Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Archives for June 2011

| By | | 303 Comments

“That’s Richmond For Ya”

Upon moving to Richmond 5 years ago, we quickly learned that “Oh, that’s Richmond for ya” is the appropriate reaction when one of those small world coincidences takes place. It’s meant to reference that despite being a fairly legit city, Richmond has a small town vibe where everyone seems to know everyone else through no more than a degree or two of Kevin Bacon friends and acquaintances. So when, for example, you find out that the girl at your favorite lighting outlet rents an apartment in the backyard of a house that you’ve crashed (and where your sister got married) you say “That’s Richmond for ya.” True story, by the way. Well, we’ve got a

[ Read More ]

| By | | 300 Comments

Planting An Herb Garden In A Metal Tub

Our (continued) indecision about where our vegetable and herb garden should permanently go at our new place means we missed the boat on planting anything this spring (check out our edible gardens of years past here and here). But in an attempt to grow something this year, we’ve come up with a temporary solution. And it involves this galvanized tub: We figured we’d just do a potted herb garden this year, with only a few “edible essentials” for our kitchen. Which is why we picked up a foursome of local and organically grown herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, and mint) at the farmer’s market this weekend for $12. Speaking of which, you can read more about

[ Read More ]

| By | | 3,463 Comments

Fab Freebie: Tek For Dads

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** According to random.org, the winner this week is… Kat (who celebrated Father’s Day with cards, dinner for her husband and a called to her dad). Congrats! In honor of Father’s Day (yes, I realize it was yesterday, but why not keep the celebration alive?) we’re giving away – you guessed it – TOOLS. But these particular tools are Ryobi TEK4 tools, a series of ten cordless gadgets that look pretty darn sleek, are crazy durable, and run on a long-lasting 4V rechargeable battery. And come to think of it, ladies would look just as good slinging these guys (so they’re not just for

[ Read More ]

| By | | 539 Comments

How To Make Ikea Curtains Look Good

That’s how many yards I knew I’d need to make eight living room curtains. It generally breaks down to five yards of fabric per window (or sliding door) for two floor-length curtains that I can hang high and wide over each one. So five yards times four windows/sliders = eight panels (two for the big back window, two for each of the two sliding doors to the right as you face the window, and two for the sliding door to the left (that leads out onto this balcony to nowhere). So that’s where the whole 20 yards thing came from. And yeah for those who can’t picture it, that’s a lot of fabric (60 feet

[ Read More ]

| By | | 121 Comments

A Neutral Living Room With Citrus Accents

It feels like years since I made my last mood board (you can see over 125 of them here). What the heck is up with that? So I’m breaking the dry spell with this just-for-fun creation that I tossed together with some cheerful and sunny summer color. I wanted to pick some fun accessories that anyone with a neutral toned sofa and neutral colored walls could use as a springboard for pulling together a room with a warm, happy, and inviting vibe: 1. The color palette for the room is full of warm tones like sunny orange and yellow along with some rich dark wood tones, some basic neutrals like mocha and tan, and glossy

[ Read More ]

| By | | 305 Comments

Patio Updates And Backyard Landscaping

Don’t get too excited. It’s not so much aesthetic progress, as it is functional progress. We got our old spray painted metal and glass coffee table from our first house‘s living room… … back from John’s parents (they used it when their house was on the market and then it accidentally got hidden away in storage). Then it dawned on us that although we didn’t have a spot for it inside, a ton of outdoor furniture is spray painted metal and glass (like the round table that the old owners left on our upper patio). So out to the patio it went. Is it perfect for the space? Nope. Is it great for resting my

[ Read More ]

| By | | 400 Comments

How To Paint A Brick Fireplace

We’re back with the fireplace update that we mentioned in yesterday’s post about removing our old not-baby-safe wood stove. This next step is definitely just the beginning of our fireplace makeover (as in step two of probably fifteen). We figure we’ll tackle this baby in stages (just like we do pretty much everything else around here) so the first step was to spend as little as possible to get it looking better for the short-term (since it might be a while until Phase Two kicks in). So here’s what it looked like yesterday morning: And here’s what it looked like yesterday evening: I know, I know – the orange paneling makes it look craZy with

[ Read More ]

| By | | 188 Comments

How We Transplanted Our Red Maple Tree

We were sneaky. Before we put our first house on the market we dug up a Japanese maple that we had planted in the back. We planted it right around the time we got married and it was an offshoot plant from a gorgeous maple that grew in John’s parents’ house (the only house he lived in for his entire childhood which has since been sold). So it was kind of double-meaningful with the whole “wedding tree” and “John’s childhood house” connection. That’s why before we sold the house we figured we should dig it up and put it in a bucket and move that bucket right along with us. But since we moved in

[ Read More ]

| By | | 338 Comments

Removing An Old Woodstove Fireplace Insert

As of today we’ve lived in our house for six whole months. And in all that time we’ve never formally introduced you to Bart. How rude of us. Bart, aka Black Bart the woodstove insert, is hard to miss in our kitchen. We know the previous owners got a lot of use out of him (although they did warn us that he made the house pretty smoky and coated a lot of nearby surfaces with fine black dust). We’d always planned to replace him down the road when we hopefully convert our fireplace into a double fireplace (that can be enjoyed from the living room as well as the kitchen). But Clara spurred us into action

[ Read More ]

| By | | 1,612 Comments

Fab Freebie: Guiding Site

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Thanks to random.org, our winner is… Kari (who gets lost even with the help of GPS). Congrats Kari! It goes without saying that we’re big fans of decorating and design help through the magic of the internet. So of course we’re psyched that one of you is gonna score some customized assistance from My Design Guide. They tap into a network of real interior designers to help you out with everything from quick fix mini-consults (which come free just by completing their StyleFinder quiz) to full blown 3-D renderings with paint color picks, furniture selections, and a shopping list (see a sample here).

[ Read More ]

| By | | 213 Comments

A Beautiful House Tour In North Carolina

We’re back with another house crashing adventure from our recent road trip through Charlotte, North Carolina. You already caught a sneak peek of the amazing kitchen, so we’re back to fill in the blanks. And oh man, this family couldn’t have been sweeter if they were made of sugar. Seriously. And their completely transformed 60’s ranch couldn’t have been more charming. Even the outside had us at hello (you know we love a brick ranch). Since they tackled such an amazing makeover, we decided to toss in some before pictures to show you just how far Kristen, Stan, and their one year old son Davis have taken it (well, Davis was in the belly most

[ Read More ]

| By | | 146 Comments

A Little Saturday Night Update

In the breaking news department (that’s an overstatement if I’ve ever made one), although it’s the weekend I thought I’d stop in to share this super quick probably-interesting-to-no-one-but-me dining room update. Remember a few days back when I made our new curtains? And the table looked like this? Well, now it looks like this: Can you already tell the difference? Here, I’ll get a little closer. Yeah, the branches died. Probably because I didn’t even put water in the vase. Oops. How quickly the dream dies. Well, at least when the dream is lush leafy green branches that survive on love alone. And not water. So in mini keeping-it-real news, our table is substantially less

[ Read More ]