Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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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 Closet Shelves

Storage is useful in any closet, but it’s especially important in small ones like our laundry closet. That’s why we built some suuuuuuper simple DIY closet shelves as soon as we moved in. It’s an easy project that anyone can tackle! They require very few materials, take only a few hours, and can be customized to fit your closet and storage needs. And as a bonus, we’ll even show you how to build a laundry 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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A Quick Way To Hang Curtain Rods

Here’s a simple trick we used to hang curtain rods FAST and EVELY in our duplex rental. We had 16 curtain rods to hang in one afternoon, so we devised a simple & free way to minimize measuring, while keeping everything looking level and equally spaced. This should take a lot of the headache out of hanging new curtains, especially if you’re doing more than one window in your room. Plus, the trick is totally free! For this installation, we’re using affordable curtain rods like these that you can get at most big box stores and these ring clips. We also are hanging simple $14 white Ikea curtain panels using this trick for making Ikea

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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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How To Fit A King-Size Bed Into A Small Bedroom

This is a meandering journey of a post, so make yourself comfortable. We mentioned in this side table post that we traded our queen-size bed for a bigger king-size one. The reason might seem obvious – because it’s bigger, duh! But we happily sailed through over 17 years together without ever wanting one. So why the sudden about-face last fall? Well, it essentially boiled down to: “the things we do for our dog” (more on that in a second). We also had to carefully plan how we’d squeeze the biggest bed we’ve ever owned into our smaller bedroom. And we had a big realization about larger furniture in a smaller house in the process (it’s

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The Best Grout – And How To Pick The Right Color

If you’ve got a tiling project in your future, remember, bookmark, voice memo, tattoo, or do whatever you need to do to remember Mapei Flexcolor grout. I know this sounds like I’m overreacting, but take it from people who have grouted 7 bathroom floors, 3 showers, 3 mudrooms, and 2 backsplashes in the last two years: this grout has been life-changing. And no, this is not sponsored by either Mapei or Floor & Decor, which is where we typically buy ours (sorry, necessary disclaimer because this post is going to sound pretty gushy). Why We Love Mapei Grout I’ll explain WHY we love Mapai grout so much AND toss in some tips for picking the

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