Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To DIY Ardex Concrete Counters

So we did it. We concrete’d our kitchen’s laminate counters. Sherry shared this quick peek at our first coat in Friday’s post, and we’re back with the final results, the details of how we got there, and an in-action video to hopefully help explain the process. We’re really happy with how they turned out. Pictures don’t do it justice, but the whole room feels a lot more updated and less laminate-y. It’s giving off kind of a stark/cold vibe in these photos, but after we add some colorful window treatments, stuff on the shelves/counters, and remedy that bad faux brick flooring (and that almond stove) we think it’ll feel like a whole new room.  I’m

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Urban Pregnancy Legends: True Or False

I thought it would be funny to see if any of those pregnancy myths or predictors like “you’re having a girl if you crave sweets” were true for you guys. So far, I don’t think they hold much truth for me… Rumor #1: If you crave sugary foods it’s a girl, and if you crave salty/savory foods, it’s a boy. FALSE FOR ME (I craved salty foods both with Clara and the bun – baked potatoes 4 eva, y’all). Rumor #2: If the heartbeat of the baby is over 140, it’s a girl. FALSE FOR ME (both the bean and the bun have had high heart rates – in fact the bun’s was higher than

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How To Change The Color Of Your Dishwasher

Happy Friday guys! Since the first three days of this week were full of bigger updates (like this craziness, our desk haul & overhaul, and a bunch of showhouse progress) it felt nice to switch gears and knock out a few smaller updates at the end. It’s always refreshing to bounce from broad planning stuff – like office layout debates and showhouse furniture arrangements – to focusing on a few quick tasks (like yesterday’s mirror switch). And thankfully this update couldn’t have been easier. Remember our lovely almond dishwasher? As you know, we’re planning to replace our appliances during a full kitchen renovation down the line, but I heard an almost-sounds-too-good-to-be-true tip from a few of

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How To Update Bathroom Mirrors

The upstairs hall bathroom has pretty much been ignored for the past nine months, other than hanging a shower curtain after we moved in and occasionally cleaning the toilet. But these builder basic mirrors have been on our hit list from day one. It took us nearly two years to get around to updating the one in our last hall bathroom by framing it out, so we weren’t about to let these go as long. Sherry has been on the lookout for something with a more interesting shape (round? quatrefoil? Eminem’s face?) so framing these out wasn’t our plan this time. Instead, we glanced at whatever mirrors were around when we dropped in on thrift

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Picking Lighting and Tile For The Model Home

Things are moving at warp speed these days at the Homearama Showhouse, so we have tons of updates to share since last week (especially since more fixtures, cabinets, and counters are now officially installed). Let’s start on the front porch, where the centerpiece of our rustic, vaulted ceiling has been added. It’s from Restoration Hardware, so it was definitely a splurge (our team joined their trade program to save 20%) but we think it’s an awesome thing to see up there before stepping into the house for the first time. As we snapped these photos yesterday, they were just beginning to pull up the protective floor coverings, but the hardwoods were still really dusty (they’re

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Fab Freebie: Great Scott

A certain pregnant lady I know and love has a birthday this week, so we thought we’d mark it by giving the gift of one of Sherry’s favorite things to one of you: jewelry. Specifically, $500 to spend at Kendra Scott! 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 the United States (but we’ve got a border-busting prize coming up for you next week). Click to View Rafflecopter Widget

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How To Paint An Old Desk

Before we dive into our recent office progress, we just wanted to send out a heartfelt thanks to everyone who left such sweet comments on yesterday’s announcement. To say that it has been completely surreal and that we’re so grateful are two of the biggest understatements we could make. But back to the office. You might remember on our initial planning post, we left off saying “We’re still letting the concept simmer in our heads, but we’re fairly confident that we’ll start heading in that last layout’s direction since it feels like it makes the most sense for the way we work.”  We still wanted to tape things off on the floor to really get a feel

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Our Hardware Designs – In Target!

It’s been nearly three years in the making, so it’s hard to believe that the day is finally here that we can share our longest-stretching side-gig to date. We’ve been designing a collection of products… and a bunch of them are now being sold exclusively at Target (!!!). Cue the sound effect of a cat sprinting out of a bag. We designed three or four dozen pieces before the final mix was chosen – and those designs, which are an assortment of wall storage and hooks, are available right now at Target.com and will be on endcaps in most US stores starting March 31st. You’ll be able to find them in the Home Improvement section

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Finding Wallpaper For The Nursery

I know it sounds kinda crazy, but after painstakingly removing five different wallpapers from this house… we’re considering putting some up. I think I even passively mentioned it in this post about the nursery mobile. Ever since we imagined the idea of these built-ins, we pictured making the space between the two of them sort sort of accent – either with a color or pattern or treatment of some sort (in our first post we even mentioned a planked wall). Those ideas fizzled a little bit after completing the built-ins and realizing they had a lot of stuff on them (so we didn’t want to clutter up that space between them above the crib too).

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Picking The Paint, Light Fixtures, Doorknobs, & Vanities For The Showhouse

I’m thinking we should post pictures of blue ceilings more often on Instagram, at least judging by the reaction we got to this pic from the Homearama Showhouse on Monday. Then again, it may have just been thanks to Sherry’s dancing girl emojis. As those high-steppin’ cartoon ladies indicated, we’re pretty psyched about how things are shaping up over there. The bold “Skydive” color that we chose for the office ceiling (by Benjamin Moore) came out better than we imagined, and we even got to use one of our favorite lights that we designed last year. But although there has been TONS of progress since our last update two weeks ago, it’s unfortunately not the

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How To Paint A Hallway Fast

Just when you thought we were all painted out on Monday, I’m back with another painting update. With this bun of ours arriving in five short weeks, it’s lighting a “paint all the things!” fire under my rear. I know that being laid up with a c-section will mean staring at all of the not-done things on the ol’ to-do list, so humming through a few of them before the little man is here will hopefully put my nesting slash home-making mind at ease. So we set our sights on the upstairs hallway. It connects so many rooms (the nursery, our room, the hall bath, Clara’s room, the guest room, the laundry, etc) that we

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Fab Freebie: Art For U

With over 6,000 original pieces to peruse and $500 to spend, UGallery is going to help someone upgrade their walls in a major way this week. Browsing so many artists and works is easier thanks to being able to filter by medium, price, color, size, and style – plus they ship everything for free and will even let you try things out at home for seven days to make sure your selected piece really works in your space. It’s sort of like dating your art before you put a ring on it. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this

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