Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Oil-Based Drylok To Block Mildew & Seal Cinderblocks

Ok, we’re back on speaking terms with the basement. After it gave us quite a hard time when we began our Dryloking-interrupted-by-oh-no-is-that-mildew adventure (read all about that right here), we’re feeling victorious after conquering the first step towards turning our cinder block insect shelter into clean and functional storage space. If you recall, we had already faced the grueling disappointment of mildew spots making their way through our first coat of white latex-based Drylok (which is like painting with Elmer’s glue, btw)… So with our second round of bleach-treatment having tamed the mildew a bit more, we crossed our fingers as we broke out the powerhouse oil-based Drylok (as recommended by the experts at True

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Our Favorite Classic Home Decor Elements

Sometimes it’s fun for us to scroll through the photos on our House Tour page and try to pick out decorating similarities or patterns that we’ve never noticed before. Obviously there are blatant themes that we knowingly gravitate towards, like a light and airy look, neutral colors with some hits of soft blue and grass green, white curtains, dark wood furnishings mixed with white painted pieces and white ceramic animals (which I admit I like a little too much). But it’s also interesting to notice that we seem to have subliminal attractions that even we’re not privy to until waaay after the fact when we’re looking at the photos as a whole. For example, in

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DIYig A Mudroom Wall With Hanging Storage & Shoe Storage

When Jen and Erik sent their toddler-friendly entryway makeover our way we had to share their genius transformation. Here’s their letter: I just wanted to let you guys know how much we love your site. It’s funny because in a lot of ways you remind us of ourselves. People think we’re nuts doing all we do around the house. We thought once we had a baby we’d be done- but nope, our son just inspires us more, as is the case with our new mudroom. The space was once green, which wasn’t bad but looked crazy with all the colorful art we were trying to bring in. So we decided to lighten it up with

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Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Us

1. A few months before starting this blog we had never painted brick, ripped up a carpet, upholstered a chair, made a headboard, caulked anything, changed out hardware or done pretty much any of the other tutorials we’ve since figured out and shared on our How To page (we’re true believers in learning as you go). 2. Our license plate says “Burgrr” (custom plates are only $10 here so we couldn’t resist). 3. John’s middle name is Freeman in honor of his grandfather (his first name honors his other grandfather named John). 4. My first name is actually not Sherry, it’s Sherry-Beth (my mom thinks it flows like Elizabeth, but it doesn’t- in fact it

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Painting Old Paneling A Teal Color

When Trish sent us photos of her vibrant living room walls we couldn’t wait to share the amazing before and after pics. Here’s her letter: Here are a couple of pics of my transformed teal coloured walls for any of your colour-loving readers. We live in a tiny old cottage with tongue-and-groove timber interior walls and our living room needed some cheering up. It’s amazing what some happy colors can do to transform a formerly gloomy room! -Cheers from Trish in Australia Isn’t Trish’s living room welcoming and smile-inducing? There’s just something about it that makes us hopelessly happy. We love her bold use of such punchy and fabulous colors (like how she spray painted

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How To Make 30 All Natural & Eco Friendly Cleaners

And now we’ll continue the cleaning chit-chat with this handy little homemade cleaner breakdown. When we talked about getting even greener and experimenting with homemade cleaners in year three of YHL, an expert in that very area offered up a few of her favorite formulas. And we jumped at the chance to learn how all natural and totally eco-friendly cleaning materials are easy and effective- and sometimes way cheaper than paying for the more toxic stuff that can hurt pets, kids, people in general and the planet at large. Here’s what Evan the all-knowing homemade cleaner girl passed along: This has become an obsession for me. If you think of your home as a sanctuary

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Ditching Swiffer Dusters For Microfiber Cloths

We did it. After a few months of passively wishing that we were using reusable microfiber cloths to dust our house (instead of disposable Swiffer duster pads) we finally made the switch. We’re use-up-what-you-have-before-getting-something-new people, so we were counting down those last few Swiffer pads until the box was finally empty (here it is in our recycling bin)… …and we could replace them with a five pack of white microfiber cloths (snagged for just $5 at TJ Maxx). Why is this big news for us? Well since we were going through a few Swiffer duster pads a week (remember our detailed cleaning rundown right here?) we realized that if microfiber cloths are just as good

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