Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Make A Beanbag Pouf

It’s Wednesday the 14th… so it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing). I actually tackled a homemade beanbag for Clara’s closet, which I mentioned last Wednesday when Katie, Erin, and Cassie and I issued our little get-off-our-bums-and-make-something challenge. As are the rules, I took inspiration (or Pintspiration, har-har) from the projects below and then I did my own spin. Which added up to this comfy little bean-bag… … for the bean to plop down on… … or the pooch to hang out on… … or for a toddler reading to a chihuahua…

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Our Family Trip To Hawaii

How about some Hawaii Two-O. Yes, that is a bad play on Hawaii Five-O, which can only mean one thing. It’s time for our second (and final) post about our trip to Maui, Hawaii. In case you missed the first post last Thursday, check it out here to read about: where we stayed where we ate our “neighborhood” how we saved money Oh and we talked about what it was like traveling with a toddler (and what worked/didn’t work) as well as getting Clara adjusted to the time difference here on Young House Life. Now as for this post, we’ll cover: all of the activities/adventures that we tackled while we were there (with a toddler

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House Crashing: Elegant And Fresh

We shared a smidge of Kirsten’s amazing house in last week’s Portland post just to get you excited, but here’s the whole House Crashing monty for ya. The exterior of her and her husband Kyle’s house is a rich gray color and the porch has the most amazing over-sized white corbels on either side of the door (note: house numbers have been changed to protect the innocent). Here’s a shot o the outside of the house from further away (wish we had been able to see it in all of its spring/summer glory when more is in bloom). When you walk inside, there’s a charming little entryway directly across from the door between the dining

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Fab Freebie: Tile Shop ‘Til Your Drop

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Random.org had quite the task of sifting through so many entries this week, but it has randomly selected our winner as… Kelley (who has so many ideas for how to use the gift card, including a fireplace surround, kitchen backsplash or master bath floor). Congrats! Ready for this? It’s not only one of our biggest giveaways EVER, but it’s also a giant excuse-buster when it comes to that tile project that you’ve been putting off. This week The Tile Shop is giving one of you a whopping $1,500 prize. In case you think your eyes are playing tricks on you, allow me to

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A Cork Floor In The Kitchen

Hootie hooo! The cork floor in both the kitchen and the laundry room is complete! Well, except if you count the fact that we still have to add shoe molding, thresholds, and seal it all. Details, details. The point is, we finally get to see the whole picture. Huzzah! The annoying part is that we still haven’t figured out how to photograph it as true to life as we can (it’s a rich mocha color, and actually looks more like brown leather in person, so the pattern is more like soft movement and less like any sort of obvious shapes or anything) – but the two videos from the last post really are the most

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February Superlatives

Psst- Sorry for the slightly belated post this morning, two out of the three human members of our household have the flu. Boo! For those asking where February Superlatives went, here they are! We were just in Hawaii the week they were “due” so they carried over to this week. And boy are we glad February is over. Well, not the part where we ended it basking oceanside in 80-degree weather, but the part where our heads were spinning from three weeks of secret book project-doing and photoshoot-ing. Yeah, we’re glad that’s behind us. But since we survived all that (and lived to tell the tale!) in addition to prepping for a presentation in Portland

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Traveling To Maui, Hawaii With A Toddler

Since we took waaaaaaay too many pictures of our six night stay in Maui, we did our best to go through them all and majorly pare them down – but it still adds up to two posts (you know we like to over-share). We wish we could have taken you all with us in our suitcase, so I guess the next best thing is posting all about it. In this one, we’ll cover: where we stayed where we ate our “neighborhood” how we saved money And in the next post we’ll detail: all of the activities/adventures that we tackled while we were there (with a toddler in tow) the home-related purchase we made to remember

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Tips For Flying With A Toddler

After getting lots of great tips from you guys about flying with a toddler, we thought we’d give you guys a recap about what worked well (lollipops!) and what didn’t (two words: red eye). We spent a lot of time in the air: six flights in total. Two on the way to Portland (layover in Chicago), one direct from Portland to Maui and then a whopping three on the way back to Richmond (with layovers in Seattle and Chicago). The flights between the West Coast and Hawaii were the longest at six hours each, and since Clara’s still under two, we didn’t buy a seat for her (we knew she’d be most comfortable in our

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How To Install A Cork Floor

This is supposed to be the post where I declare “The floors are DONE… enthusiastic exclamation point!” But instead I’m here to say “The floors are almost done… sheepish period.” But they’re mostly down and they weren’t actually that hard to do! Seriously, anyone can do this. Since we last updated you, they’ve gone from this: To this: Note: Some of these photos have the cork looking more red/orange than it is in real life. But if you watch the video where we’re installing it (or the one with Clara in it), it’s probably the most true to life (a rich mocha color). We’ll try to take better pics next time! We thought we could

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Can You Smell That Smell?

Yup, the faint smell of bacon, spray paint, and sweat can only mean one thing… it’s Pinterest Challenge time (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie Bower to make us stop pinning and start doing). So let’s do this thing, people. Let’s do it together. In bikinis (let’s be honest, bikinis haven’t been an option for me since having Clara). It all started last June when Katie called me to say that she thought we should challenge ourselves to make one thing each season that’s inspired by all the gorgeous stuff that we’ve pinned (and call it… wait for it… The Pinterest Challenge). It’s a welcome slap of stop-pinning-and-start-doing. Because

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This Land Is Portland

After all that sun we got in Hawaii, we almost forgot that we still have some adventures to share from a notoriously less sunny place. We already told you about our day at the Portland Home & Garden Show (you can read more about that here – and if we met that evening, our pic together might be here). And yes, Sherry is holding someone else’s baby and I’m wearing an apron (meant for Clara!). Between all of that presenting/meeting/greeting we actually had some time to take in the city a little bit too. So for anyone planning a visit (or just wondering what the heck we did) here ya go… We got into town

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How To Spray Paint A Wood Box

This week’s first project for my little self-imposed Dude Get On That Already challenge is small – but it’s not animal related (so that’s something, right?!). It actually involves a fifty cent wood box that I found at Goodwill about three months ago and then… you guessed it… stuffed it into our playroom, never to be seen again. Until now. Here’s the only before picture that I shot with blue spray paint in it before deciding not to go blue… Nope, I didn’t go gray either- that’s just primer. Yup… I went yellow! I still had some leftover from this horse head bookend makeover of yore, and I thought it would look like a little

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