Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Our Dollhouse Makeover

I was surprised how many questions I got about the little dollhouse sneak peeks I’ve shared on IG stories over the last few weeks as I fixed this up with the kids. And then I polled you guys to see if you wanted a post about it, and 91% of you voted yes, so here it is! You can read more about how these came to be on this podcast from a few weeks back, but the gist is that the kids really wanted super detailed dollhouses to fix up, and we got two of them secondhand on Facebook marketplace to “renovate” together. This little makeover was lots of fun for us all, since the

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#126: Is Your Home Making You Grumpy?

Lots of us want a more organized home, but are we going about it the wrong way? Today we’re talking with a home efficiency expert about how rethinking our approach to organizing could end up making us all happier – and maybe even help us be more patient partners and more present parents. She also explains why we should treat our kitchen like an operating room, how Sherry’s minimized closet could be better, and why garages are so hard to keep under control. We’re also sharing how a random phone call and a dicey forecast sucked the momentum right out of our duplex progress, but we’re still finding some silver lining in the news. Plus

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My Skin Care & Hair Routine

This post has been updated now that I live in Florida & wear sunscreen every day This idea for a post was spawned when I listed a lot of this info at the bottom of another post all about our home & personal care products (it was a giant rundown we shared in 2017) but since people were having trouble finding this info buried at the bottom (and I had to keep adding updates as I changed something) this post was born. Hair/Shower Stuff This is my current favorite shampoo and conditioner, and I also use this AMAZING curl cream, which I apply when my hair is wet right out of the shower (long story short, I realized my

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Our Duplex Makeover Progress

Last month we shared how refinishing the floors at the duplex made us feel like we turned a major corner at a house we’ve been renovating for over a year (remember when it looked like this?!). And now we are firmly in “the fun part!” You know, where you get to start bringing in rugs and light fixtures and furniture and accessories so it goes from looking like a construction zone to an actual home. It’s THE. BEST. Especially after months and months of expensive improvements that you don’t even see when the drywall goes back up (like plumbing and electrical upgrades). So let’s just get right into it. Behold, this wall of the left

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#125: A Tale Of Two Kitchens

Our holiday was full of fun, family, and a freakish amount of Ikea boxes filling the duplex. So this week we’re sharing how we navigated the task of installing not one, but two kitchens over winter break – including how things got off to a rocky start – and when we actually saw the light (both literally and figuratively). We also got AN AVALANCHE of feedback from you guys on the small sleeping nook we debated filling with various bed layouts in our last episode, so today we’re sharing how we’ve adjusted our plans to make the room work for as many families as possible. Plus, we tried out a new money-saving trick (why haven’t

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Installing Under-Cabinet Lighting

We’ve done so few upper cabinets in our recent kitchens that we actually haven’t installed under cabinet lighting in ANY of them. But we did install it under the cabinets in our laundry room and – surprise! – I just came across a bunch of pictures of the installation process that I took waaaaaay back in 2014 but never shared. It’s a remarkably straightforward process, so it could be an easy upgrade if you needed more task lighting in your kitchen, laundry room, or any other space with upper cabinets. The cabinets in here are from Ikea, so we also used one of their stock under-cabinet lighting options called GRUNDTAL Spotlights. These don’t appear to

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#124: One Small Space And Three Options (HELP!)

Today we’re talking about a small space that’s stumping us at the duplex and we’d love to hear what your family would like to rent most. You’ll also hear how an unexpected Christmas request from our daughter sent us on quite the hunt for a house-related gift – and how we stumbled across a new 4-in-1 tool that’s extra handy to have in your junk drawer. Plus we’re asking the hard-hitting questions, like can your astrological sign really help you decorate your home? You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may have to click through to the post to

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Refinishing Oak and Pine Floors

Last week Sherry and I got to see the freshly refinished floors at the duplex for the first time. And despite having just gone through this last year at the pink beach house, we were still taken aback by what a HUGE difference it makes. Which explains why we’re about to hit you with a bunch of before & afters right now. We can’t get over how finished it makes everything feel. It’s like changing this one surface suddenly takes the whole place from “renovation zone” to “move-in ready.” I mean, let’s just appreciate how far we’ve come for a second. This is that same room (the living room on the left side of the duplex) when

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2018 Holiday Gift Guides

As is the tradition, I’m a little late with this. Ha! But here it is! (I’m also late with my actual gift buying, so I better get cracking). We like to put all of our gift guides in one place, so below you’ll find the one we made for grown-ups, another one for kids, and (my personal favorite) one full of stuff that’s under $15.  Gifts For Grown-Ups Here’s what we’re loving, either firsthand stuff we bought for ourselves and have really enjoyed – or things we’re getting for friends & family (or hoping to find under the tree).  1 / Adulting Award Ribbons (4/$25): It would be so much fun to have an “award

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#123: Baskets – Friend or Foe?

We recently realized that storage baskets may be simultaneously helping AND hampering our home organizing efforts (and yes, hampering was a pun). Also, the duplex has passed an important renovation milestone: floor refinishing! But even though we had planned for it to go a certain way, we were thrown an extremely last minute curveball and our entire plan changed in the final hour. Plus, a compelling counterpoint to one of our “must have” home features (thanks to you guys and your feedback from last episode!) and some simple tips for how to use decor to de-stress your home. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Note: If you’re

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Holiday Decorating At Our House & The Beach House

Wanna see how we decorated our house (and the beach house) for Christmas? We have a ton of photos for you, so let’s get right into it. Since we got an entirely new exterior for Christmas (literally all I wanted for Christmas was a white brick house, ha!) we had so much fun trying some new things out front. We did some simple warm white exterior LEDs (why are those so hard to find?!) on the trees on each side of the door. Remember I upgraded those to these larger faux ones because I can’t kill them and the taller height looks nicer on the porch with all the white brick. Those pots are actually

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#122: If We Had To Make A House “Must Have” List…

Whether you’re house hunting, building new, or just daydreaming, you’ve probably got a mental list of favorite home features that you either love having already or really want in your next home (or a little bit of both). So today we’re sharing our seven favorite home features based on what we’ve liked (and not liked) about our current and previous houses – along with our experiences working on new builds with a local builder and renovating two beach houses. You can hear our very favorite ceiling heights, where we actually don’t like to go “open concept,” and we lay out two things that we wish our house had – but probably never will. You can

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