Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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My Top Four Tips For Scoring The Best Secondhand Finds

I take pride in some very strange things. Being able to cartwheel into a pool for example. Or knowing every single word to old commercial jingles and 90’s rap songs. Or the fact that John and I, two righties, somehow made two lefties, which clearly means they’re brilliant (not sure how I can even take credit for this phenomenon, but I do, as well as the fact that our kids are super tall, which is amazing to me as a 5’2″ lady). But one thing I don’t really think about much is my secondhand furniture hunting mojo. I don’t think I have any magic luck or special searching skills. I would generally describe the key

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#105: Sherry Vs. The Bathtub, Duplex Edition

We seem to have a sore spot with tubs, and the duplex renovation has proven to be no exception. So today we’re sharing how a strategic money-saving decision saved us 30% off a huge renovation line item, but sent us on a tub-induced stress spiral. We’ve also got some exciting updates about painting our brick house white, our gross backyard experiment to keep the deer from eating our plants, and whether Sherry is still known as Laura in Cape Charles. We dive into the pros & cons of laundry location too – plus we explain when to choose a variety of wall colors for your house (and when one whole-house color can actually work like

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Ikea Hacking A Malm Into A Built-In Dresser

There will always be a special place in my heart for a good Ikea hack. Not that I’m dubbing this one especially involved (it’s actually wonderfully simple – which means anyone can do it). All it took were a few small tweaks to a basic $99 Malm dresser to make it look like a custom built-in at the beach house. And it has turned out to be the perfect thing for the funny little nook at the top of the back staircase in the beach house’s back bedroom. rug / striped towel / leather hardware / gold mirror / bathroom table  You’ve probably noticed that one of our favorite ways to hack Ikea pieces is to make

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#104: This Is How You’re Annoying Your Contractor

We turned the tables and asked dozens of contractors – including our own! – what THEY wish we, their clients, did differently. We learned their biggest client pet peeves (we’re certainly guilty of some!) and got great advice for how we can all help renovations go smoother, progress faster, and even cost less. We also share how we hacked our dining table to make it a harder working space, and the big purchase we recently splurged on for the beach house. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed

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Fourth of July Party Recipes, Ideas, & General Insanity

Every year on Instagram Stories I share photos from our friend’s insanely over-the-top party for the Fourth of July. And each year we gets tons of requests for a post with all the photos and links to the recipes she uses, so we’re finally giving the people what they want. Our friend Justine has been hosting these backyard soirees for years – and the only way to describe them would be: EXTRA. And we love her for it. She and her husband John basically just throw this huge party every year for all of us to gather and hang out with our kids and each other. It’s such a great time of year to get together

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#103: Regrets From Our Beach House Reno

It turns out that restoring a vintage stove isn’t all cupcakes & rainbows, so this week we’re revealing some of the quirks that you can’t see from a pretty picture. We’re also spilling the beans on several mistakes, regrets, and missed opportunities from our beach house renovation. What tile choice did we screw up? Where did we go wrong on the exterior? And how are we going to correct things moving forward? Plus, why we’re spending a chunk of money to make our house smell better. SO NOT GLAMOROUS.  You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos

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Our Pea Gravel Patio, Garden Lights, & Your Other Backyard Questions Answered

The sheer number of questions we got on this instagram post made it clear that we haven’t kept you sufficiently updated in the backyard department. We’ve had some MAJOR changes – including hiring out some professional landscaping, which was the best backyard warranty we ever bought into (you can hear more on why two DIYers would outsource backyard planting in this podcast about it). And with some more major backyard changes on the agenda – and so many of you guys saying “wait, when did that happen?! How do you like that?! How did you do that?!” – we thought it was a good time to get everyone caught up. Update 1: Removing The Deck

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#102: Are Islands Ruining America’s Kitchens?

Islands are a staple of most modern kitchens, but this week we explore why not everyone is a fan (including what we realized is a negative about the island situation in our own kitchen). Plus, we’ve tiled our fair share of backsplashes, but our recent project at the beach house kitchen taught us an important lesson about preparation, patience, and imperfection. John’s also sharing a new technique for helping you pick the perfect paint color, Sherry finds a new favorite beach accessory, and, well… Chad!!! You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re

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Making A Concrete Coffee Table Top

Hey, good news! I finally have a place to put my feet up in the beach house living room. Or, as Sherry would state this good news: we finally have a coffee table! light fixture / ceiling medallion / similar rug / similar sofa / similar curtains / curtain rods And it was a DIY that was SO MUCH CHEAPER than the high end alternative, so three cheers for that. Oh and people who follow our InstaStories know we’ve switched out the rug in here for this rug since taking these pics, so there will be a post all about that (and the other dining room tweak we’ve made) coming up in a week or two. But

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#101: Should We Paint Our Brick House White?

Our urge to paint the exterior of our brick house white has been growing lately, but there are still some concerns holding us back. So today we’re diving into the pros & cons that we’ve been tossing around (for years now!) as well as some new stuff we’ve learned – plus we’re asking for your opinion on what you’d do if it was your house. We’re also sharing why Sherry has ditched veganism and how our television provider suddenly ditched us… requiring us to reconsider our cable cutting set-up. Don’t worry, in the end we actually figured out how to save more money! You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen

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Quick & Easy Landscaping At The Beach House

A few weeks ago we shared on Instagram how we (finally) landscaped the front yard at our beach house in Cape Charles. But we wanted to give you some more details on how we knocked it out in just a few hours, what we planted, and how it’s doing today (almost two months later). Plus we love the idea of having these photos on the blog to look back on in a few years when things continue to grow in. The beach house gets tons of sun, so everything seems really happy so far. We don’t often feel very confident in the landscaping & gardening department (hence relying on professionals for our backyard at home)

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#100: So We Had To Quarantine The House…

Nothing like an infestation to drive you from your home for a few days, am I right? We’re sharing the whole itch-inducing story, including why we had to leave, and what we did to resolve the issue (for significantly less trouble than we originally thought). Plus, we vent some strong feelings about front doors and share an idea that we stole from a luxury hotel to fancy up our beach house. And in celebration of our 100th episode, we have a VERY special guest. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading

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