Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Paint Your Garage Door & Utility Box

Do you guys ever get those irrational worries about how your house looks right before hosting a party? Leading up to Clara’s birthday on Saturday I was thinking random stuff like “I really should touch up some of the caulk in the sunroom before everyone comes over” like anyone would notice. And Sherry said “the patio table could use a fresh coat of paint” was running through her head when we were using a tablecloth anyway. But one thing that never crossed our minds was: “The back door is in pretty rough shape. Maybe we should do something about it before IT BECOMES THE PLACE WHERE KIDS PLAY WITH BUBBLES FOR HOURS.” Oh well. The

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Fab Freebie: Oh Baby Baby

We’ve got $500 towards a trio of shops where we got some of our favorite Teddy-items up for grabs this week. First is $200 to Bella Tunno, who makes the cozy striped stroller blanket you may have seen wrapped around him (we got ours as a gift from our friend Christi and have been loving it ever since). They also have bibs, paci clips, lovies, and fun things like a roll-out travel chalkboard set. And they’re running a pretty sweet buy one, give one initiative to fight childhood hunger. Next up is $150 to ModFox, the Etsy shop where we bought our changing pad cover in gray arrow fabric. It’s the perfect shop if there’s

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Playing (Show)House

Before the Homearama show concluded this weekend, we slipped through on Friday with Teddy strapped into our baby carrier (Clara was with the grandparents) so we could check out the homes with visitors in them. It was fun to chat with show-goers, see our pantry getting filled up with food donations, and we even spotted a note someone left us on a notepad in the girl’s room of our house. But perhaps the most exciting thing we got to see in person was the People’s Choice Award that our house won! The votes were very close, and all of the other homes were so well done. It’s hard to put into words how much we’ve

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A “Pink & Gold Everything” Kids Party

This weekend our deck was full of people we love, gathered to celebrate this four year old bean of ours. It was pretty awesome to have so much connected outdoor space to party on (the sunroom-turned-veranda and our big deck that overlooks the grassy backyard felt less chopped up than having some people in the last house’s sunroom while others were on our two-tiered patio). And since our previous house is where we’ve hosted every other Clara-birthday since she was born (here’s the post about her first birthday, the one about her second one, and the one about her third) it felt both weird and wonderful to have our first big birthday gathering here. Most

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How To Make Wooden Play Pastries & Treats For A Kids Tea Party

Remember when Clara was queen of the jellyfish? Good times. The girl definitely has fun with pretend play, and we like to make things for her, especially on occasions like birthdays and Christmas (like this play kitchen, this dollhouse, this latch board, this figurine cubby, this patterned doll cradle, this colorful quilt, this cuckoo clock and this beanbag pouf) so with yesterday being her fourth birthday (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!) I thought some pretend pastries would be fun. I know, it sounds like a cruel joke. “Happy birthday! Here are delicious sugary things you can’t eat because – surprise! – they’re made of wood!” But lately she has been loving tea parties (here she is

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Fab Freebie: Showhaus To Your House

As John mentioned in yesterday’s post, we somehow convinced Arhaus to hook one of you up with the entire Wyatt Outdoor Collection, valued at $4,500! It includes the matching sofa, ottoman, and swivel chair (as shown below) that we used to deck out the front porch of our showhouse. It definitely passes the comfort test, each piece is hand painted to look like weathered wicker, it has a sturdy (but lightweight) aluminum frame, and there’s durable Sunbrella fabric to keep it looking good for the long haul. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway is available

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Beautiful Outdoor Spaces At The Showhouse

There are a few outdoor showhouse spaces that we haven’t shown at all in this entire yearlong process. Each of the seven showhouses were encouraged to include some fun outdoor spaces as well as indoor ones, so aside from the stuff you can see from the curb, there’s also a back porch and a back patio complete with a stone fireplace. The cool thing about these outdoor spaces is that they’re the places that we got to put our heads together with the builder and the architect the most – and they ended up being some of our favorites. The craziest thing is that our house won 1st place (i.e. the “Gold Award”) for both

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How To Make Planting Beds With Mulch

Let’s talk about planning planting beds, digging them out to crisp up the edges, spreading a truckload of mulch, and other fun curb appeal delights. Yes, with Clara’s birthday party coming up this weekend (more on that another day) we’ve been trying to give our landscaping a little attention. Mother Nature has done her job by cranking the greenery to eleven, so we’ve done some work to further improve the view from our front porch. And from this post title, you can probably guess what I’m talking about. Let’s hot tub time machine our way back to last summer (after all, there is no classier way to time travel) when most of our plant beds

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Clara Conversations

A bunch of you asked if we’d be continuing this series from Young House Life over here after this post, and the answer is yes. So… happy Saturday! And happy Mother’s Day to all the ladies out there who are celebrating it (says the bleary eyed sleep-deprived mom who wouldn’t have it any other way). Convo #1 Clara (stalling before bedtime): Wait! Before bed let’s talk about my room! Mom: What about your room? Clara: My fairy lights. Mom: What about them?  Clara: They make… my eyes… feel… so… round.  Convo #2 Clara (randomly in the middle of breakfast after looking down at her outfit): I have the most beautiful dress in Virginia. Convo #3 Clara (looking through

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House Crashing: The Whole Show

For the last few weeks you guys have been requesting a House Crashing post with photos of the other six Homearama homes in the show, so we slipped through and snapped a bunch of pictures of each house, just like we did for this Homearama House Crash from 2012 (that’s your warning that this post is extremely image-heavy). Everyone who has attended the show so far seems to have different favorites, which is definitely part of the fun (there’s a “people’s choice” award that everyone who passes through can vote for, and each of the seven boxes have a ton of papers in them). All of the houses in the show sit on a cul-de-sac

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Fab Freebie: Cone And Get It

Who wants $500 to Pine Cone Hill for a little bedding refresh? They make everything from duvets and sheets to pillows, poufs, and even placemats – and they come in classic and neutral patterns or punchy colorful prints (like the Parama Diamond pattern we used in the showhouse’s master bedroom). Their site has styles grouped into categories like “Haute Lodge” and “Cape Calm” to help you find the perfect combo, or of course you can go rogue and mix-and-match from different sets. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway is available to residents of the US

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Weekly Baby Photo Project

A lot of you have been asking if we’re taking weekly baby photos of Teddy, like we did with Clara for the first year of her life (you can read more about that project here, here, and here). The answer is yes! Although we had some fun putting a slightly different spin on our weekly project this time around. Here are his first two shots: Note: the number font is called Sullivan and the “weeks” font is called Big Mouth. While we were tempted to do something entirely different for Teddy, we didn’t want to completely reinvent the wheel (when it came down to it, we really liked how Clara’s project turned out). So just

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