Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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How To Make A Little Christmas Village

You guys know I like ceramic things. And miniature anything is 100% cuter than something that’s normal-sized (little sliders vs cheeseburgers for example). So it was only a matter of time before this happened. Let’s make a little Christmas village, shall we? It all started with some secondhand tea light holders that are meant to glow if you put little candles inside (some just have tiny holes for a string of lights to poke through instead). I’ve always stopped to stare at these things at thrift stores, because how much fun does it sound to repaint the old tired and chipped ones and bring them back to life in the form of a happy little Christmas town?! This past weekend I was trolling

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Holiday House Tour 2016

If we’re in the car driving around at night and we see a house or a yard all decorated with Christmas lights, there’s one guarantee, and that is that a tiny 2 year old voice will shout “It’s Christmastime!” from the back seat. Yup, it’s hilarious. And it can happen fifteen times within the course of a minute. And we still laugh and cheer every time. Christmas is in fact upon us. And as someone who resists the urge to drag the decorations out for a while and then finally gets the bug and CAN’T FREAKING WAIT, well, that happened yet again, and the house transitioned from “waiting to exhale be festive” to “so ridicccccculously festive” in

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House Stuff That’s Super On Sale Right Now

Ok, so this spur of the moment Friday post is all thanks to a gal named Kari on Instagram who messaged me and said “40% off capiz lamps at West Elm. Just saying’!” And, well, you know the rest. I lost my mind. And I bought a giant gorgeous chandelier that I can’t wait to lay in bed next to hang over our bed, and I almost bought a dozen other things (there were like 14 things in my cart at one point until John reined me in). And thus, this post full of deeply discounted house stuff was born. I didn’t make any fancy mood boards, just dumped a bunch of pics and links here. And as for what I

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Holiday Gift Guides For Guys, Gals, & Kids

We have a tradition around here when it comes to whipping up some holiday gift guides for the guys, gals, and kids in your life, so here are this year’s favorite finds. We rounded up around 35 items in each category – many of which are under $25 (there are even things under $5!). *There’s also a roundup of holiday coupon codes & discounts at the bottom of this post – you know we’re suckers for a sale, and some places have 50% off right now!*  1. These pretty little druzy earrings (20% off with code SALE20!) 2. Little scissors shaped like The Eiffel Tower are a cute gift for crafters/sewers 3. Pretty candles that smell

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New Video House Tour!

Now that our kitchen remodel is wrapped up, it felt like a good time for a (long overdue) video house tour. Our last one was nearly three years ago (you can watch it here) and there really wasn’t much progress to be seen, considering it was shot just seven months after we moved in (you can watch the “before” house tour here). But now that our first floor is looking almost unrecognizable from that “before” video, we figured it was time to break out the video camera and walk around the house using our tried & true method of John-films-while-I-chat-your-ear-off. Bonus points for anyone who can find the two frames proudly displaying a sideways stock photo of a stranger (we have

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Kitchen Remodel Chapter #3: The Big Reveal

Want a full tour of our newly renovated kitchen in 4,390 words or less? Well settle in and sip some LaCroix, because this is the post for you. Shall we begin with a few before and afters? You probably remember this view from our living room where you couldn’t actually see the kitchen. Well, now it looks like this: And here’s the old view from the other side, which is what you saw when you stepped in the door from the garage. These days it’s looking a little different. There’s obviously TONS of stuff to cover about this space, but today our main goal is to dish out lots of after photos and tell the story behind the major

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A Large House Plant That’s Easier Than A Fiddle Leaf Fig

Big leafy house plants. If they’re large and healthy looking they can make the room and we’ve all seen the glossy magazine shots to prove it. They can also ruin your day if you pay a lot for one that later croaks, leaving you feeling like a good-for-nothing plant killer. But not only have I managed to keep my big plants (mostly) alive – I’ve found a new favorite that’s super easy. First, let’s talk about the fiddle leaf fig. We, like 99.9% of blogland, have fallen hard for them. We’ve got two that have been happily cohabitating with us for years: one tall guy that resides in the office and a bushier one in the dining room. They’ve

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How To Turn One Duvet Cover Into Two

Yes, it is I, Sherry The Mediocre Seamstress, back with another post about sewing something while half wanting to fling the machine out the window, and then acting like a triumphant American Gladiator when I’m finished, parading around all sweaty and half clothed in full peacock mode. Behold, I have transformed one boy’s duvet cover into two. The issue was simple: my BFF had inherited her husband’s boyhood set of twin beds for their son’s bedroom. They had been using just one in their old house, but now had room to set up both in their new house (which is just a block away from mine! INSERT ALL THE EXCITED EMOJIS!). But alas, she had only one duvet cover

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A Teachers Lounge Makeover, Just In Time For Back To School

Kids going back to school means that teachers and staff are going back too, so we were psyched to make their return a little brighter for one local public school who reached out to us for help with their teachers lounge. So here’s the scoop. Back in June, someone who had seen our makeover of Hudson’s room reached out to see if we’d be interested in another volunteer makeover for a good cause. The principal and the PTA’s goal was to update the teachers lounge over the summer to surprise the staff when they came back in September. Teachers and school staff are SO DESERVING, so it was an easy yes for us. While the PTA had earmarked

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Embracing Beige

Beige gets a bad rap in the design world. It’s synonymous with bland, boring, colorless and therefore lifeless. “Nobody’s favorite color is beige,” is something we recently heard. Heck, we’ve probably snubbed it ourselves, defensively saying “oh no, this is a warm gray – or a light sand color – certainly not beige.” But if we’re being honest, some of our favorite paint colors probably fall under the beige umbrella. Particularly Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray, which is slowly taking over our house, room-by-room. Ever since we first used it in our foyer, we’ve fallen hard for how it dances the line between gray and tan. Staying neutral, not too cold, and not too yellow. Light enough to feel

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Turning Race Medals Into Christmas Ornaments (It’s Ridiculously Easy)

Sometimes when we mention some random side-note-y thing, that little aside surprises us by becoming the thing people want to know about more than anything else we’ve said. Take this cheeseball picture that we posted after John’s third triathlon almost two months ago on Instagram and Facebook, with the caption: “Third triathlon complete for this beast (and yes, we make Christmas ornaments for our tree from his medals, because we are nerds).” Well, we were completely surprised by how many of you guys commented about that little ornament tidbit and asked for instructions/photos/a blog post. So I’m here a mere two months later with the didn’t-ever-think-you’d-be-interested-but-I’m-game-if-you-are goods. There’s nothing like a little Christmas tutorial in July, eh? The good news is that it’s so

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Evolution Of A Room, Girl’s Bedroom Edition

Who’s ready for the coming of age tale of a girl room, just finding its own way in this big beautiful world? Growing, changing, and living life without regrets and a whole lot of heart (*cue the romantic comedy music*). I think Reese Witherspoon should play the room. Some recent updates to our daughter’s room made us realize that this space has undergone quite the evolution since we moved in three years ago. And much like we took you through the evolution of our last house’s master bedroom, we thought it would be fun to do that in here. We’re big subscribers to the whole “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again… and again,

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