Jordan and her husband totally transformed their kitchen from dark and traditional to light and cottage to the tune of just over a thousand dollars. Amazing!
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Archives for August 2010
How To Hang Corner Curtain Rods (& Painting The Ceiling Blue)
We’re back to share phase two of our big sunroom makeover with you guys. After painting the dark daybed white and bringing in our old guest room dresser and mirror for the first phase (which we affectionately refer to as our work-with-what-you-have phase) it was time to add two things to accentuate what we already had going on in the room. Paint and curtain rods. Let’s delve into the paint category first. See, we had been dying to paint the sunroom ceiling an inviting aqua color for a while, especially since it’s a tradition in the south to have a light blue ceiling on your porch (and we figured we’d enjoy the color even more
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Fab Freebie: Bamboo-tiful
We’re giving away $100 towards anything on Smock Paper’s website full of sustainably printed letterpress cards, invites, notepads, gift boxes and wrapping paper. Enter through Sept 1, 2010.
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Take It Back: Returning Things That Don’t Work
Among other things, one quirk I inherited from my mom was my aversion to return lines. Sure, there’s really nothing to fear about going to customer service and returning a purchase that just didn’t work out, but somehow it made me uncomfortable. In most cases I’d rather just suck it up, consider it my bad for buying it, and call it a loss. Maybe I just felt wrong making the retailers deal with my poorly repackaged item or just preferred to avoid any debate over whether it met their policy. But then I met Sherry, the self-proclaimed Queen Of Returns, and my relationship with those once dreaded lines completely changed. Sherry has the exact opposite
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Burning Question: Backsplash Backlash?
This week’s big question is: kitchen backsplash- yea or nay? Do you love the easy-wipe feature of a nice tiled wall between your cabinets? Or do you worry that something like tin squares, beadboard, or mosaic tile may look dated later on? Do you long for a glossy painted wall that you can easily change out instead? Do you prefer just a small lip of granite (or whatever your counters are made of)? Or do you think a kitchen without a full backsplash is a deal breaker?
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Let’s Try It: Tuning Empty Glass Bottles Into Glassware
I found instructions for making your own party glassware from old bottles – too bad they didn’t work! Here’s what I learned in the process of trying it out. Maybe you can see where I went wrong.
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Bird Play: Freebie Winner!
Announcing the winner of our Modern Bird Studios giveaway, plus a special 15% discount to our reader. Woo hoo!
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Do It Yourself & ReadyMade
You may recall that back in April when Sherry’s belly was still full of baby we had some visitors stop by Clara’s nursery, including one wielding a big camera. Well the pics from that double-duty photo shoot for Do It Yourself magazine and Kitchen + Bath Makeovers have finally seen the light of day. At least the ones for Do It Yourself have (the others will be popping up later this year). In fact, a bunch of you have already mentioned seeing them in the Fall 2010 issue that’s out now. Our usual “He Said, She Said” advice column took a one-issue hiatus in order to share those photos of Clara’s DIY-riddled nursery. There’s even
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Reader Redesign: Somebody’s Nesting
It’s about time that we featured some projects from our über-productive pregnant Twitter friend Jen Woodhouse (who also happens to have moved recently from Nashville to the Richmond area). Jen’s been furiously nesting ever since landing here in Virginia and we thought you guys would love to see some of her projects (all of which you can learn more about on her blog The House of Wood). Here’s her letter: Inspired by your awesome Craigslist dresser project, I refinished an old dresser and will use it as a changing table/dresser for our little Eggroll. You can read more about the project here. And since I find myself wanting to show-and-tell all my DIY stuff with
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Priming And Painting A Daybed In Our Sunroom
You guys may remember the sunroom quickchange that occurred a few months back when we turned our former third bedroom (which once housed a West Elm daybed and a desk) into Clara’s nursery. Being work-with-what-you-have people, we brought the daybed from that old bedroom of yore out into the sunroom, and we mentioned that someday we would hopefully get around to priming and painting it white for a more balanced look (since it’s about a foot away from our other already-white West Elm daybed). We actually didn’t think it looked too bad when it was dark since it worked with the metal framing on the glass doors that surround the room… … but now that
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Fab Freebie: Bird Play
We’re giving a personalized art piece from Modern Bird Studios, who takes your photo and transforms it into a piece of hand-painted modern art. Enter through 8/25/10.
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Budget Blooms: Some Sweet Izze Soda Bottle Vases
We took three colorful soda bottles, paired with some simple white flowers and created a $9 flower arrangement that adds some pop to our kitchen.
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Closing Up Shop
It’s so hard to say goodbye, but in the words of Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton: something’s gotta give. Parenthood, home improvement projects, and tons of other blog related undertakings have turned us into busy bees. So much so that our little t-shirt and print shop will be closing its virtual doors since we no longer have a spare second to keep up with the whole mom & pop operation anymore. We proudly rely on two local printing and t-shirt companies to create all of our YHL wares, but we do all of the designing, stocking, packaging, and mailing ourselves. We know that we can probably outsource those responsibilities, but it just feels like something
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Burning Question: Stormy Weather?
This week’s topic at hand: storm doors. Do you love them for the light they let in, or do you hate them for the extra frame of metal that clutters up your entryway? What about screen doors? Do you enjoy the breeze that they provide, or hate how flimsy they feel? Is a single solitary wood or metal front door the best bet, or do you prefer something with a little glass?
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Our Updated “Corner Office” In The Den
Many people have requested a few photos of my old office in the corner of the den (that’s what we call our informal living room) so I’m here with the goods. Before we created our office/guest room/playroom this small “corner office” was where I worked full time. Here’s what it looked like back then with the old printer and a few file boxes along with my trusty laptop: We decided to keep the desk around as a place for letter writing and web surfing during the weekends (when we don’t want to be holed up in the office). We also think that eventually it’ll become a great place for Clara to draw and do homework
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Market Fresh: Freebie Winner!
I’m drinking a nice cold glass of Sweet Leaf Mint & Honey Green Tea as I write this because it’s about the most refreshing thing I’ve had in a long time (though we’re both fans of many of the other tricks you guys listed in this week’s giveaway when it comes to cooling off). But if you’re in the mood to – segue alert – freshen up your home as well, might we suggest an inspiration filled trip to Cost Plus World Market? And one lucky reader has actually won a $100 Cost Plus World Market gift card courtesy of CPWM and Fresh Home Magazine. We consulted our reigning fresh prince of giveaways (i.e. random.org)
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Seven Tips For Getting A Greener Organic Lawn
I devoured “The Organic Lawn Care Manual” looking for info on how to make our lawn lush but stay chemical free. Here’s what I learned.
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Go Forth & DIY, Squadders
You may have already heard that True Value is back this year with their DIY Blog Squad. But this time around YHL ain’t on it. As entertaining as it might be to have some big dramatic story behind our disappearance from the always-fun and always-creative lineup of bloggers, there really isn’t one. We just couldn’t swing it this year while attempting to keep up with our two-post-a-day habit along with organizing giveaways, answering comments, writing our column for Babycenter and Do It Yourself magazine, and of course taking care of our new baby girl. And sadly, the closest True Value requires a three hour drive so it’s hard to squeeze in a pilgrimage like that
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Reader Redesign: The Beat Of Her Own Drum
Ashley needed to conceal an old dining room light fixture so she DIYed her very own drum shade for less than $20. Check out the results and the link to a tutorial.
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The Olympic Event Of Hunting For A Living Room Rug
Ok, we know we said our sunroom’s mini makeover was next on the agenda but we just had to share this fun rug switcheroo first because we often get reader questions about how we choose room-making things like the right art or the perfect rug. Our reply is always that there’s no such thing as “the right” or “the perfect” formula or item because there are multiple ways to finish off a room that you’re sure to love. Think of it as a buffet with more than one delicious meal to choose from. So the good news is that there’s not just one “solution” when it comes to polishing off a room and calling it
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Fab Freebie: Market Fresh
Fresh Home magazine has teamed up with Cost Plus World Market this week to dish out a $100 gift card to Cost Plus World Market. Enter through Aug 18th.
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Store Crashing: Virginia Is For Clovers
We always love crashing a well designed house to get some inspiration and steal some ideas. But we also know that homes aren’t the only place to look for decor inspiration. Which is why we decided to take you shopping with us for some pretty amazing and totally implementable at-home ideas. Allow us to introduce you to Clover. It’s an amazingly cool consignment shop for kids that just opened in Richmond’s Carytown district last month – and they gave us a sneak peek at the space before they unlocked the doors to the public. We scored the special treatment because the shop is a spin-off concept from our friend Lesley who opened the grown-up consignment
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Burning Question: Closet Quandary
When it comes to your bedroom closets, what closures tickle your fancy? Do you like sliding doors, swing out doors, french doors, pocket doors, track doors, or bi-fold doors? Perhaps you’re a no-doors-at-all kinda person and some billowy curtains or even an open nook work better for you?
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A Gust Of Gratitude
Our monthly shout out to our sponsors so we can say “thank you” for keeping this little web site of ours up and running.
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