Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Shopping And Thrifting In Rehoboth Delaware

Remember we mentioned on Monday that we were taking it easy and enjoying some family time? Well we were actually at the beach! We snuck away to John’s parents’ beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware for a nice long weekend of R&R (while the guest bedroom took care of itself- just kidding it was just as messy when we returned, darn). We had lots of fun going on long walks, eating seafood, getting our thrift on, and bringing Clara down to the beach on a particularly warm day (it was 65+ degrees on Monday!). So we thought we’d share some of our adventures with you guys. First, we hit up our favorite secondhand shop in Bethany,

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A Round Wood Pedestal Dining Table

First things first. We have a furniture name change to attend to. Our giant 70″ dining table arrived (you know, the one we blathered on and on about here), and he just can’t be called Woody. Because he’s obviously not a he, he’s a she. Given her elegant lines and curvy figure, I don’t know how we ever could have made that mistake. We finally landed on Stella as her new moniker because she’s definitely a stellar addition to the future dining room. Har har. And since we already have Ed (the bed) and Karl (the sectional), I felt like I needed a lady-friend to balance things out. Update: Everyone’s asking about the paint swatches

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A Console Table In A Hallway

Our entry table from the old house naturally landed right next to the front door of the new house too. It has lived there since day one without much second thought. Until recently. Just for fun we moved it to a new spot and ended up liking it there more. It wasn’t a major relocation. It just sorta “drifted” down the hallway a bit. The new spot seems to suit it better for some reason. It’s probably a combination of these 3 things: It moved from an unpainted rough looking space to a painted area that feels more polished. Visions of the previous owners’ furniture linger in our minds (they had a console there too).

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Fab Freebie: Oooh, Shiny!

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!*** Thanks to V-Day, we’re straying from our usual home improvement & decor related prizes in favor of some customized and sentimental jewelry from Lisa Leonard Designs. Lisa brings a certain DIY spirit to her necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other body bling – hand cutting, polishing, and assembling each piece carefully for that “made with love” feeling. She actually helped us celebrate V-day last year by giving away $100 gift cards to two winners – and this year she’s raising the stakes and giving away THREE benjamins worth of her meaningful designs to three random lucky winners. Happy Valentine’s Day indeed. PRIZE:

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U R Sweet

Did you get that candy conversation heart reference in the title? Those things crack me up – especially the new-aged ones that say things like “Text Me” and “Tweet Me.” Hah. Anyway, the point of this post is just to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. And to share some gratuitous Clara pics. These are actually the same photos that we sent to our family & friends along with a funny little V-day card with a Burger-esque chihuahua on the front (gotta represent for both kids, you know). Heck you guys are friends too, so just pretend these showed up in your mailbox: Gotta love that $1 stuffed candy heart from Target’s dollar spot. Quite

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Thrifting Antique Woven Desk Chairs

These. Are you surprised that we were thrifting again? I’m not. These were originally $90 a pop ($180 total). Marked down to $70 each ($140 total). With an additional 50% off. So we ended up paying just $35 a chair ($70 for both of them). Not bad considering Ballard sells semi similar metal versions for $199 a pop here and reminiscent-ish rattan ones for a whopping $249 a piece here. And they’re sturdy little buggers. I sat in them expecting a rickety mess with flat cushions (why else would they be so cheap?) and I was surprised. Not bad. Not bad at all. So I did that “wow, John, they’re really quite nice” thing and

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Updating An Old Cheese Plate For Christmas

Better Late Than Never? I tackled this project about two months ago before we moved (hence all the pics of our old kitchen counters). But I figured I might as well share it in case someone else comes across their own cheap-o cheese plate and wants to update it with some fun patterned paper. Let’s step into the DeLorean for a nice trip back in time… This little makeover idea was hatched when I laid eyes on this crazy old cheese plate at Goodwill for 40 cents in early December. Yes. Forty cents for the glass dome and the wood base with the ceramic cheese inscription (it was marked as 80 cents and they were

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Getting The Guest Room Ready

We just learned that our first overnight guests will be coming at the end of the month… and our guest room currently looks like this: Not acceptable. Especially since our end-of-the-month guests are my in-laws. Yep, Sherry’s mom and stepdad are headed from New York to Richmond for some much-anticipated Clara time so we officially have a deadline for making the guest room habitable. We don’t expect to make the room all that we want it to be in a mere two weeks, but we have some basic goals for it: Get all of the junk out of there (finally confirm the Habitat for Humanity ReStore pickup & move rest of stuff into the playroom)

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Choosing The Right Dining Table

Who doesn’t love 1,909 words about searching for a dining room table? Here we go. We’ve been on a big round table hunt pretty much ever since we first set foot in our house. See, as soon as we walked into the small-ish formal dining room that fateful night in late fall of 2010 while house-hunting, John said “this room should be the office- and we can add french doors for you.” Sold. Since we have a pretty huge family (there are at least 12 of us when we get together for birthdays and even casual movie nights or spaghetti dinners) we knew that room would never accommodate a table large enough for more than

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Sherry’s Lamp-Watching Chair

Call me crazy, but I wasn’t really on board with Sherry’s latest “furniture arrangement” when I saw it in the corner of our living room. I know she enjoys lighting as much as the next gal, but a chair dedicated to staring at a lamp seemed like something straight out of Lovely Listing. Once I looked up I realized that my wife still has most of her marbles (key word: most). She just put the chair there so she could stand on it and tape some paint swatches to the ceiling. Whew. Not so weird after all. Well, she’s still über weird, but for a host of other reasons. We’ve been debating what to do

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An Old Wood Duck For The Walls

Duck! No, nothing’s being hurled at your head (at least we hope not). We’re just sharing our latest purchase: I guess he’s actually a goose. Where he’ll go and what color he’ll be painted is still up in the air (oh look at that, a flight pun). But we figured we could do something fun with our plucky friend, so we brought him home. It was actually my suggestion – although we all know my wife has a penchant for collecting faux animals – I guess this old-school bird was just calling my name this time. And I didn’t exactly have to twist Sherry’s arm. Perhaps it’s the beginning of our own pink duck collection

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Fab Freebie: So Happy Together

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!*** It’s February, so we thought we’d try to line up some love themed giveaways for you this month. Kicking things off is Le Papier Studio who takes our affection for silhouette art and turns it up a notch or two (or twenty). They’ve got a bunch of Valentine’s-ready items from plates and prints to cuffs and coasters, many of which can be customized with a silhouette of you and your loved one. PRIZE: A $75 gift card towards any purchase at Le Papier Studio. TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “I’M SO HAPPY WITH [–––]!” and… BONUS QUESTION:

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