Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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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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A Cheerful Yellow and Wood Kitchen Makeover

When Bonnie sent us her charming kitchen before and after pictures we just had to share the goods. Here’s her letter: I’ve been enjoying YHL for the last year. My husband and I bought my grandparents home this past November and have had so much fun renovating it! We turned the place upside down and within about five weeks we got this outcome. We were on a really tight budget, so most everything is from Ikea, thrifted or made by us. We drew tons of inspiration from Young House Love and referred to your ‘how to’s’ quite often! My readers really enjoyed our kitchen before & afters, so I thought you might like to see

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Hanging Some White Faux Wood Blinds In The Bedroom

We first brought home a pair of white faux wood blinds back when were decorating the nursery (since a nice dark room sounded like a good idea when it came to encouraging some serious pee-wee shut eye). The ironic thing is that literally for years we’ve been dying to bring them into our very own bedroom. See, the window above the bed was never covered, and although the sun doesn’t rise on that side of the house we knew it could definitely stand to get darker with the help of some sort of rolling or slatted blind. Plus the other window in the room had the original plastic roller shade that came with the house

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An Affordable Kitchen Overhaul

When Rachel sent us her recently DIYed kitchen makeover we had to share the goods. Here’s her letter: To say that there are touches of YHL in our newly renovated kitchen/dining room would be an understatement. I “borrowed” many of your ideas! First we removed the upper half of the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room. And after the dated wallpaper came down we painted both rooms with a 5 gallon bucket of Valspar paint to cut costs. We removed the upper kitchen cabinet doors to create an “open” look while the lower doors are original (we sanded, primed, & repainted them). We also added new hinges & hardware. Then we installed a

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