Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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6 Ways We Upgraded Our Bedroom

Our bedroom used to be a living room, so it’s taken some work to turn it into a comfortable, functional, and beautiful sleeping space (it’s truly one of our favorite rooms!). So today we’re outlining the 6 most impactful improvements we made to our bedroom, complete with some updated pictures. Our Bedroom, Before You can check out all of the before photos of our home here, but as you can see below, it was a mostly blank canvas. Well, except for the crumbling drywall, crooked blinds, and wide doorways to the adjacent kitchen – all of which we had to address. But we loved the fireplace and the wall of french doors and pretty much

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How To Install A Ring Doorbell In 5 Easy Steps

Did you know you can add a Ring Video Doorbell without an electrician or having to fuss with any wires? You don’t even have to have an existing doorbell! We recently added one to our front door and it’s one of the easiest do-it-yourself projects we’ve done in a while. Note: This is not a sponsored post. We paid our own money ($99!) for our doorbell. This is the exact Ring Video Doorbell we bought. Why Add A Video Doorbell? Video doorbells are an increasingly popular home security device, and the Ring Video Doorbell is one of the most popular models out there. With it, we can see and hear what’s going on at our

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Tree Philodendron – Care Guide

The tree philodendron, which was formerly known as the hope philodendron or philodendron selloum, is one of our FAVORITE houseplants. It’s a low-maintenance, tropical plant that adds tons of visual impact. It’s also a great alternative to a fiddle leaf fig. What Is A Tree Philodendron? The tree philodendron (Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum) is a large tropical plant native to South America, primarily Brazil. However, it isn’t even technically a philodendron anymore! In 2018 it was reclassified out of the genus Philodendron and into the genus Thaumatophyllum due to its size and DNA. However, it is still colloquially referred to as a philodendron. You may still find it listed as a Philodendron Hope or Philodendron Selloumm, but

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The 12 Best White Paint Colors (According To Experts)

We scoured 100+ white paint colors featured on more than a dozen “best white” lists to determine what are truly the most universally loved white paints. I even made a spreadsheet! These are the 12 colors that came up over & over again. They’re trusted by everyone from interior designers & architects to builders & bloggers alike. So let’s dive into why experts recommend them and how you can pick the right white paint color for your home. Why Designers Love White Paint White is a classic choice for trim, ceilings, and even cabinets. But white paint on your walls? That’s when the strong opinions come out! Critics write off white walls as basic or

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How To Install A Stair Runner

It may seem intimidating to install a stair runner yourself, but it’s so darn easy that we’ve done it twice! Thrice if you count demonstrating it on live TV (more on that later). Just follow the steps in our tutorial below, including our trick for making sure your rug is the perfect size for the project. Adding a rug or runner to your stairs isn’t just a stylish decor choice that can add color, personality, or pattern. It’s also a safety feature! We find that adding a stair runner cuts down on slips, falls, and even makes it easier for our dog to traverse them. They also absorb sound, meaning your less likely to hear

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17 DIY Shelf Ideas

Over the years, we’ve added tons of shelves to our homes – from floating shelves and built-in bookcases to decorative display shelves and heavy-duty storage shelves. So in this post, we’re rounding up some of our favorite DIY shelving projects for anyone looking to add smart vertical storage to their space. We’re going to cover: Our Favorite Floating Shelf Projects Floating shelves are a great way to display or store items with a clean, modern, and lightweight look. They can be hung just about anywhere – in a kitchen, above a TV, in a bedroom for books and toys, even in a dining room – and we’ve used both storebought floating shelves as well as

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Monstera Deliciosa – Plant Care Guide

Monsteras are one of the most iconic indoor houseplants today and for good reason. They’re an eye-catching, low-maintenance tropical plant that looks great in any space. Our monsteras are still low and bushy, but they’re climbing plants that can grow tall & tree-like too. Here’s why we chose this easy plant for our home. The genus Monstera includes over 50 different species of plants, most known for their large “monster” leaves with distinct holes and split edges. Today we’ll talk about the most popular houseplant variety of monstera: the Monstera deliciosa. What Is A Monstera Deliciosa? Monsteras are native to the tropical environments of Central America, especially Mexico. Their large, distinct leaves are a natural

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The Best Christmas Trees, Lights, & Holiday Decorations

Over the last 17 years, we’ve decorated a whole bunch of houses for the holidays and it means that we have favorite methods and items when it comes to decking the halls. And why is finding the best Christmas tree lights so hard?! The point is, we’ve tried a ton of holiday decorations, and this post is your one-stop shop for photos, ideas, info, and links to our favorite things – from the faux Christmas trees that we like best to our go-to outdoor lights (if you ask John’s special eyes, there is definitely a correct temperature). In this post we’ll cover all of our favorite: Wherever possible, we’ve linked to the actual items we’ve

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2023 Holiday Gift Guides

Just like for our 2022 Gift Guides and 2021 Gift Guides, we’ve put all three of our gift lists in one place (this post right here). So, without further ado… let’s dive into the 3 categories that we cover every year: We have fun making these each year, and always include things we actually own & love as well as items that we’re actually buying for others in our family (from our own kids to each other – and for relatives and friends). It’s probably helpful to point out that nothing was sponsored/gifted in order to get into this guide. If something is on these lists, we just genuinely love it (and in many cases,

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Benjamin Moore Simply White (OC-117) Color Review

White paints can be complicated. And believe me, we’ve tried more than a few over the years. Over a decade ago, we finally landed on Benjamin Moore’s Simply White (OC-117) as our favorite go-to white paint. It’s a warm and bright white that we put everywhere: walls, trim, doors, and cabinetry. Case closed, right? Well, it’s not quite that simple… What makes BM Simply White a popular white? Picking the perfect white paint for your home is hard because a true “simple” white doesn’t exist. And even if it did, you wouldn’t want it on your walls! The best white paints typically have hints of black and subtle colorful undertones like yellow, green, or pink.

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How We Organized Our Ikea Pax Closets

It feels like a miracle, but we’ve gone from absolutely zero closet space in our bedroom (when we moved in we just had dressers) to having just as much space as our last house’s big walk-in closet! We’ve previously covered how we installed Ikea Pax wardrobes and how we made them look built-in, so today we’re throwing open every door & drawer to show you how we’ve organized them. If you’re looking for tips to maximize your storage & specific products that can make it feel more customized, this is the post for you. It should be said upfront that neither of us have what we’d call a large amount of clothing (although I’ve always

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How To Unclog A Bathtub Drain

Excuse my excitement, but yesterday at exactly 5:41 pm I told our clogged bathtub drain who was boss. I did it all by myself while John was at work (gotta love girl power) and without spending a dime, calling a plumber, OR using chemical drain cleaners like Drain-o or Liquid Plumr. Victory is mine! So we’re gonna share every trick we tried, and what eventually worked best. We received nearly 200 crowd-sourced techniques on yesterday morning’s post (FYI – this post was originally published when we lived in our first home)! We even had some plumbers weigh in with expert advice! Unclogging Techniques We Tried Before we turned to our readers for help, we tried

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