Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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Our Room For Real Simple’s Idea House

Earlier this month we took the whole family (dog included!) up to Brooklyn for a few days to put together the space we’ve be designing for this year’s Real Simple Idea House over the past five or so months. I realize there’s a lot to unpack in that sentence (especially if you missed our podcast episode or Instagram stories about it) so we’ll catch you up right here and show you the *almost* finished space. And explain what’s still left to be done before their big photoshoot for the magazine and tell you about how some last-minute curveballs actually made the room better. And tell you what they do with everything in the house once

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Before & Afters Of Our Beach House: Upstairs

Many moons ago John shared the beach house before & after photos from downstairs (tons of never before seen angles!) right here in this post. And it has taken us a while (how has it been eight months?!) to get the upstairs before & afters all together so you can see all of those comparisons, and browse the entire second floor of our project, which we are thrilled came together (it was looking ROUGH at the start). So let’s pop upstairs & look around, shall we? Because the transformations were just as big up there… UPSTAIRS HALL & OFFICE Here’s the upstairs hall as you face the front room that we converted into a mini

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A Video Tour Of The Duplex

Finally… we have a full video tour of both sides of the duplex! A ton of people have asked for this (or asked if they missed it) and, well, today is the day. If nothing else, I recommend watching it to see the ecstatic relief on my face at the end that WE. ARE. DONE! Also I talk through a bunch of our changes and choices throughout the reno, and share some of our favorite decisions that upgraded the house in the biggest ways. The video is also just good for seeing how each room flows together, checking out what’s different from side to side, and basically “walking through” the entire project with us. Just

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The Duplex Backyards – Patios, Sheds, & Outdoor Showers Galore!

AT LAST! The backyards of the duplex are DONE DONE DONE! And with basically zero time to spare (our first weeklong summer renters arrive this Saturday and we actually have some early-birds staying on one side right now until Saturday since we finished in the nick of time and they inquired with just enough time to squeeze them in!). There are lots of pics in this post, so I’ll try to keep the words under control – but this is one of our favorite makeovers in the entire renovation. Let’s go back in time for a second to appreciate how far the back of this house has come. This is what it looked like when

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The Last Finished Duplex Spots You Haven’t Seen

We’re back with the (finally!) finished photos of the two small-but-mighty bonus sleeping spaces at the duplex! Plus we’ve got pictures and details of two of the hardest working spaces: the linen closet and our locked owner’s closet that guests won’t see – but you can! In short: these little nooks & crannies GO HARD for us. So we’re excited to show you how they turned out. Since we have two larger bedrooms on each side of the duplex with closets and dressers (you can see them here and here), we refer to these as “bonus sleeping nooks” – which are pretty common around Cape Charles, as well as in other beach communities. They pass

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How I Style A Bookshelf (Captured On Video In Fast Motion)

Ok, so this post was born from a random comment on Instagram a while back where someone asked if I had ever shared a video of myself styling a bookshelf on video so they could see my process and watch me shift things around… and I was like “would it be interesting/helpful if I recorded myself doing that and shared it?” And then so many people commented under that to basically say YES DO THAT. So I did. And here it is. My friend Teresa recently added built-ins to her living room and asked if I’d mind coming over to style them. She knows my soul, and is well aware that’s basically my love language

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The Duplex Laundry Room / Mudrooms: Completed!

Ok, two more duplex rooms are finished and photographed! And these two involved some sweat equity. We built in some nice tall storage cabinets next to the stacked washer/dryers, and also added two hook rails per room (you can never have enough hooks at the beach!). As a side note, the way that the kitchens connect and flow into each laundry room / mudroom is one of my favorite things in the entire house. From the bold statement tile backplashes and fun tiled mudroom floors to the painted pocket doors (we added those to make it possible to close off the sound of laundry if you’re cooking, dining, or watching TV) – it’s just an

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The Finished Living Rooms & Dining Rooms At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON. This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby! One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add

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Because You Know We Love A Painted Brick House…

By now you know that we’re nothing short of OBSESSED with the results of painting our brick house white last fall. It has probably been one of our favorite makeovers in our 13 years of homeownership. So for anyone else who might be considering doing something similar, we wanted to share some advice and some exciting news! And also some spring pics of the house, because it’s the first time we’ve gotten to see her with the white flowering dogwoods out front and it makes my heart wanna burst. Wait but first I should passionately proclaim that we don’t think that all brick should be painted. We still very much love an unpainted brick home

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Four More Finished Spaces At The Duplex!

If you tuned in last week, you saw us very excitedly reveal the before & after photos of the first four rooms that we completed at the duplex. SO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS! There isn’t much rhyme or reason to the order of the things we’re sharing – we’re just rolling things out as we complete & photograph them… so today we have FOUR MORE SPACES THAT ARE DONE DONE DONE! Can you tell how thrilling that is for us to proclaim after over a year and a half of working to get this house put back together and ready for renters this summer?! (The listing will go live on Airbnb once we’re done with all

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Wanna See Some Finished Bedrooms & Bathrooms at The Duplex?

We’re working overtime (so many trips to the beach these days!) to get all of the rooms in the duplex finished and photographed so we can get our rental listing up on Airbnb for weeklong summer bookings. Don’t worry, we’ll make a big announcement when that happens – you won’t miss it! So even though we still have a bunch of rooms that aren’t quite done yet (like 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 2 laundry rooms, and 2 more bedrooms and bathrooms), it feels extremely momentous to be 100% finished with the four rooms in this post. *Please imagine every single celebratory emoji here* So without further ado, I’ll show you around the two bedrooms

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Before & After Of The Back Of The Duplex

Earlier this month we showed you the front porch makeover of the duplex, and today we’re taking you around back to show you how the backside has been transformed (hindquarters? rear? rump? let’s just stick with backside). And yes, you can finally see my beloved diamond doors in all of their glory! Along with the little metal awnings we added, our new back steps, and even those outdoor showers (covered by an extra long metal awning for privacy). Ok and also cute-factor because apparently I’m just really into awnings. There’s actually a lot of work being done to the back yard at the moment (sheds, patios, and fences are in progress as you read this!!!!)

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