Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 244 Comments

My Must-Have Maternity Clothing List

So a few folks have asked for a little post over here about my “maternity style” which makes me laugh because I’m not a stylish prego gal: I just want my maternity clothes cheap, durable, and comfortable. I’m one of those moms with dog hair on my shirt and half of a sandwich inexplicably stuck to the back of my leg whether I’m pregnant or not (as a sidenote, I’m very popular with both Burger and Clara for exactly this reason). But I thought I’d humor you guys and just share more of a quick recap about how I get through being pregnant without spending an arm and a leg in the hopes that perhaps

[ Read More ]

| By | | 195 Comments

A Fast Bedroom Makeover

Well, it’s late on Sunday night as I sit down to write this post. We just got back from a whirlwind weekend in Northern Virginia, where we did everything from helping John’s sister with a bedroom update to buying some stuff for the nursery. So today we’ll be chronicling ten things that we helped Carrie shop for, hang, and install into her bedroom for a nice little “adult upgrade.” And here’s Carrie now… She recently asked us to help her to create a “grown up bedroom” after saving up some cash over the last few years since our painting sesh in her apartment back in 2011 (remember that?). She told us that she was ready

[ Read More ]

| By | | 207 Comments

How To Paint A Chevron Pattern On Wood

It’s no secret that I love giving various paint treatments a try – like stenciling a pillow, two toning a chair, painting patterns on baskets, or even tracing raindrops right onto the wall – and I’ve been excited to share this one. Some of you eagle-eyes even noticed it in the background of Friday’s post and asked for details. Now that Clara’s thrift store cradle is in heavy rotation (Captain Barnacle is often found being rocked, fed, or changed in there) and Clara has clearly established her love of red, blue, and pink, I used it to test drive a deceptively simple free-handed pattern. It’s probably the most “intricate” pattern I’ve ever freehanded, but it’s

[ Read More ]

| By | | 161 Comments

Cottage Crashing: Rustic Rassawek

Ack, sorry for the late post – technical difficulties. We’re excited to share the cottage that we mentioned on Friday, especially since a bunch of you seemed anxious for us to spill all the beans (and a lot more photos). So here’s the deal: it’s about 45 minutes west of Richmond in Columbia, Virginia, it’s called Rassawek, and it’s a bonafide log cabin from 1910. It was actually moved to this location by the family who owns Rassawek (which is also a vineyard) and there were all sorts of other fun out-buildings nearby (many of which were moved as well) along with the coolest treehouse we’ve ever seen. So let’s get this tour started… John’s

[ Read More ]

| By | | 614 Comments

Planning Our Little Boy’s Nursery

Yeaaaaaah, baby – it’s nursery time! Pun most definitely intended. The last time we shared a shot of this room (in this post) it was looking like this. Totally newborn ready, right? We started on Clara’s nursery in February and she was born in May, so it felt right to get moving in there now that it’s January (since the barnacle is due in April). We’ve had so many ideas swirling around in our brains for the last month after finding out we were having a boy, that waiting a hot second before running in there and going to town has been nice because the projects and ideas that we truly love have had a

[ Read More ]

| By | | 57 Comments

Fab Freebie: In Quotes

The new year is all about finding the motivation to do / be / live / act / beatbox better, right? So we thought it was the perfect time for Silhouette Blue to give away a $250 gift certificate so you can stock up on stationery, wall art, calendars, notepads, and more (nearly all of which come in custom colors and can even be personalized). You’ll also score one of her charming Quote Jars, which come in 3 colors and are each stocked with 150 quotation notes to lift you up and inspire. Think of it as the fortune cookie that keeps on giving (but you probably shouldn’t bite into it). Please use the Rafflecopter

[ Read More ]

| By | | 448 Comments

Maternity Portraits In Front Of The Christmas Tree

Before we took down the holiday decorations, we decided to snap a couple better-late-than-never seasonal pictures, since this will likely be the last time we can take a photo like this in front of the tree. Kinda crazy to think that this was our last Christmas with just one little one (well, two including Burger – and about 30 if you count all of Sherry’s ceramic animals). What’s even crazier is that Clara stood still enough for this long of an exposure! If you want to take a photo like this, our tips are: use a tripod, lower the lights in the room so the tree glows, and use a long exposure and stand as

[ Read More ]

| By | | 248 Comments

How To Make A Wood Cubby For A Kids Room

More years than not we are working right down to the wire on Clara’s homemade Christmas gift (as in, things are drying in the garage on Christmas Eve)  – and this year was no exception! But the fun part about sharing them the week after we give them to her is that we get to include cute photos of her enjoying them… which is definitely our favorite part to witness. Introducing Clara’s new figurine cubby: Girl loves it. After racking our brain about what we could make her this year (a tool workshop? a fruit stand? a cardboard playhouse?) we decided that Clara still gets a lot of use from the larger things that we’ve

[ Read More ]

| By | | 189 Comments

Twenty Favs of Twenty-Thirteen

2013 has been quite the year. It began with a book tour, mid-pointed with us moving into a new house, and ended with us finding out that we have a baby boy on the way. And in between there have been lots of projects, announcements, transformations, and other good stuff. So we thought we’d make our last post of the year a look back at our 20 favorites – from makeovers to personal moments – of the last 12 months. We fell off the “monthly superlative” train somewhere around our move, so we’re well overdue for a little retrospective anyways (cue the slow jazz). So here we go, in no particular order… #1 – Refacing

[ Read More ]

| By | | 47 Comments

Fab Freebie: Monkey Business

If your garage looks anything like ours at the moment, you’re in luck. Monkey Bar Storage is hooking someone up with over $1,000 worth of garage storage and organization solutions. In addition to eight feet of grid shelving and an assortment of hooks and hangers, you’ll also get to pick three specialty racks for whatever fits your storage needs – bikes? tools? skis? golf bags? Heck, at this rate you could even add “pick up a new hobby” next to “tame the garage” on your New Year’s Resolution list. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway

[ Read More ]

| By | | 586 Comments

How To Paint Your Upper Cabinets White

We’re soaking up a white Christmas over here! Nope, we didn’t wake up to any snow on the lawn, but there was a dusting of white elsewhere on the premises… We used last week to sand, prime, and paint all of our upper kitchen cabinets and – shocker – we ended up going with white. So yeah, it’s a little bit different from our original plan to paint them a light gray-tan on top… and a little more like what we did in our last kitchen – but just for those uppers. We have a completely different plan in store for the lowers – and it actually involves wood stain and no paint at all

[ Read More ]

| By | | 82 Comments

A Blue Boy’s Nursery With Clouds & Stars

Hope you guys are having an awesome week-between-Christmas-and-New-Years. We’re soaking up some family time, along with sanding, priming, and painting our kitchen cabinets (it looks like a small paint bomb went off with some random gingerbread cookies among the fray), so we’re hoping to share our progress on Monday. But today we wanted to drop by with a makeover by Katy for her son Gabriel. This transformation was not only completed on a serious budget (she estimates that it was under $200, including big things like a bed and a dresser), it was also done in a rental (and we know you guys love to see those). Bravo to the landlord for letting her give

[ Read More ]