Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Fab Freebie: Guiding Site

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Thanks to random.org, our winner is… Kari (who gets lost even with the help of GPS). Congrats Kari! It goes without saying that we’re big fans of decorating and design help through the magic of the internet. So of course we’re psyched that one of you is gonna score some customized assistance from My Design Guide. They tap into a network of real interior designers to help you out with everything from quick fix mini-consults (which come free just by completing their StyleFinder quiz) to full blown 3-D renderings with paint color picks, furniture selections, and a shopping list (see a sample here).

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A Beautiful House Tour In North Carolina

We’re back with another house crashing adventure from our recent road trip through Charlotte, North Carolina. You already caught a sneak peek of the amazing kitchen, so we’re back to fill in the blanks. And oh man, this family couldn’t have been sweeter if they were made of sugar. Seriously. And their completely transformed 60’s ranch couldn’t have been more charming. Even the outside had us at hello (you know we love a brick ranch). Since they tackled such an amazing makeover, we decided to toss in some before pictures to show you just how far Kristen, Stan, and their one year old son Davis have taken it (well, Davis was in the belly most

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A Little Saturday Night Update

In the breaking news department (that’s an overstatement if I’ve ever made one), although it’s the weekend I thought I’d stop in to share this super quick probably-interesting-to-no-one-but-me dining room update. Remember a few days back when I made our new curtains? And the table looked like this? Well, now it looks like this: Can you already tell the difference? Here, I’ll get a little closer. Yeah, the branches died. Probably because I didn’t even put water in the vase. Oops. How quickly the dream dies. Well, at least when the dream is lush leafy green branches that survive on love alone. And not water. So in mini keeping-it-real news, our table is substantially less

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Thrift Store Shopping

Ok, I keep mentioning that Katie B and I had some fun stared into each other’s eyes for 48 hours straight and she posted about the whole shebang right here (update: Katie’s blog is giving her issues, so maybe try clicking over later or tomorrow instead of right now). And by whole shebang I mean the part where Will went to the bathroom in the tub (numero dos) while bathing with Clara. And how Jeremy and John accidentally wore the same exact beverage themed shirt on Sunday… She also touched on our pedicure adventures… … and mountaintop enjoyment… It’s all here (update: just remember to click over later or tomorrow since her blog is giving

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How To Sew Curtain Panels

Our recent road trip to see Katie and her amazing house gave us that tickle to get down to business when we got back home. You know how your DIY momentum is up and you’re moving right along ticking things off your to-do list and then the dust clears and you’re just spent and need a little break? Like, mehaps, a road trip? That seems to be the way it goes with us. When it comes to house progress, we tend to work in fits and starts. But then something sparks that get-back-to-business excitement and suddenly we’re done with our four-ish day Hammer And Paint Brush Hiatus and are refreshed and ready to go. Yeah,

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A Chic House Tour In North Carolina

We do our best to crash a variety of homes, both old and new, big and small, traditional and modern, expensivo and super cheap, etc. This one falls into the glamorous high-end realm, but its cup runneth over with adaptable ideas – even if you’re on a tight budget. So we’re happy to bask in the inspirational eye candy (and pass it along to you guys of course). As we mentioned in yesterdays post, this gorgeous home is located in Charlotte, NC. So on with the tour. Here’s the charming exterior: And here are Jennifer and her sweet six week old daughter Eleanor to let us in: Here’s the gorgeous view that greets you when

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Buying Fabric At Mary Jo’s Near Charlotte

Earlier this morning we mentioned that we slipped through Mary Jo’s fabric store outside of Charlotte, NC again (read about our first trip here) where they have bolts of discount fabric stacked higher than my 5’2″ self. We thought it would be fun to share what caught our eye along with what we actually bought since some of you guys might be on a fabric pilgrimage of your own. And the good news is that a lot of this fabric should be sold by multiple places (although MJ’s prices are hard to beat) so if you see something you love, I’ve tried to include as many details as possible so you can sleuth it out

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Sneaky Little Petersiks

S’prise. We’ve been on the road for the past five days and just got home last night at 7pm after a nine hour drive. Did we unpack or snuggle up to Karl the Sectional after our home sweet home arrival? Nah, we threw this post together. Just your typical case of “unpacking procrastination” at its finest. Actually I’m just dying to fill you guys in on our adventures, and typical annoyingly energetic gal that I am, I’m too excited to relax. Anyway, we headed out early Thursday morning for Charlotte, NC and stayed there through Saturday morning. Then it was off to Loganville, GA where we remained until early Monday morning when we hit the

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Fab Freebie: Here’s Looking At You, Mate

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Good news: everyone can get 10% off their MirrorMate order with code VIRAL. And if they get 1000 new Facebook followers or new email subscribers, that code doubles to 20% for everyone. But here’s the better news (at least for one of you): random.org has chosen our winner as… Jessica (who says she’s usually checking the mirror to “make sure nothing is obviously out of place or gross”). Congrats! So maybe I fudged that line from Casablanca a little. Thanks for letting it slide. It’s turning out to be a mirror-tastic day today, so if you’re stuck with a basic builder mirror that’s

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Getting The Scale Right With Furniture

Nope, this isn’t a weight loss post. The scale that I’m talking is this too small had-it-so-we-used-it bookshelf that we shoved into the guest room (just days before my mom arrived) a few months back. Talk about teeny tiny: And somehow we forgot to update you guys about a little switcheroo that took place after we got our new (well, very old) dresser for the bedroom from John’s dad. So here’s a very belated dresser related news flash: we moved our old malm (from Ikea five years ago when we moved to Richmond from NYC) into the guest room. So it looked like this: The scale is definitely better. Someday we’d love to get a

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Gift Idea: A Custom Wooden House Replica

As of last week, my parents officially live in Richmond. This rocks for several reasons (free babysitting) so we’re excited to have them (as free babysitters) just about 15 minutes down the road (close enough to easily babysit for free). Plus, you’ll probably get some peeks at their new digs as they settle in (between babysitting jobs) and as we help them tackle some projects around their house (perhaps in exchange for all of the free babysitting). And if you follow us on Flickr, you’ve noticed that we wasted no time breaking in their community pool as soon as the moving truck was returned: Three days after closing on their new house, my parents also

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How To Make A Wood Plaque With A Number Or Letter On It

I like to consider our hallway frame wall a constant “work in progress” since the art in the frames can be swapped out at anytime. But there was at least one element that was less a “work in progress” and more an “um, you’re not going to leave it that way, are you?” Can you spot it? Yep, it’s the placeholder photostrip in the center. We didn’t have a frame to fit that slot at the time, so we figured down the line we’d cut a piece of wood, paint it white and mount the strip on something more officially looking than, well, a piece of office paper held up with painter’s tape (oh the

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