Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

Archives for November 2013

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Another Year Of Our Thanks Jar

For the fourth year in a row we’ve filled up our little thrift store jar that we etched with the word “Thanks” back in 2010 (you can read how we made it here). So before everyone dives headfirst into the gravy bowl (what? that’s not a thing?) we thought we’d stick with the annual tradition of sharing a few glimpses of some things that ended up on the list this year. Spoiler alert: one of them’s you guys. So let’s just pause for a moment so I can tell you how good your hair looks and how nice you smell and how flattering that shirt is and most of all, how grateful we are that

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Wendy’s Dilemma: Ideas Anyone?

We’re not sure how many of you are knee deep in a turkey somewhere (wait, that sounds terrible) but there’s nothing we like more than a group brainstorming session, so if you’re around, Wendy would love your suggestions. She has an exterior issue and she’s ready to dive right in (you know what that means… after pics! Hopefully really soon!) so here’s her letter: I’ve been a YHL reader since house #1 and I’m so excited that you’ve started this group advice feature!  I have a problem I hope you and your readers can help with. We’ve lived in our home for about four years, and the front needs a major paint job. It’s a

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Painting The Ceiling A Little Darker (And Glossier)

We’re doing Children’s Hospital stuff today, but a bunch of you noticed a foyer ceiling update in the background of yesterday’s post, so we owe you those details. We actually knocked it out before the big kitchen paint-fest, but that post cut the line because it was too exciting to save for later and we have the patience of toddlers (not to be confused with having the body of a baby). We usually hate painting ceilings (big rooms = sore backs) but the foyer’s a relatively small swatch of space, so I ended up just rolling the whole thing while Sherry knocked out some simple cutting in around the edges. If you wanna see some

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Fab Freebie: Farm Fresh

On this Thanksgiving week, Antique Farm House is offering up some fun and festive goods. This sale site that was started by two sisters specializes in (you guessed it) farmhouse style decor and vintage reproductions. And you can grab them for up to 80% off retail prices during their sale events. Every day they announce new deals that epitomize the shabby chic and industrial vibe – from furniture and accessories to storage and tableware. And considering the prices, the $500 gift card that someone’s winning this week could go a long way… Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this

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Painting Dark Trim & Paneling In The Kitchen

Y’all ready for this? Yes that was a Jock Jams reference. And yes, I can still get down to that. Not sure about the video though… Remember when the kitchen looked like this back when we first laid eyes on our house? Whelp, now it looks like this… It’s crazy how different certain angles look in person. It’s like walking into the room and wondering who added five extra lights. It’s just so much brighter. Yes, we dove headfirst into priming and painting the kitchen baseboards, crown molding, and window trim (52. freaking. panes.) and ended up just going all out and tackling the paneling and the doors to the pantry and the garage while

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A Little Holiday Excitement

Heads up: this post might be a bit of a smorgasbord. I think it’s because life has been feeling kinda smorgasbordy lately (in a good way) and sometimes it’s hard to organize life into tidy, tightly-themed blog posts when it’s really all over the place behind the scenes… I say it’s “in a good way” because we feel like we’re really starting to gain momentum around a goal that we mentioned in this post of taking on more “off-campus” projects. In other words, projects that aren’t centered solely around improving our own spaces and, in more than one case, are for a good cause. The Homearama Showhouse that we’re doing for Habitat For Humanity, being

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Weekly Crafty: Making A Playful Kid Clock

This week I was actually inspired by a request from Clara, which came by way of John’s mom. She was laughing as she told me that she overheard Clara telling her cousin that she didn’t have a clock in her room. Random, right? So I thought: I’ve never made a clock… but I bet I can make her something fun – maybe even something that she can interact with somehow. They sell those clock kits, so it can’t be too hard, right? So here’s where I ended up… And here it is living it up on the wall in Clara’s room. I originally thought it could be fun to use a birdhouse and add the

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Who’s More Sick Of Removing Wallpaper Than I Am?

A: Nobody B: You guys, since this is my fourth time waging war on it C: I’m Ron Burgundy? D: All of the above The answer, my friends, has to be D. Ah, how naive and thrilled I was when this whole wallpaper expedition began. Remember these famous last words? “I was actually really excited to tackle the half bathroom’s wallpaper removal project” Well, that tiny half bathroom was just the tip of the wallpaper iceberg, and then we moved onto stripping it in the foyer (which was doubled up in a few places) and the kitchen (my biggest room yet) and there were still two more rooms full o’ wallpaper just taunting me with

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Half Crazy (Running Richmond’s Half Marathon)

As you Instagrammers saw this weekend, on Saturday I ran the Richmond Half Marathon. It was actually my second half marathon, but the first was six years ago (pre-blog and pre-wedding!) so it’s not like I was an old pro or anything. Especially considering that first half marathon was very tough for me, despite training for it (I finished in 1 hour, 52 minutes, and with several blisters). But after surviving a local 8 mile race this September, I had the confidence to push myself towards another half marathon – a goal that’s been in the back of my mind for years now, partly just to prove to myself that I could run one with

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Listy McListerface: Updated

So sorry to everyone who requested an update on this sooner! We first shared our new house to-do list back in May and later updated it at the end of July, so this check-in is well overdue. But one fun thing about going longer than you meant to before updating a list is getting to cross things off like crazy. Picture me grinning maniacally for a far too extended period like the people in this video who think they’re getting their photos taken while the camera’s really on video mode. These posts came about when people asked us how we organize all the stuff that we have on our to-do list and we explained that we

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Fab Freebie: It’s A Little Bit Bunny

Virginia-raised Bunny Williams has made quite a name for herself in the interior designer world thanks to years of designing some pretty amazing rooms (which you can see in magazines, her books, and even on her Facebook page). So when she offered an upscale mirror from her line of furniture and decor items at Bunny Williams Home to one of you guys, we said “done deal.” So this week someone’s gonna win one of these three statement mirrors: the textured Ruffled Mirror, the sleek Garbo Mirror, or the curvacious My Pretty Mirror – which range from $900 to over $1600 in value! Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to

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Call It Vanity, Call It Shelf-ishness

It has been nearly a month since we talked about stenciling the floor in our sink nook (we’re all over the place lately – Clara’s room, outdoor tiling, installing our stair runner, landscaping adventures, starting in on the kitchen, etc) but that doesn’t mean we were done in there. We had a few more bullets to check off: sealing those stenciled floors loading in the closet after the floors dried (hopefully with more function/storage instead of the stuff we thoughtlessly shoved in there when we moved) updating the vanity with more function as well as a fresh finish (up close it was in pretty rough shape, and we thought we could gain more function from

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