Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Making Some DIY Sentimental Map Art

We wanted to elaborate on our response to a question Alyssa asked on Wednesday about the framed map in the photo below: What you see in the white frame on that shelf is a card included in the City Walks: New York boxed set. For those those not familiar with the City Walks series, they’re small boxes that include 50 “adventures on foot” through different cities across the globe. That means you get 50 unique cards outlining different walking tours, complete with a map, directions and fun facts about the things you’ll see along the way. I got the New York edition as a gift when I moved there but had no idea what to

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Our Spring Break Trip To Madiera Beach

As we revealed on Saturday, we spent the last week soaking up the sun on a tiny island off the west coast of Florida called Madeira Beach. We’ve returned to Virginia with slightly tan skin, a boatload of shells, and tons of fun stories to share… starting with the tour of the totally sweet cottage we stayed in all week long. From the start we knew we wanted a unique, tropical experience, so we avoided the ubiquitous beachfront hotel and sought out something more private (and dog-friendly). That’s how we stumbled upon the Island Paradise Cottages of Madiera Beach – the affordable and stylish answer to our lodging needs just steps from the beach. Island

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Another Dirty Little Secret

We’ve been sneaky. No, not living-a-double-life sneaky… secret-vacation sneaky. That’s right. John and I quietly slipped away to a tiny series of islands off the west coast of Florida and have spent the past seven days swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, eating boatloads of seafood, blogging from the beach, and working on our tans (or in my case, sunburning my left ear). We’ve had mucho fun celebrating what we affectionately refer to as “Honeymoon Part Two” (since our actual honeymoon nine months ago was spent in the far northwest: Alaska, we thought it was fitting to continue our celebration of newlywedism in the far southeast this time). And just like “Honeymoon Part One,” our

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Our Messy Detached Basement

Ok, so between all the pics and video tours you may think you’ve seen every inch of our house. On the contrary our dear readers. We have an entire room that you’ve never been privy to. Until now. You see, under our sunroom is a private entry basement. This means that the only way to get there is to walk outside and down a few steps. And since it’s not exactly easily accessible (or easily seen) we’ve been using it as more of a dumping ground than an extra room. We hesitate to show you the chaos that inhabits our little basement, but here it goes: Now granted, this isn’t exactly a finished room, so

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How To Pick Granite Counters

At a recent open house, our suspicions that a last-minute countertop switch saved our kitchen were confirmed when we saw this kitchen with a granite countertop in Blanc Noir- the style that we almost chose: In fact, we did choose Blanc Noir, but when we viewed the full slab (as opposed to a tiny sample that Home Depot provided) we pulled a last minute switcheroo from Blanc Noir to Pashmina. And this open house kitchen was all the proof that we needed to be sure that we absolutely without question made the right decision. Here’s our granite counter in Pashmina for comparison: Our fears that the Blanc Noir granite would be more busy and patterned

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Removing The Scalloped Trim On Our Porch For A Cleaner Look

Since you see the front of our house all the time in the blog header, you may be surprised to learn that it’s due for a major overhaul. Sure it looks sweet from afar (especially when all those azaleas are in bloom) but the sad truth is that up close it’s definitely less than picture perfect. The old slate path is jagged and chipped. The country looking scalloped header above the porch is totally not our style. And the screen door is old and rotten. We tried to save it for a little while by painting it a cheerful yellow, but sadly it had still seen better days. So yesterday I said “smell ya later”

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If This Were Your Bookcase…

…what color would you paint it? We adopted this snore of a bookshelf in Manhattan about three years ago and it’s one of about ten pieces that made the move to Richmond with us in a minivan. We’ve always treated it like an “until we get something better” piece because there’s nothing terribly special about it, but somehow it has lasted this long, so we figure it’s about time we make it work. We’re going to give it the ol’ Young House Love paint job (the wood is a little too red for our house anyways). And seeing a pretty painted green bed on google gave us the confidence to try something other than white…

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Painting The Inside Of Our Glass Kitchen Cabinet

Lately I’ve been noticing glass front cabinets with a twist. The twist is that the backs of the cabinets have a little somethin’ extra. Sometimes they’re wallpapered. Sometimes they’re beadboard. Sometimes they’re upholstered. And sometimes they’re painted. So after living with our very own glass front cabinet for a little while, we decided to join the club. In about two hours I painted the back of our corner cabinet the same beachy blue-gray color that’s on the walls. I left the shelves white and just painted the back wall to keep the contrast high and make the white plates and dishes pop against the new moody backdrop. Can I just say that it was so

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White Hot

We’ve have a hypothesis: around 75% of the stuff we bring into our house is white. And what better way to substantiate this theory than to share some of our latest and greatest home purchases. First, one of our favorite finds of all time- a playmate for my concrete greyhound V-day present from John. Another amazing Home Goods find, our jumbo ceramic pooch was only $29. Which puts it around $436 cheaper than this almost identical version from Perch. Score. And now he can guard the sunroom while his concrete older brother keeps an eye on the living room. And while I was toting our new four-legged friend around the store, this little gem practically

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