Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Ocean Jasper: Crystal Meaning & Properties

Ocean Jasper is a beautiful stone known for its rarity, soothing powers, and colorful spherical patterns. It’s prized by collectors due to its unique history and limited availability since the one and only place it exists on Earth is closed to future mining. Ocean Jasper comes in a variety of colors including green, gray, pink, blue, yellow, and white. Its patterns range from wispy banding to bold colorful orbs, meaning no two pieces are alike. It’s typically sold as polished stones, crystal towers, or jasper jewelry. I have both a large tower and a small polished heart. What Is Ocean Jasper? Ocean Jasper is a rare form of jasper found only on remote coastlines in

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How We Doubled The Size (And Function!) Of Our Backyard Pool Area

For nearly a year, we’ve been in the process of reimagining our pool area as a bigger, more multi-functional space. You first saw it two years ago when we posted this behind-the-scenes of putting in a pool, along with lots of before & afters. We LOVE our pool and this area quickly became our go-to outdoor family hang-out spot. So back in Spring of 2022, we realized we could make it work even harder for us if we did one somewhat simple thing… moved one section of fencing back (thereby doubling the size!). It ended up being a bit more than just that, so I’ll take you through the various steps we took to maximize

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A Weekend In Charleston, SC With Kids

Last week our family took a last-minute, 2-day-3-night trip to Charleston, South Carolina and it was *chef’s kiss*. It was our first time there, and we arrived having done zero planning and no itinerary with the goal of exploring, enjoying the sights, and eating some good stuff along the way (spoiler: we achieved all three!). Honestly, it might have been our favorite weekend trip yet (tied with New Orleans). So here are all the places, activities, and meals that made our trip so great. Why We Vacationed In Charleston Ever since we moved to Florida three years ago, our family vacations have changed a bit. We used to almost always pick places with a beach

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Free Summer Reading Printable

With our kids’ summer break kicking off this weekend, we came up with a fun twist on our usual summer reading goals. We had the idea while playing “would you rather” on a family walk this morning, came home and whipped up a paper template, and an hour later Sherry mentioned it in passing on Instagram. Then Sherry’s DMs filled up with people asking her to share a copy of the bracket or tell them where we got it (we whipped it up in Photoshop), so we decided to drop two free printable options of it here in this post. I even had some fun myself, as a 41-year-old man, making this filled-out sample above

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Adding Ikea Floating Shelves In Our Bedroom

For over a decade, one of our renovating mantras has been “the middle makes no sense.” Basically, don’t fret if your house is mid-reno, not fully furnished, or otherwise in limbo. Take your time, try something out, and just course correct as you go. See what you like and what you use. Live with something for a little while (or a long while). Take the expectation of having a finished perfect house right away and throw it in the trash (it always takes us years to get to that point!). Just keep letting spaces evolve in ways that work for your family and make you happy. And eventually, you’re very likely to end up with

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How To Build Easy Laundry Shelves

Storage is useful in any laundry room, but it’s especially important in small ones like our laundry closet. That’s why we built some suuuuuuper simple floating laundry shelves right as soon as we moved in. It’s an easy DIY that anyone can tackle! They require very few materials, take only a few hours, and can be customized to fit your space and needs. And as a bonus, we’ll even show you how to build a counter that matches your shelves. It’s even removable so you can easily access your washer and dryer when they need servicing. Our shelves have been going strong for nearly 4 years now and they look & function just as well

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Rainbow Fluorite: Crystal Meaning & Uses

Known as one of the most colorful minerals in the world, rainbow fluorite is a mesmerizing multicolored crystal with distinctive purple, blue, and green banding. Beyond its obvious decorative qualities, it’s enjoyed around the world for a multitude of manufacturing benefits – and many believe it has metaphysical properties as well. What Is Rainbow Fluorite? Rainbow fluorite is a multicolored variety of the mineral fluorite, also called fluorspar when used in manufacturing. It is the crystal form of calcium fluoride which, like table salt, is a member of the halite family. Fluorite is an abundant mineral that’s most commonly found in Mexico and China, but also in the United States, Spain, Russia, and more. It

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Green Aventurine: Crystal Meaning & Properties

Green aventurine is a special type of quartz that’s characterized by sparkling metal fragments embedded within it. It’s found in a variety of colors, but green is the most common (and my personal favorite!). Like its color might indicate, it’s thought to be the luckiest gemstone and is said to bring prosperity and good fortune to those who hold it. I definitely love decorating my shelves and tabletops with it. The subtle green color is just gorgeous. What is Green Aventurine? Aventurine is a form of quartz that’s characterized by mineral inclusions that give the crystal a shimmering or glistening appearance. This effect is called “aventurescence.” Different kinds of mineral impurities produce different shades of

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4 People Sharing A Bathroom: How & Why It Works For Us

Any time we mention having only one bathroom it spawns a flurry of interest in our Instagram DMs about how we manage that with our four-person family. Although we’re definitely not intrepid for having this setup in any way (so many families in the US & abroad live a wonderful life in a smaller home with one bathroom), and we also have an outdoor shower that we can use almost year-round (which definitely takes the pressure off of our single indoor bathroom), there’s a surprising amount of curiosity around the topic. So we’re here to break down why it has worked so well for our family and what we’ve done to make it extra efficient

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Fiddle Leaf Fig – Care Guide

Fiddle leaf figs are equally beloved and notorious in the houseplant world. When they’re big & healthy, a fiddle can make a room. We’ve all seen the glossy magazine shots to prove it. But they can also leave you feeling like a good-for-nothing plant killer when they droop & die. Luckily I’ve got some simple methods to keep your fiddle leaf fig happy, thriving, and looking its best. Fiddle leaf figs (Ficus lyrata) are native to African rainforests, so they thrive in sunny and humid environments. So the better you can recreate those conditions for it in your home, the happier it will be. That’s why keeping a fiddle leaf fig alive boils down to three

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How To Make An Ikea Pax Wardrobe Look Built-In

Raise your hand if you remember how much closet space our bedroom used to have. The answer is zero. We used dressers for a while and eventually added some floor-to-ceiling Ikea Pax wardrobes. And – big news! – we’ve added another Ikea wardrobe, which means we have just as much storage in our current bedroom as we had in our last house’s FANCY WALK-IN CLOSET! I know. It’s downright mind-blowing. For comparison, this is our last house’s walk-in closet (it was an 8′ x 6′ room). Each side had one 29″ cabinet in the middle and two 19″ cabinets (one flanking each side of the larger cabinet). That’s 67″ of linear closet space on each

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Blue Calcite: Crystal Meaning & Properties

Blue Calcite is a rare version of an otherwise common mineral – and it’s one of my favorites to collect! Calcite is found all around the world and is a key ingredient in limestone, marble, and other building materials. Blue calcite, on the other hand, is a beautiful crystal that’s less common and is said to have calming properties. It definitely has a peaceful look to it – like a soft blue sky or peaceful blue waters. I have several blue calcite crystals in my home, like the large one on the open shelves in our bedroom. Their rich moody color and polished surface looks good with everything, and definitely adds a nice calming vibe.

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