Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials
We’ve refinished hardwood floors in 5 of the 6 homes we’ve owned. That doesn’t make us professional floor refinishers, but as homeowners and DIYers, we’ve developed expertise for what to expect, what pitfalls to look out for, and how much refinishing your hardwood floors might cost. So in this post, we’ll answer all of your hardwood floor refinishing FAQs along with some before and after photos of our various projects!
We love predicting Color of the Year selections each year, so we thought we’d start a post to keep track of each selection as they come out. This will be much easier to reference next year when we make our predictions instead of Googling around to find them all again. Will blue be big again like it was in 2024? Will any of our guesses even be remotely close? You can read below to follow along – and check back for updates as more COTY news rolls in.
Guessing the Color of the Year is one of our favorite pastimes. We did it for years on our podcast and now we keep up the tradition on Instagram Stories. And every time the next COTY announcement season rolls around, we like to see all of the previous picks in one easy place. So here’s a snapshot of not only every 2024 Color of the Year, but also how they compare to each company’s previous selections. Buckle up, fellow color nerds! As more and more companies jump on the color forecasting bandwagon, we’ve decided to focus on the major paint and color companies in the post. Many brands also release yearly palettes instead of one
Got little bugs buzzing around your kitchen? Congratulations, you may have fruit flies! Don’t fret. These annoying pests are pretty common but luckily, it doesn’t take a lot of money, supplies, or effort to get rid of them. In fact, you can probably find everything you need in your cabinets! We recently had a fruit fly problem in our home (the first time in over four years here – we have no idea what brought them in). So I seized the opportunity to test 7 different methods of eliminating them. Yes, there were copious notes taken and even a spreadsheet. So today I’m sharing the best fruit fly traps and how to make them.
I’ll be the first to admit that South Dakota wasn’t high on my vacation bucket list. But I ended up there this summer on a dad-and-daughter trip I took with some family members: and WOW, we loved it. It was a surprising and wonderful departure from our usual family trips, so I wanted to share some highlights in case anyone else is interested in breaking out of the more typical beach or theme park vacation routine. Growing up on the East Coast and now living in Florida, I haven’t spent much time in the upper Midwest. So these sights may be old hat for some of you. But just like our trip to the California
A friend of mine is pregnant and it’s reminding me how exciting it was to name our own kids. We love traditional names (aka: old-fashioned names, aka classic names) and both of our children are named after our grandparents – one on John’s side and one on my side. So I had fun putting together this list of my favorite 100 classic boy names, along with this list of 100 classic girl names. They feel established, like they stand the test of time, and can carry special meaning if they’re already names in your family. ALSO IS THERE ANYTHING CUTER THAN BABY SUSPENDERS?!? One interesting thing I found when I was writing this post was
We love any excuse to buy more plants, and you may have heard they can improve your home’s indoor air quality. But before you blow your paycheck in the name of a healthier home, let’s dive deeper into plants’ air purifying powers. We’ll share which plants we recommend and what benefits you can actually expect from them. We’ve heard for years about how plants act as natural air filters for your home. So let’s dive a little deeper, shall we? 7 Air Purifying Plants If you just came here for a list, our favorite air purifying houseplants are bulleted below. The best part is these are all beautiful, low-maintenance plants. Many also appear on our
Since our travel guides to Charleston with kids and Palm Springs with kids have elicited requests for more travel ideas with kids, we’re back with an overdue recap of our 3-night trip to New Orleans. We’d never been to The Big Easy before and were impressed by how family-friendly the city is. It’s not all booze, beads, and Bourbon Street! So here’s a look at where we stayed, what we did, and what we’re excited to do next time we go back – because we will definitely go back! The four of us (well, five if you count our chihuahua!) went to NOLA for 3 nights in November of 2022. At the time, our kids
I used to think every houseplant needed a sunny corner or bright windowsill to thrive. But it turns out many of our favorite go-to houseplants do just fine in shady corners and low-light locations. So before you write off your house as too dark to sustain plant life, check out this list of the best indoor plants for low light. You might be surprised at how many good options there are! Our upstairs family room is the brightest room we’ve ever owned thanks to big unobstructed windows on all 4 sides. But most of our indoor plants live downstairs, where we get far less natural light. Luckily, that hasn’t stopped us from growing our collection
Wallpaper has made a big comeback as a trendy home design choice. But despite its resurgence, there are still plenty of us dealing with dingy, dated, or downright ugly old wallpaper we don’t want. In our old home, we had to remove wallpaper in so many rooms: the kitchen, the dining room, the foyer, and two different bathrooms! As we traveled from room to room removing wallpaper, we tested 4 different methods, and today we’ll share what we learned. Removing wallpaper doesn’t require special tools or lots of money. It’s a totally doable project for any homeowner. However, it can be a tedious process that can take elbow grease and patience, depending on the size
Aglaonema, also called the Chinese Evergreen Plant, is an easy-care houseplant that lives happily in many lighting conditions – even a dark corner of our daughter’s room. There are dozens of different Aglaonema varieties, most with large tropical foliage and colors ranging from silvery-green, red, and even vibrant pink. They’re also tough to kill, so they’re a great option for forgetful plant owners or anyone looking for an easy win in the plant department. These truly have been very low maintenance for us. We purchased our two Aglaonemas (pronounced ag-lee-oh-neem-ah) to put atop our daughter’s closet. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish different varieties, but we believe that’s an Aglaonema Silver (right) and either a Candy
Corn plants (Dracaena fragrans) are popular low-maintenance houseplants you’ve probably seen at the nursery, home improvement store, or doctor’s office. I even had one in my college dorm room! You can recognize them by their spear-shaped leaves and woody, cane-line trunks that can grow up to 6 feet tall indoors. But did you know there are several varieties of corn plants? We didn’t! Heck, we didn’t even realize some of our smaller houseplants were in the same corn plant family! Currently, we own two smaller varieties of corn plants, pictured above. The one on the left is a Dracaena Limelight (Dracaena fragrans ‘Limelight’) and the taller plant is a Draecanea Dorado (Dracaena fragrans ‘Dorado’). We
