Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Fab Freebie: French Swimming

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Well now that we’re more than ready to find a pool to dive into, random.org has picked a winner of this week’s giveaway. The lucky lady is… Cher (who swims about 20 laps each day in the summer). Congrats! One element in our new kitchen that always makes us smile is the etsy print that we purchased by Samantha French. Remember, the cheery orange and blue painting of the lady swimming (that Clara also sweetly though included some “fishies”)? Well now Samantha is giving you guys a chance to win your very own colorful work of art with a $200 gift certificate to

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Planning A Quick Bathroom Makeover

Well, I guess we did rehang the shower curtain at ceiling height right after we moved in – but other than that we haven’t really touched this room. In fact, pretty much all three of our bathrooms are uncharted territory for us when it comes to updates. But you’ve gotta start somewhere, so we decided to start in the one we use the most – and probably find the quirkiest. See, it doesn’t have a sink (that’s in our bedroom, actually) so it’s a really small room. We’re talking around 5′ x 6′ total (including a regular sized tub). So yes, the door practically hits the toilet (it just barely misses it). And John can

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Turning 30

A bunch of you have been asking how turning thirty was for me, so I’ll take a break from painting something (yes, there is paint going on a formerly untouched bathroom wall! wahoo!) to admit that Monday was a really nice day. So far thirty is all good. And I don’t feel a day over 29. Hah. My theory is that every birthday sort of feels like not much has changed since I wake up feeling the same way I did the morning before. By comparison, I always feel older when life events happen (graduating college, getting married, having a baby) but for some reason a birthday to me is just a fun day when

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A White Kitchen With Butcher Block And An Apron Sink

We figured during the week of our big kitchen reveal it was only fitting to share a reader’s kitchen makeover as well. And this kitchen redesign comes from a male blogger who goes by “Beard” (he has a female sidekick in the form of “Pigtails” – the daughter that he’s a single dad to). Beard’s blogging style is quite entertaining, and the kitchen makeover, well, it’s awesome. Here’s his letter: I recently gutted and rebooted the kitchen on my 1950’s brick ranch (using inexpensive materials like Ikea cabinetry and reclaimed wood for a bench and table setup). Goals for the reboot: Be smart with the available 100 square feet. Kill clutter and chop it down

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A Video Tour Of Our House

Yup, it really has been seven whole months since our last house tour video. Unacceptable. So here it is. Eight riveting minutes of me walking around the house and babbling about anything and everything with the Flip cam catching all the shaky Blair-Witch-esque action. We just figured it was a nice time to shoot this now that the kitchen is done and we’re gearing up to start some new stuff (some landscaping bidness, upgrading one of the three bathrooms that we haven’t touched, building a big arse deck, etc). So come on in and poke around: A few notes: Am I the only one who still has a scratchy voice two weeks after the flu?

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A Kitchen Makeover With Penny Tile And Open Shelves

Ok, we’re calling it. The kitchen is officially done! Of course that’s a lie and we still have a bunch of little things to complete, like: adding decorative molding to the back of the peninsula adding a message center/chalk board to the side of the pantry adding the last of the transitions/reducers to finish the floors (and that rectangle of fireplace tile) replacing the broken light in the fireplace area – most likely with a spotlight that washes down the fireplace wall adding some sort of window treatment (colorful roman shade?) over the sink And of course we dream of refinishing the surrounding oak floors to match the dark mocha cork in the kitchen so

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Our Benjamin Moore Collection Of Favorite Paint Colors

Aw yeah, you know we love a good Britney reference. And you know we love painting (walls, paneling, brick, large ceramic roosters…). A big part of that is picking a paint color. Paint chips are kind of like potato chips to us (we can’t pop just one), and Benjamin Moore has been our snack of choice for a while now. Their color catalog is massive so it’s no wonder we’ve used their tones in nearly every room (Sesame in the kitchen, Moonshine in the living room and dining room, Proposal in Clara’s room, and Dragonfly on the back of our dining room built-ins). Then we used their Advance paint when it came to painting our

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Buying A Bigger TV

I’m not sure any of you have noticed, but we have a tiny TV. Well, some of you have definitely noticed because you keep laughing at us and commenting about how overdue we are for a bigger one. And as the resident man of the house, I have to say I agree. Our little 26-incher made sense in the old house, where our den was so narrow that I could practically change the channel with my toe… But now that we have a bit more space in our current living room (we actually miss the cozy-ness of our first living room, but love having extra room for Clara to play/run around), the phrase “we really

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Fab Freebie: Pick Your (P)age

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** First off, thanks for all of the birthday wishes everyone. Second, random.org has selected our winner as… Lee (who just turned 31 and is so far happy with it). That’s good news for us too, since we’re both staring down at 31 now. Congrats Lee! Guess what today is? Sherry’s 30th birthday! And to celebrate, Crate & Barrel is gonna give one of you a Benjamin to spend for every decade that Sherry’s been alive (that’s $300 in case your math skills are in a post-lunch slump). And that’s not the only thing Crate & Barrel is giving away these days. They’re also

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How To Seal Cork Floors

When we last talked floors in the kitchen, they looked pretty much done. But if you looked closely, they weren’t. They still needed some finishing touches – namely shoe molding to cover the gaps around the edges (which are intentional to allow for temperature expansion and contraction) and some coats of sealant (to keep moisture out of the seams and provide some added durability). The short version of the “adding shoe molding” step goes something like this: Now you see a gap… And now you don’t… Of course then there’s caulk and paint involved (to cover the nail holes and any seams like where corners meet). But let’s go with the longer version of the

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Floating Vases On The Wall

This week my little Dude Get On That Already project involves three floating vases (from CB2 four years ago, but they still sell them) that used to hang right outside our first house’s kitchen. Then, you guessed it, they got stashed in our playroom after we moved, never to be heard from again. Until now! Behold: Yup, I tapped three nails into the wall in the guest bathroom and they’re now officially three more things that are off the floor in the cluttered playroom. Three grocery store blooms work for now, but when they bite the big one, I’m sure they’ll get replaced with leafy branches and other stuff pillaged from the backyard. This is

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A Classic Kitchen With A Granite Island And White Glass Cabinets

When you see the pictures in this post, you’ll agree that Meghan and her husband can churn out a huge transformation. But what we also loved about Meghan’s email was the story behind how their before became a stop-you-in-your-tracks after. So if ever you were to not scroll right to the pictures and just read as you go, this might be a good time. “Like the two of you, my husband and I bought a house that needed work, though in our case we couldn’t reuse much thanks to some frugal prior owners. We decided to gut our kitchen, family room, dining room, and bathroom down to the studs/subfloor when our first child was 12

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