Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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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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Tons Of Curtain Hanging Tips & A Quick Way To Hang Rods

Last fall we shared our trick for hanging affordable Ikea curtains so they look a lot more expensive than their $14 price tag per panel would suggest (across an entire house you can save thousands with that trick & these curtains alone!!). But since we were just replacing our old bedroom curtains when we wrote that post, we skipped the crucial step of actually hanging the curtain rods themselves. And since we just installed approximately one million curtains at the duplex (okay, 16 of them, but that’s a pretty notable amount to hang all at once) we wanted to share a new trick that we used to speed things up, keep everything looking level and

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A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex!

It feels like a while since you’ve seen the front of the duplex (I blame winter) but that’s going to change today. And let me tell you… THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER! There’s no landscaping yet, the grass is patchy, and Sean the Contractor’s gigantic sign is still there… … but boy oh boy is she lookin’ fynnnnnnnneee when we compare her to where we started: All of the not original details came down – like the weird plastic wagon wheels and strange abacus trim that was added in the 70s, the plastic too-small shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, all those satellite dishes, and the duct tape along the roofline. And we maintained or

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The Easiest House Plants & The Best Faux Plants I’ve Found

This post is going to be full of photos, because I think they do most of the work in making a case for a house full of greenery. But like, easy greenery. That isn’t stressful and that doesn’t remind you of that emoji of dollar signs with wings. Because when things die repeatedly, it can GET YOU DOWN. Ask me how I know. The point is that I TRULY AND DEEPLY BELIEVE that nearly every single room in a home can benefit from greenery – it adds a splash of life and a gorgeous and vibrant texture. So if you’ve got some low light spots that just don’t allow anything real to live, and you’re

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Making A Light & Airy Living Room (That’s Still Livable!)

Just when you thought the duplex was getting all the action, we snuck in some beach house updates. The backyard is slowly starting to come together (shed! patio! fence! I CAN’T WAIT to show it to you once it gets a little further along!!) but today we’re diving into our lightener & brighter (and much beachier) living room. Now this place actually looks like it’s a few blocks from the beach! And the bonus is that everything is sand and popsicle friendly – which is a must for us (we pack this place with family and friends and all the kids). So our goal was never to make it too precious. In other words, we

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My New Favorite Front Door Paint (& Tips For Painting A Door)

You know we painted our front door a new color back when we painted our brick house white in October, and I even mentioned back in that post that I used a new-ish specialty paint that’s made for front doors. It’s called Grand Entrance by Benjamin Moore and the paint color is Tranquility also by Benjamin Moore, and it can either be made in a satin base or a super hyper glossy mirror finish base. Based on all of those excited adjectives I used to describe the latter option, it should be of no surprise to you that I jumped at the chance to buy and try “high gloss” for the first time. Photos don’t

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A Tiny House Makeover (Ok, It’s A Dollhouse)

I was surprised how many questions I got about the little dollhouse sneak peeks I’ve shared on IG stories over the last few weeks as I fixed this up with the kids. And then I polled you guys to see if you wanted a post about it, and 91% of you voted yes, so here it is! You can read more about how these came to be on this podcast from a few weeks back, but the gist is that the kids really wanted super detailed dollhouses to fix up, and we got two of them secondhand on Facebook marketplace to “renovate” together. This little makeover was lots of fun for us all, since the

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What I Put On My Face & In My Hair

This update post was spawned when I listed a lot of this info at the bottom of another post all about our home & personal care products (it was a giant rundown we shared in 2017) but since people were having trouble finding this info buried at the bottom (and I had to keep adding updates as I changed something) this post was born. HAIR/SHOWER STUFF This is my current favorite shampoo and conditioner, and I also use this AMAZING curl cream, which I apply when my hair is wet right out of the shower (long story short, I realized my hair is actually curly and not just frizzy like I thought – this stuff is great for thick

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Things Are Getting Homier At The Duplex!

Last month we shared how refinishing the floors at the duplex made us feel like we turned a major corner at a house we’ve been renovating for over a year (remember when it looked like this?!). And now we are firmly in “the fun part!” You know, where you get to start bringing in rugs and light fixtures and furniture and accessories so it goes from looking like a construction zone to an actual home. It’s THE. BEST. Especially after months and months of expensive improvements that you don’t even see when the drywall goes back up (like plumbing and electrical upgrades). So let’s just get right into it. Behold, this wall of the left

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Holiday Gift Guides for Everyone On Your List (With Stuff under $20 – And Even $5!)

As is the tradition, I’m a little late with this. Ha! But here it is! (I’m also late with my actual gift buying, so I better get cracking). We like to put all of our gift guides in one place, so below you’ll find the one we made for grown-ups, another one for kids, and (my personal favorite) one full of stuff that’s under $15.  Gifts For Grown-Ups Here’s what we’re loving, either firsthand stuff we bought for ourselves and have really enjoyed – or things we’re getting for friends & family (or hoping to find under the tree).  1 / Adulting Award Ribbons (4/$25): It would be so much fun to have an “award

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Holiday House Tour 2018 & How We Decorated The Beach House!

Wanna see how we decorated our house (and the beach house) for Christmas? We have a ton of photos for you, so let’s get right into it. Since we got an entirely new exterior for Christmas (literally all I wanted for Christmas was a white brick house, ha!) we had so much fun trying some new things out front. We did some simple warm white exterior LEDs (why are those so hard to find?!) on the trees on each side of the door. Remember I upgraded those to these larger faux ones because I can’t kill them and the taller height looks nicer on the porch with all the white brick. Those pots are actually

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Our Furniture Is Officially For Sale!

I’m not sure an emoji even exists to capture how THRILLED we are to announce that our furniture line is finally out! The one that represents me would probably be the salsa dancing woman, except she’d be wearing all black with a skull for a face because I’m 95% dead from the excitement. Also let’s add a taco in her hand because that’s always a good idea. Am I already talking about tacos? That got off track quickly. Anyway, I know a lot of you have been following along as this day has crept closer (thank you for that, btw!) so now you can officially shop the whole collection (over 30 pieces! way more than

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