Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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A Lovely In LA House Tour

When Jaime of Prudent Baby sent us photos of her gorgeous Los Angeles home to woo us out her way for a House Crashing adventure we were so there. Except for the whole newborn thing. So we decided to virtually crash her pad instead. Here’s the charming exterior- isn’t it sweet? And look, here are the lovely homeowners now: Jaime, her husband Carleton and their sweet daughter Scarlet. But enough fresh air, let’s get inside. Check out the adorable homemade silhouettes of the family (including the dog) hanging by the door. And the stunning distressed wood chest by the window was scored for $35 at a flea market. Just beyond that space is a small

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A Bright Yellow-Green Office Makeover

When Erica sent her awesome office overhaul our way we had to share the before and after photos. Here’s her letter: I love to read your blog and see what creative ways you come up with to save money. I recently fixed up my home office on a tight budget. Of course you can find more info about the room on my blog, but the L-shaped desk is made out of two hollow core doors (only 25 bucks each!), two table legs, and a bookshelf. The paint color is Valspar “Plum Passion.” Both chairs were thrift store finds and all the art from the art wall was completely free, it all consists of things I

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Making A Ceiling Light With A Diffuser From A Lamp Shade

We did it! We DIYed an awesomely oversized light fixture for the office and we only spent… wait for it… $32 from soup to nuts. Which is pretty darn exciting considering it reminds us a lot of this pricey $412 version. Gotta love saving $380 with a homemade solution. Here she is in all of her glowing glory: But let’s back up. Here’s the basic fixture that we started with to serve as something of a before shot (although you all know there’s no longer a bed in there since we upgraded to a sleeper sofa and built a DIY desk). And now that we’ve easily been spending over 40 hours a week in this

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Organizing Our New Kitchen’s Cabinets

We’re back to share how we fared when it came to our big cabinet clean-out which we announced late last week and tackled this weekend (hopefully along with a bunch of you guys at home). Remember our pathetic starting point? Of course you do. Those two chaotic double cabinets (where we store every single edible item in our kitchen, except for the stuff in the fridge) were pretty hard to forget: But now we’ll reveal what they look like after a few hours of weekend weeding out and reworking: First we followed the 100% empty rule and cleared out both cabinets and placed everything on the counter so we could evaluate what we had, pair

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5 Favorite Baby Items & A Free Baby Book Printable

If you’re anything like us, patience is easier said than done, so we’ll get straight to the something free. After many (many) requests, we’re happy to announce that we’ve finally created a downloadable PDF or Word Doc (click here for print-ready PDF, here for editable Microsoft Word) of our “DIY Baby Book” that we revealed in our getting-ready-for-baby post a few weeks back. Just to jog your memory, here’s how we whipped it up: The idea was actually John’s brain child (I’m telling you, he’s the sweet sentimental one and I’m the neurotic fool who worried about ruining our sofa if my water broke). He suggested that we get a fabric covered album and create

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Let’s Do It Together: Organizing The Kitchen Cabinets

We’re back with another two-post feature where we invite you to tackle a house project right along with us. Last summer it was cleaning out our garage, and more recently it was straightening out our chaotic closets (read about part one here and part two here). Well, hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen. This time we’re turning our attention to those dreaded kitchen cabinets. There’s not much explanation necessary as to why our two big double cabinets need a serious dose of structure and organization… Yup, between these two spaces (which house every edible item in our kitchen other than the stuff in the fridge) there’s definitely room for improvement. Especially when there are

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Cleaning An Oil-Clogged Air Filter In Our Lawn Mower

Our lawn was making me feel like a terrible neighbor last week. Sure, I had good reason (i.e. the ol’ newborn excuse) but surely the people driving by our house everyday didn’t know my airtight excuse. So to put my guilt to rest I resumed my Friday evening mowing routine. That is until our mower started spewing white smoke and sputtered to a stop. I was left with a dead lawn mower and two buzzed stripes in our yard. Awesome. To be honest, I was more annoyed at my incomplete mow job than my busted equipment. In fact, some of you on Twitter and Facebook probably saw us seeking recommendations for mower replacements mere moments

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Painting Cabinets And Using Grasscloth To Update Them

When Bethany sent her fantastically creative low cost kitchen makeover our way we had to share the eye candy. Here’s her letter: This spring my hubby and I got busy refreshing our tired kitchen. Our goal was to make changes that improved the look of the space without spending a million bucks. With a little paint, some new cabinet hardware, a new rug, and a light fixture and window treatment, our kitchen now has a whole new look! The best part was standing back at the end of the project and realizing that these small changes really made a big visual impact. I love my “new” kitchen, and the fact that we only spent around

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One Desk, Four Ways

Since we’re moving our work area into the new office / playroom / guest room (read more about that here and here) I figured I’d give my old work space one last hurrah in the form of a four-part makeover. Just for fun. From a potted plant to a scented candle, many people have different preferences when it comes to their home office must-haves. And of course everyone has a different organizational needs as well, so it’s always interesting to ponder what systems and approaches will work for people in both the form and the function department. So when I decided to have some fun adding different accessories to achieve a few different takes on

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