Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Painting A DIY Wall Mural

The big, colorful mural we recently painted in our daughter’s room was one of the most fun and impactful painting projects we’ve done in a while. It was a combination of both careful planning and some last-minute improvising that was so easy to do, even the kids broke out some paintbrushes to help. Plus, it extremely was budget-friendly too. The whole thing was painted by hand, just using regular ol’ paintbrushes and rollers. No fancy paint sprayers. No projector. Not even any painter’s tape! So today we’ll talk you through: How to plan your wall mural The materials needed to paint the mural A step-by-step process for painting Why you can’t really screw this up!

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How To Make A Channel Tufted Headboard

After using our favorite method to make a simple headboard for our son’s room last week, we actually had enough leftover materials to try out a new trick in our daughter’s room – which yielded a completely free headboard for her. Three cheers for $0 projects, right? Especially since she helped us settle on the design and make it, so it’s not only cozy to lean back on (you know that function is my love language), but she’s also super into the finished result because she had a hand in it. Literally. Before we dive into that how-to, we realized you haven’t seen how her room has shaped up since we moved in. In case

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How To Build A Bookshelf

We recently shared how we created the wraparound fabric headboard in our son’s room, but today we wanted to tell you about the custom bookcase we constructed at the foot of his bed. It was a great DIY project to fill that space, while also giving him some super-convenient bedside book storage (plus a secret hidden compartment!). It was a remarkably easy build that anyone could do, plus you can customize it your particular space! Why Create Custom Book Storage? This is the smallest room in our small house and his bed fits nicely against this wall with just enough space at the end for some custom storage. Before building this bookshelf, his book were

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Recent Bedroom Updates (And What We’ve Got Planned)

Yesterday marks two months since we moved, and our bedroom was probably the last room to make the transition from “dumping ground of things to unpack” to “comfortable space that feels like ours.” So here’s where things are currently – and what’s still ahead of us (including some bad photoshop to give you a peek inside our heads). If you recall from our before tour, this space was originally a living room (with another much larger living space upstairs with a nice big deck off of it). Since we quickly realized that we’d rather share that larger room & deck as a family, and sleep on the same level as our kids, we knew this

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#180: Decorating In The Era Of Zoom

The sudden boom of video conferencing in all of our lives is giving us a new window through which to view our homes (and the homes of others – from coworkers to celebrities and news correspondents). So what does your Zoom background say about you? And what lengths will we go to when it comes to altering them to make sure nothing weird gets seen by everyone else on the call? We also realized in hindsight that a family trip earlier this year had a pretty major effect on our decision to move to Florida. Plus we explain the big shiny object on our kitchen counter – and Sherry divulges an embarrassing story from her

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Our Outdoor Shower Makeover

Our Cape Charles beach house quickly taught us the value of an outdoor shower. By giving people a spot to rinse off before coming inside, it keeps sand off your floors and out of your plumbing. It took us a couple of summers to get that outdoor shower fully enclosed and functional (you can see it here in this post), so it was a nice perk that our new Florida house already had one ready to go. Well, if you consider non-functioning plumbing and grime-covered walls “ready to go.” This space kind of baffled us at first. It looked like some sort of open-air sauna thing. And maybe it was just all of the dirt

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#179: A Funny Byproduct Of Having To Buy Fewer Products

The perks of downsizing continue to show themselves, including a recent realization we had while shopping for curtains and blinds. It was a pretty dramatic contrast of how shopping for this house is different than our previous ones, and it highlighted some exciting freedoms that come along with that. We also take a look at how pandemics of the past have shaped the way our homes look today, including the origin of things like powder rooms, white kitchens, and higher bed frames. Plus, what we really think of our fancy new Frame TV – and can your birthday really help you pick the right plants? What’s New Here’s a photo of our new curtains in

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Our Upstairs Family Room, Four Weeks In

Last week we showed you how things landed in our kitchen, just using the furniture and things that we already own. And this week we’re sharing how it’s looking upstairs. This is quickly becoming one of our favorite rooms because it has windows on ALL FOUR SIDES. Not only does it get tons of great light, but it also gives us views of the greenery outside at virtually every turn. We knew we wanted this room to be a nice big shared family space that we could all spend lots of time in together (instead of breaking it up into a bedroom/bathroom for us or two bedrooms/bathroom for the kids) and it has been working

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#178: Settling Into Our New House: Expectation Vs. Reality

We’ve been in our new house for one whole month, and there are definitely some things that are shaping up differently than we had pictured. So today we’re sharing why some house projects have been easier than expected, but getting settled in a few other ways took some turns we didn’t anticipate. We’re also diving into the history of three popular and persistent design trends – like the true origins of subway tile and why the fiddle-leaf fig isn’t a recent phenomenon. Plus, a curtain hack that Sherry secretly tested out for an entire year, and what happens when Alexa commands get lost in translation. What’s New We talked about how we’ve been pleasantly surprised

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Our Downsized Smaller Kitchen, Three Weeks In

Well, we’ve almost been in this house for a month. How crazy is that?! We moved on the 14th of last month and this Sunday is the 14th again! The pod is all unpacked and picked up (you can listen in here about what the heck we overpacked & then donated when we got here). It’s so crazy that a single pod of stuff can be too much – but then again, John was a pod-packing champion. Like too good at it. And going from 14 rooms to 6 (and 3150 square feet to 1400) is not a small challenge. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. This was a multiple month long undertaking. But it was

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500+ Highly Recommended Black-Owned Businesses To Support

All week on our Instagram stories we’ve been highlighting Black-owned businesses as a way that you can get involved, vote with your dollars, and show these super deserving small businesses some love. It all started because after getting personal in this post on IG and Facebook, I came across an article that said “…over the past 30 years, the US has seen a sharp decline in independent Black-owned business, and that Black women in particular face so many obstacles getting their business ventures funded.” That SUCKS! So after highlighting some of my favorite Black-owned shops, you guys started flooding my DMs with some of yours. Dozens of enthusiastically recommended shops quickly turned into hundreds, crossing

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Volunteered Expertise For Black-Owned Businesses

Since sharing our list of Black-owned businesses that hundreds of you so highly recommended, we’ve been receiving messages from all types of experts, professionals, and creatives who would like to volunteer their services to help small Black-owned businesses. We didn’t want them to get lost on Instagram, so we’ve copied their messages and contact info below: Business Coaching Bryn Braaten – “I’m a Recruiting Manager for Amazon that focuses on Software Engineers, Managers, Technical Program Managers, Research Science, Data Engineers, and Program/Product Manager Tech. I’d love to offer 5 Resume Reviews per month to help edit/curate skill set and connect them for applicable jobs within Amazon.” CONTACT: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/ Kathy Campbell – “I would love to

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