Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 561 Comments

Blogiversary 5: It’s On Like Donkey Kong

Holy cow, have we really been blogging for half a decade?! Crazytown. It feels like just yesterday that we were creating a basic page with a big blue-background so friends and family members could drop in on our first home’s kitchen makeover. For our fifth blogiversary we wanted to host a parade complete with homeowners marching by waving hammers and paint rollers, but since we couldn’t get that together – and it honestly sounded like someone could lose an eye that way – we decided to go for the next best thing: a week of blogiversary madness and behind the scenes hullabaloo (just like we’ve done for the past few years here, here, and here).

[ Read More ]

| By | | 175 Comments

Installing A Dual Flush Button To Our Toilet

We made four little updates around here, so I thought I’d smash them all into a quick recap post for ya. First, we have been meaning to convert our bathroom toilet to a dual flush version for a while (we already did it to the one in the hallway and the one in our first house – seriously we LOVE this upgrade!). Sadly when we attempted to use this kit that we bought on Amazon (here’s the affiliate link for ya), it turns out that our new toilet isn’t compatible. Apparently the angle/shape of the bottom of the tank kept it from attaching correctly. So we padded down the hall to the guest room and installed it

[ Read More ]

| By | | 257 Comments

First Day of School

Clara started preschool last week. Who took our baby and replaced her with this little girl? After some debate, we decided to enroll Clara in a local 2-day per week preschool. It’s just the mornings, so she’s there for three hours on each of those two days. She loves being around other kids so we thought it was the right time for her… but we still held our breaths a bit on the first day. Would she cry? Would we cry? Would we get called half-way through to come pick her up because she was having an all-consuming sobbing fit? Nope. There were dry eyes all around. Heck, Clara was so excited when she arrived

[ Read More ]

| By | | 111 Comments

Painting A Multi-Colored Houndstooth Stencil On The Bedroom Wall

Ready for some wow? Jess and Monica really turned some out for this makeover of their friend’s guest room. Sherry has been obsessed with houndstooth ever since I met her and you’re about to see a pretty cool take on it below. Here’s their letter: Hi John and Sherry! We just finished a fun and affordable room redesign for our friends Connie & Mark, so we thought we’d share it with you. When a close friend asks you to help re-do their bubble-gum pink, non-descript guest room, you can’t say no. Our favorite part of the room is the multi-colored houndstooth stencil. We love how it’s kind of a modern spin on a classic pattern. It

[ Read More ]

| By | | 209 Comments

First House Vs. Current House: One Year Later

Q: I just read an old post of yours where you compared your last house to your current one – and it looks like you preferred the old one in some ways because you had done more renovation, etc.  I think it would be awesome if you did a do-over of that post now that it has been so long and you’ve done so much to improve your new house! – Thanks for all the inspiration, Sarah A: You’re right, it’s high time we revisited this weird little comparison of our first house and our current one, so let’s get right into it. It all started when someone (ironically also named Sarah) said this about

[ Read More ]

| By | | 471 Comments

Our $170 Bathroom Makeover For Granny

Who’s ready for the big bathroom reveal? As we mentioned in Monday’s post, there are almost always three main steps to room makeovers (some of which take forever and a day, and some that are done fast and furiously, like this bathroom blitz): So Day Three (see Day One and Day two here and here) was all about those finishing touches. Here’s how it all went down (and yes, I was writing on the back of a paper plate with a calligraphy marker – gotta use whatcha got, haha). Ta-daaa! It took about an hour to make some custom curtains for Granny’s window thanks to some designer fabric (made by Braemore, if that helps) that

[ Read More ]

| By | | 505 Comments

11 Ways To Save Money On Clothes

Ever since this post about Clara’s clothes, I’ve actually gotten a surprising amount of requests for a post about how I save money on my own clothes, what my staples are, and how I generally get by without spending a ton of my momdrobe – er, I mean wardrobe. And although I’m hardly a fashion plate (that idea makes me snort-laugh) I do love a deal, so here’s a rundown on how I save money when I’m shopping for myself along with some sneaky sale tricks I’ve learned along the way and a few general dressing rules that seem to work for me (slash keep me from buying stuff I’ll regret/never wear/stare angrily at in

[ Read More ]

| By | | 214 Comments

Day Two Of Our Big Bathroom Makeover For Granny

Yesterday you saw Day Numero Uno of what I lovingly call “Operation Granny Chic.” Mission: update my Granny’s bathroom over three whirlwind days. So with all of the prep work done, our day-by-day play-by-play continues with painting and new floors. Except for one minor step that stood in our way… Notice that giant rust spot on the air duct near the floor? Since there’s no way paint would fix that on its own (it would bleed right through), we slapped some Rustoleum on that puppy before breaking out the paint cans. It was amazing how one fast coat worked like a charm. The paint color we chose for the room is “Hint of Violet” by

[ Read More ]

| By | | 8,417 Comments

Fab Freebie: Scoping Out The Goods

*** This giveaway is now closed – see who won! *** Glad to hear so many of you had fun with the quiz (though sorry it had a bit of trouble loading for some). Random.org has selected our lucky winner and she is… Emily W (who thought she’d be BOHO, but ended up a mix of Sassy and Classic). Congrats Emily! It’s been a while since we’ve posted about a fun what’s-your-design-style type quiz (like these of the past). And it’s been never since our post about one came with a chance to win $500 from HomeGoods. So if ever there was time to put aside your allegiance to scientific results, this would be a

[ Read More ]

| By | | 244 Comments

Day One Of Our Big Bathroom Makeover For Granny

There are almost always three main steps to the room makeovers that we tackle, and depending on the scope/depth of them, they can take a few days or a few months (ok, and sometimes we jump around so much that things take years). Either way, the order seems to go like so: prep/planning (brainstorming, picking a color palette, going shopping, priming, sanding, spackling) bigger upgrades (painting walls, refinishing or painting cabinets, laying new flooring, etc) finishing touches (curtains, new hardware, art, accessories – all the things that add “you” to the space) So when John’s mom mentioned his grandma’s half bathroom could use a little makeover we got to put those three steps into action.

[ Read More ]

| By | | 277 Comments

Turning Soup Cans Into Pop Art Pencil Cups

Come on, could I pass up a chance to include this SNL clip? The answer is no. No, I couldn’t. In other words: soup, there it is. Anyway, I’m beginning to think that Friday posts should be called Fast & *Almost* Free Projects since we had Sir Butterfly last week and now we have a little soup can craft that I did in honor of my good friend Andy Warhol (ok, so we’re only besties in my mind…). How cute are these guys holding some of Clara’s drawing supplies on her desk? The colors make me permasmile. The first step was grabbing four of the limited edition tomato soup cans that Target is currently selling

[ Read More ]

| By | | 122 Comments

A White Kitchen Makeover With White Tile & A Butcher Block Island

If you send us an email with the words “1950s ranch,” “knock down walls” and “kitchen makeover” you’ve officially piqued our interest. And when you attach before & after photos as stunning as Jessica’s, well, end of story. I’ll need a moment to pick my jaw up off of the floor. Here’s her letter: Hey guys! I know how you love a good before and after and thought you might be interested in ours. We bought our 1950’s ranch just over two months ago and have been working around the clock to get her in tip top shape. We recently wrapped up the kitchen remodel and DIYed everything but the countertops. Since moving into our

[ Read More ]