Since our travel guides to Charleston with kids and Palm Springs with kids have elicited requests for more travel ideas with kids, we’re back with an overdue recap of our 3-night trip to New Orleans. We’d never been to The Big Easy before and were impressed by how family-friendly the city is. It’s not all booze, beads, and Bourbon Street! So here’s a look at where we stayed, what we did, and what we’re excited to do next time we go back – because we will definitely go back! The four of us (well, five if you count our chihuahua!) went to NOLA for 3 nights in November of 2022. At the time, our kids
9 Easy Low-Light Indoor Plants
I used to think every houseplant needed a sunny corner or bright windowsill to thrive. But it turns out many of our favorite go-to houseplants do just fine in shady corners and low-light locations. So before you write off your house as too dark to sustain plant life, check out this list of the best indoor plants for low light. You might be surprised at how many good options there are! Our upstairs family room is the brightest room we’ve ever owned thanks to big unobstructed windows on all 4 sides. But most of our indoor plants live downstairs, where we get far less natural light. Luckily, that hasn’t stopped us from growing our collection
How To Remove Wallpaper: 4 Proven Methods
Wallpaper has made a big comeback as a trendy home design choice. But despite its resurgence, there are still plenty of us dealing with dingy, dated, or downright ugly old wallpaper we don’t want. In our old home, we had to remove wallpaper in so many rooms: the kitchen, the dining room, the foyer, and two different bathrooms! As we traveled from room to room removing wallpaper, we tested 4 different methods, and today we’ll share what we learned. Removing wallpaper doesn’t require special tools or lots of money. It’s a totally doable project for any homeowner. However, it can be a tedious process that can take elbow grease and patience, depending on the size
Aglaonema Plant – Complete Care Guide
Aglaonema, also called the Chinese Evergreen Plant, is an easy-care houseplant that lives happily in many lighting conditions – even a dark corner of our daughter’s room. There are dozens of different Aglaonema varieties, most with large tropical foliage and colors ranging from silvery-green, red, and even vibrant pink. They’re also tough to kill, so they’re a great option for forgetful plant owners or anyone looking for an easy win in the plant department. These truly have been very low maintenance for us. We purchased our two Aglaonemas (pronounced ag-lee-oh-neem-ah) to put atop our daughter’s closet. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish different varieties, but we believe that’s an Aglaonema Silver (right) and either a Candy
Corn Plant – Care Guide
Corn plants (Dracaena fragrans) are popular low-maintenance houseplants you’ve probably seen at the nursery, home improvement store, or doctor’s office. I even had one in my college dorm room! You can recognize them by their spear-shaped leaves and woody, cane-line trunks that can grow up to 6 feet tall indoors. But did you know there are several varieties of corn plants? We didn’t! Heck, we didn’t even realize some of our smaller houseplants were in the same corn plant family! Currently, we own two smaller varieties of corn plants, pictured above. The one on the left is a Dracaena Limelight (Dracaena fragrans ‘Limelight’) and the taller plant is a Draecanea Dorado (Dracaena fragrans ‘Dorado’). We
Using Solid Stain In Our Outdoor Shower
In all of our years of DIYing, I don’t think we’ve ever used a solid stain before. But we recently had a project that was *perfectly* suited for it and, well, solid stain quickly won us over. It was recommended by a professional house painter to us, specifically because he thought it would be great for our outdoor shower. And we found it easy to apply, it gave us great coverage, and we got an even-better-than-we-expected result (which is always the best kind!). So here’s a post that covers all the pros & cons and hows & whys of solid stain. As you can see, the “canvas” for this staining project was our outdoor shower.
ZZ Plant – Complete Care Guide
The ZZ plant is another one of our favorite low-maintenance houseplants. They’re easy to care for, hard to kill, and always look full & leafy. They’ve even earned the nickname “Eternity Plant” because they’re practically indestructible! That’s why they’re a top choice for commercial spaces, doctor’s offices, and busy homes like ours. Don’t you love a house plant you can forget about? ZZ plants are sold in a variety of sizes, meaning they’re great for shelves, tabletops, and small surfaces as well as larger statements on the floor. We have some that are over 3 feet tall with their pots! ZZ Plant Quick Facts Here’s what you need to know about your ZZ plant at
Star Jasmine – Plant Growing & Care Guide
Star jasmine is a fast-growing and fragrant evergreen vine that offers great coverage & privacy as a climbing or creeping vine. Even better, it bursts into bloom with incredible-smelling white flowers in the spring! The plant is native to Asia, but is incredibly popular in the Southeastern United States and areas of California. In warm environments like these, star jasmine is also super easy to care for and grow. Just another reason we love it! Star jasmine can grow as dense ground cover or container plants, but our favorite use is as a climbing vine. This does require a trellis, pergola, stakes, or some other structure for it to grow up. Those are easy to
The 9 Best Greige Paint Colors (According To Experts)
“Greige” is that sweet spot between gray & beige, and it’s a paint color that’s both trendy and timeless. In fact, we’ve been on the greige bandwagon for nearly 20 years – well before we’d even heard that term! But finding the perfect greige can be daunting. There are 100s of neutral paint colors that could be considered greige, so we’ve waded through dozens of expert round-ups to see what colors come up over and over again. (Yes, I made a spreadsheet. And yes, I liked it). We weren’t surprised to see our favorite greige paint show up on this Iist, but the color that ranked #1 was a bit of a shock to us!
Golden Pothos – Plant Care Guide
Pothos are easily our #1 favorite houseplant and the golden pothos is by far the most popular variety. They’re loved by beginners and plant experts alike because they’re affordable, attractive, and easy to care for. They’re quick-growing plants with beautiful trailing vines that add loads of life and color to any space. We have pothos in nearly EVERY room of our house! There are over a dozen kinds of pothos (Epipremnum aureum), most of which share similar characteristics and care instructions as the golden pothos. You can read more about other varieties we love, like the marble queen pothos and neon pothos. Golden Pothos Quick Facts Here’s what you need to know about your golden
Neon Pothos – Plant Care Guide
Our top recommendation for an easy, starter houseplant? Pothos, pothos, pothos! They’re low-stress, high-impact, and fast-growing vines that are great for both beginners and experts. The golden pothos may be the most common variety but don’t overlook its more vibrant cousin: the neon pothos. We’ve got several neon pothos in our home, and they’re beautiful and so easy! So here’s all you need to know before you get your own. There are over a dozen varieties of pothos, most of which share similar care instructions to the neon pothos. You can read more about other pothos we love, like the golden pothos and marble queen pothos. Neon Pothos Quick Facts Here’s what you need to
Marble Queen Pothos – Plant Care Guide
Even though the marble queen isn’t the most popular pothos variety, it’s one of our personal favorites! Like all pothos plants, they’re a perfect starter houseplant because they’re resilient, low-maintenance, and fast-growing. Plus, we think it has some of prettiest leaves of all. There are over a dozen kinds of pothos, most of which share similar characteristics and care instructions as the marble queen. You can read more about other pothos we love, like the golden pothos and neon pothos. These beauties are so hard to kill, they’ve even earned the nickname “Devil’s Ivy! Marble Queen Quick Facts Here’s what you need to know about your marble queen pothos at a glance: What Is A