Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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A “Pink & Gold Everything” Kids Party

This weekend our deck was full of people we love, gathered to celebrate this four year old bean of ours. It was pretty awesome to have so much connected outdoor space to party on (the sunroom-turned-veranda and our big deck that overlooks the grassy backyard felt less chopped up than having some people in the last house’s sunroom while others were on our two-tiered patio). And since our previous house is where we’ve hosted every other Clara-birthday since she was born (here’s the post about her first birthday, the one about her second one, and the one about her third) it felt both weird and wonderful to have our first big birthday gathering here. Most

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How To Make Wooden Play Pastries & Treats For A Kids Tea Party

Remember when Clara was queen of the jellyfish? Good times. The girl definitely has fun with pretend play, and we like to make things for her, especially on occasions like birthdays and Christmas (like this play kitchen, this dollhouse, this latch board, this figurine cubby, this patterned doll cradle, this colorful quilt, this cuckoo clock and this beanbag pouf) so with yesterday being her fourth birthday (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!) I thought some pretend pastries would be fun. I know, it sounds like a cruel joke. “Happy birthday! Here are delicious sugary things you can’t eat because – surprise! – they’re made of wood!” But lately she has been loving tea parties (here she is

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Fab Freebie: Showhaus To Your House

As John mentioned in yesterday’s post, we somehow convinced Arhaus to hook one of you up with the entire Wyatt Outdoor Collection, valued at $4,500! It includes the matching sofa, ottoman, and swivel chair (as shown below) that we used to deck out the front porch of our showhouse. It definitely passes the comfort test, each piece is hand painted to look like weathered wicker, it has a sturdy (but lightweight) aluminum frame, and there’s durable Sunbrella fabric to keep it looking good for the long haul. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway is available

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Beautiful Outdoor Spaces At The Showhouse

There are a few outdoor showhouse spaces that we haven’t shown at all in this entire yearlong process. Each of the seven showhouses were encouraged to include some fun outdoor spaces as well as indoor ones, so aside from the stuff you can see from the curb, there’s also a back porch and a back patio complete with a stone fireplace. The cool thing about these outdoor spaces is that they’re the places that we got to put our heads together with the builder and the architect the most – and they ended up being some of our favorites. The craziest thing is that our house won 1st place (i.e. the “Gold Award”) for both

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How To Make Planting Beds With Mulch

Let’s talk about planning planting beds, digging them out to crisp up the edges, spreading a truckload of mulch, and other fun curb appeal delights. Yes, with Clara’s birthday party coming up this weekend (more on that another day) we’ve been trying to give our landscaping a little attention. Mother Nature has done her job by cranking the greenery to eleven, so we’ve done some work to further improve the view from our front porch. And from this post title, you can probably guess what I’m talking about. Let’s hot tub time machine our way back to last summer (after all, there is no classier way to time travel) when most of our plant beds

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Clara Conversations

A bunch of you asked if we’d be continuing this series from Young House Life over here after this post, and the answer is yes. So… happy Saturday! And happy Mother’s Day to all the ladies out there who are celebrating it (says the bleary eyed sleep-deprived mom who wouldn’t have it any other way). Convo #1 Clara (stalling before bedtime): Wait! Before bed let’s talk about my room! Mom: What about your room? Clara: My fairy lights. Mom: What about them?  Clara: They make… my eyes… feel… so… round.  Convo #2 Clara (randomly in the middle of breakfast after looking down at her outfit): I have the most beautiful dress in Virginia. Convo #3 Clara (looking through

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House Crashing: The Whole Show

For the last few weeks you guys have been requesting a House Crashing post with photos of the other six Homearama homes in the show, so we slipped through and snapped a bunch of pictures of each house, just like we did for this Homearama House Crash from 2012 (that’s your warning that this post is extremely image-heavy). Everyone who has attended the show so far seems to have different favorites, which is definitely part of the fun (there’s a “people’s choice” award that everyone who passes through can vote for, and each of the seven boxes have a ton of papers in them). All of the houses in the show sit on a cul-de-sac

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Fab Freebie: Cone And Get It

Who wants $500 to Pine Cone Hill for a little bedding refresh? They make everything from duvets and sheets to pillows, poufs, and even placemats – and they come in classic and neutral patterns or punchy colorful prints (like the Parama Diamond pattern we used in the showhouse’s master bedroom). Their site has styles grouped into categories like “Haute Lodge” and “Cape Calm” to help you find the perfect combo, or of course you can go rogue and mix-and-match from different sets. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway is available to residents of the US

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Weekly Baby Photo Project

A lot of you have been asking if we’re taking weekly baby photos of Teddy, like we did with Clara for the first year of her life (you can read more about that project here, here, and here). The answer is yes! Although we had some fun putting a slightly different spin on our weekly project this time around. Here are his first two shots: Note: the number font is called Sullivan and the “weeks” font is called Big Mouth. While we were tempted to do something entirely different for Teddy, we didn’t want to completely reinvent the wheel (when it came down to it, we really liked how Clara’s project turned out). So just

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The Kitchen & Living Room In The Showhouse

Happy May and, well, Happy Opening Day of Homearama! Yep, our showhouse is officially open to the public as of today, along with the six others in the show. Deepbreathsdeepbreaths. Since we last showed you the office, butler’s pantry, and main bedroom (along with the en-suite bathroom & closet) and then took a pause to have a baby, let’s pick back up in the main living spaces of the house: the living room & the kitchen – which you can see from the floor plan below are both pretty big zones on the first floor. The walls in both the living room and the kitchen are Simply White, and then we layered in some colorful

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Fab Freebie: Peel The Love

Got a wall that’s looking kinda plain? Well, the people at WallsNeedLove have an answer in the form of $500 to spend on their site (and it’s open to anyone in the world!). They’ve got a whole slew of decal and vinyl designs to romance your space (and everything’s removable if you ever want to change things up). In addition to cool patterns and shapes in their decal design packs, they’ve also got wallpaper, prints, and even an “Easy Stripe” solution where you can customize the size and color for any stripe pattern that you can dream up. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it

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Making A Waterproof Vinyl Changing Pad Cover

When we last left off in the nursery, we had painted the closet door green, but still had a few lingering functional things that we needed (like a changing pad cover, a hamper, and a bin for dirty diapers) as well as a plan for the wall behind the crib that we had been debating. Update #1. You probably remember when we were considering this fun arrow wallpaper for that spot (among others) but thought it might be a little busy on that side with all the built-ins, so imagine our surprise to find a changing pad cover in the same pattern on Etsy. Teddy loves it. So much, in fact, that he has already

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