving into this “forever home” of ours (as seen to the left of the postcards in

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Holy Homeslice, That’s Us!

Holla. We’re donning our best homie gear (via Photoshop… is there any other way?) to pop in and say “really?!” and “thanks!!” to everyone who nominated us for Apartment Therapy’s Homie awards, a fun little year-ending blog love-fest. Over the last week more than six hundred home blogs were nominated (we had fun voting for a slew of them!) and we were beyond excited to find out that we’re one of six finalists in the “Home Design” category! For shizzle? We can hardly believe our slightly narrowed eyes. It feels amazing to be grouped with such an ill (in homie talk, this is a compliment and has nothing to do with bad health) collection of

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Feeling Resolute

Happeeeeeeee New Year!!! And now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, on to the topic of the day: New Year’s Resolutions. Do you make them? Do you loathe them? John and I have embraced the tradition for a while now (here’s our New Year’s post from last year, and thankfully we each accomplished our goal in the last 365 days). We’ll spare you all of the new personal “improvements” that we’re planning to tackle in twenty-ten, but we do have a couple of home/blog related resolutions on our list this year. I, for one, want to simplify day to day life. From replacing three store bought products with one homemade cleaner that does it

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