Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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#163: Our Next Big Project (It’s REALLY BIG)

Wanna know what our next big renovation project is? Well, it’s actually something that we’ve been contemplating for years but finally have the courage to do (thanks in part to selling our duplex). So this week we’re breaking down why we want to do it, why we think now is the time, and why it has us feeling excited, sad, and inspired all at the same time. Plus it’s really going to put our fondness for simplifying to the ultimate test. And some recent travel hiccups led us to a few new books that we’re loving – and one that I’m looking forward to loving… as weird as that sounds. What’s New If you can’t

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Drilling Into Your Tile Backsplash To Hang DIY Shelves (GASP!)

Back when we shared the final duplex kitchens last May (and a full budget breakdown in October), I promised some more details on the DIY floating shelves and – in particular – how we drilled through the tile backsplash to hang them securely. It took me way too long to share the shelf-building-tile-drilling details, but I’m finally laying it all out. Was it a little scary? Yes. But is it totally doable? Also yes. Let’s talk about it. Let me first confess our mistake. Ideally, we would’ve hung our shelf supports before tiling. That would’ve made it easier to find studs and get a tight fit to the wall, not to mention saving us the

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#162: What Sherry’s Not Buying For An Entire Year

That’s right, there’s a new personal shopping challenge going on at our house – and this time Sherry has committed to skipping any purchases in a specific (and pretty wide category) FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. We’re also talking with simplicity expert Emily Ley about how she combats “busyness” and creates more time and space in her life. She’s giving us tips on everything from tackling your family calendar to fun ways to get the kids involved in streamlining your days. And we’re sharing our favorite way to hang heavy objects quickly, without a lot of dust or tools – along with our new favorite guilty pleasure show that makes us laugh out loud (and even

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How We Organized The Beach House Kitchen

Someone asked me the other day for details on how we organized the beach house kitchen, which is something we photographed and filmed this summer to share with you guys, and when I went to send them the link to this post, I realized that we never actually wrote it! So yes, these pictures sat on the camera for months as my tan faded, along with memories of warm days spent with my toes in the sand (current status: toes in my Ugg slippers because it’s freezing!). Years ago you guys liked having a look inside of our Richmond kitchen cabinets, so John and I had some fun snapping lots of organizing photos for this

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#161: Then Half Of Our Lights Went Out…

This week we’re sharing the mystery of how half of the power in our house suddenly went out when we were just about to leave the country on vacation. We’re also catching you up on the highs and lows of getting our master bathroom nearly completed, including how the flu, a surgery, and a sudden deadline kept us on our toes. Plus, an illuminating update to our upstairs hallway and what we learned about “life admin” and how to better tackle it. What’s New First off, if you missed last week’s episode and our big duplex news, you can listen to it here or read a full transcript here. Sherry also referenced a previous episode

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How We Added Decorative Wall Molding To Our Master Bathroom

First, we gotta say THANK YOU for sharing in our excitement for our big duplex news (if you missed it you can listen to this week’s podcast or read the entire thing here). But back to our bathroom molding…. You know we love a DIY wall treatment just as much as the next blogger, but I think we have a new favorite: the thick framing that we added to our master bathroom. And it almost didn’t happen – which is so crazy when we think back on it because we both agree that it’s one of the best decisions we made throughout this entire room makeover. And it was one of the smaller costing line

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#160: And Now For Some Big Duplex News

It’s our first episode of 2020 and WE BOY DO WE HAVE NEWS! We’re excited to share it because it not only means good things for us, our friends, and the duplex itself, but it’s also connected to our continued efforts to simplify, and it involves a twisty tale of switching tables with a stranger. We’re also sharing a special gift that we gave this holiday season that can help your family honor a loved one. Plus, a check-in on our bathroom reno progress, the Instagram account that keeps us laughing, and our favorite geography-based game we’ve ever played. What’s New I’m sure you’re just dying to see our new podcast set-up, especially since I’ve

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A Beach House Middle Bedroom Update: It’s DONE!

BEHOLD! The new & improved middle bedroom at the beach house (*crowd goes wild, people do The Hype, battle rap horns sound, DJ Khaled shouts “DJ KAHLEDDDDD”, maybe Cardi B. is there with one of those t-shirt cannons?*). I hope you enjoyed that mental image as much as I did. ANYWAY, the beach house middle bedroom update is done, and I can’t get over how sweet the board & batten and the wallpaper look together – especially with the old heart pine floors and doors. Those are 115 years old, and the wallpaper and the wall treatment are brand new, but they feel so good together – especially in person. My biggest pet peeve with

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Our Big Closet Makeover – The Budget, The Video Tour, And The Before & Afters

This post is going to cover a lot of ground. Not only are we sharing before & after photos and a video tour about how we organized it all, we’re also spilling how much the whole thing cost, tossing out some closet planning tips to help you tackle an update yourself, and the details on how we made it all look built-in like a bonafide custom closet (with just $65 of wood!). First let’s get to the eyeball-related things: the before & afters. Also, please note how badly Burger wanted to be in this post. Photobombs out the wazoo. This little room of ours has come a long way. The photo below shows how we

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Costa Rica With Kids: The Details Of Our First International Family Trip

We have so many good things to say about our family vacation to Costa Rica, and we were excited to hear from so many of you who were interested in a giant blog rundown about it. Do you know me at all? Of course I’m happy to write – at length, sparing no detail. Let’s get into it. But first I wanted to mention that no part of this trip was sponsored and we paid for all of the flights, lodging, and activities ourselves (thanks in part to a lot of saved credit card points that covered all but $219 of our flights and lodging!). Not only are we going to cover some basics like

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A Big Master Bathroom & Closet Update

We made some pretty exciting progress over the last few weeks that has earned us a much more functional space with a random but doable smattering of tasks left on our to-do list. We’re definitely rounding third base on this bathroom (that sounds weird, but you know what I mean – we’re getting extremely close to the end) and for that I’m straight up Carlton-dancing. Let me tell you, having a double sink for the first time in our lives (and my favorite toilet! and an actual closet system instead of a few old hanging bars!) is a huge upgrade. We’re thrilled, even if this feels like it has been a much longer renovation than

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New Paint, Lights, & Window Boxes For Our Backyard Shed (Finally)

This post is for everyone who has been asking for a shed update since we finally painted it to match our white house (it only took us a year!). While we were updating things, we switched out the lights and added window boxes because I can now be described as “extremely passionate about sheds.” Like if I was on match.com that would be in my bio somewhere. This is perhaps the largest personality change for me throughout adulthood. The idea that I like sheds is an extremely new revelation. Remember when I didn’t care about sheds – and maybe even hated them – especially when John wanted to use half of our beach house’s tiny

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