Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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2 Free Floor Planning Apps

Let’s talk about Apps And Zerts, shall we? (Yes, that was a Tom Haverford reference, so you might want to grab your super water and sandoozles before we get into the nitty gritty) As I was trying out some new floor-planning apps to write last week’s post about our office floor plans, I took some screen shots and photos to share with you guys, and then that post felt full of enough graphics and words without them so I thought “eh, I’ll just skip that stuff.” Well, no less than a few dozen of you asked for more info on how our floor plans were made – and lo, this post was born. Like a phoenix

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How To Paint Trim With A Paint Sprayer

Whilst discussing office plans last week, a few of your comments about the blue trim situation in that room were the push that we needed. We were fooling ourselves to think we should paint all that trim by hand (we’re talking baseboards, crown molding, and five windows totaling 66 individual panes). So we decided to bite the bullet, break out the paint sprayer, tape everything off, cross our fingers and toes that we didn’t get any bleed-through on those wood floors, and say hasta la vista to some more blue trim this weekend. We had painted all of the upstairs trim with the sprayer before we moved in and before the new floors went down,

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Things We’ll Keep And Change For Baby #2

This being our second trip to the baby rodeo hopefully means that we’re a bit wiser going in. We can cherry-pick from what worked well with Clara while trying to improve on some newborn and baby items, products, and methods that might need fine tuning. Of course every kid is different and what worked for baby #1 may not apply for #2 – so we’re just waiting for those curve balls to come flying towards us – but since you guys have been asking, here are five things we’re planning to redo (as in do again or use again) and five things that we’ll do new. And because they pair up nicely, we’ll look at

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How To Make An Easy Baby Quilt

Here’s the story of how I made a cute little quilt for our baby boy on the way. A few years ago I chronicled how my not-nearly-a-seamstress buns were compelled possessed to make a quilt for the bean. And here I am a few years later (after a tornado of thread and a surprisingly successful sewing machine date) with another homemade quilt – this time for our little man. I don’t think I would have been so into making him a quilt if Clara hadn’t grown so attached to hers. She not only has slept with it pretty much every night since I finished it… … but she brings it in the car for road

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Home Office Floor Plans

It seems our excitement for the plans that we’ve been cooking up for the showhouse office has spilled over to our own office. Well, that and the fact that ours is looking pretty sad lately, having recently pilfered both its armchair and Expedit for the nursery. It doesn’t help that our chalkboard still says “Merry Christmas” on it. So basically, yeah, this office screams “I’ve got my ish together.” We’re excited to be thinking about the office because it’s one of our favorite full-of-raw-potential spaces in the house (so much space! so much light!). And with the baby’s impending arrival (six weeks!) we’re feeling the urge to consolidate our business life so it’s less likely

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How To Paint A Refrigerator With Appliance Paint

So yeah… our fridge is white now. It’s not a new fridge, it’s just our old almond-colored one “freshened up” a bit with some appliance paint so that it would play along more nicely with our white cabinets. After tons of you (literally dozens) mentioned that you had great luck with appliance paint in this post, we were encouraged to give it a try. I’ll admit that I initially had my doubts, but after hearing such rave reviews from you guys, we figured at its best, this update would help an old fridge blend in more until we save up enough money to replace it during Phase 2 of this kitchen makeover. And if it

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Fab Freebie: Have Mercier

Whoever wants a little more ooh-la-la in their home this week is in luck. Nineteen Mercièr is giving someone $500 to spend on any of the items in their shop – all of which are inspired by old world France. They have a nice mix of timeworn and weathered pieces, right alongside bold metals and graphic shapes. So whether you’re trying to complete the look in a rustic room, or just bring a bit of balance to a more modern space there’s plenty to choose from. 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

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Painting On A Faux Inlay Pattern

This kind of spoils the whole “wait for it… here it comes…” build-up, but I had to lead with an after picture for you guys. It’s a super affordable, deceivingly simple thrift store table upgrade. Seriously, don’t tell me you can’t do this. You can. And I’ll give you one of these if you say you can’t. Do you remember the $25 thrift store Moroccan table that I brought home nearly two years ago? Even after cleaning it up, the top still had a few issues, but I didn’t want to rush into altering it right away (like attempting to putty, sand, prime, and stain/paint it) so I just tossed a few things on the

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Homearama Office & Dining Room

During last week’s update about our Homearama Showhouse for Habitat For Humanity, we included a few peeks at how some of the rooms were shaping up. Well, shaping up in our heads, technically, since we’re still about three weeks out from being able to put any furnishings into the house (the walls are getting painted as I type this, and then the cabinetry will go in and the hardwood floors will be stained on site), so everything has been in shopping list and mood board form so far. But in the last week the builder and his awesome team have been humming along, and we’ve made some really good furniture-and-accessory planning progress in several of

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House Crashing: Cheery Across The Pond

We like to House Crash at least once a month but somehow it has been nearly two since our last one, so we’re sorry for the delay, but we hope that this awesome one all the way from the UK makes up for it! We knew as soon as we saw this place that it was primed and ready for a crashing, and since it’s a little too far for a road trip, we had a lot of fun getting all of the virtual details (and photos) for you guys. Meet Kimberly. She’s married to Wayne, and is an American who has been living in Manchester, UK for over a decade. This is her charming

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How To Make A Nursery Mobile

Wanna see a pregnant lady in a crib? Boom, there it is. Yes, this is a story all about how my life got twist turned upside down I made our little man a mobile. It’s kinda rustic (it’s made from a manzanita branch) and kinda modern (there are fun circles in a bunch of colors and sizes that hang down at different lengths) and most of all it makes me smile. Is it weird that hanging this actually made me feel more ready to have the little guy in my arms? Like “OK, the mobile’s up – now the baby party can start.” Much like the mobile I made for Clara’s room (that one was

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Our Favorite Shops, Restaurants, and Activities In Richmond Virginia

Exactly eight years ago today, Sherry and I picked up and moved from NYC to Richmond, VA together. Apart from the towns that we grew up in, neither of us have ever lived any place longer – and it’s the only hometown that Clara has ever known. So we thought it would be fun to commemorate this date – and this city that we love. Especially since you guys ask us plenty of “when in Rome Richmond” questions – the biggest one being “what thrift/discount stores should I hit up when I pass through?”   Three years ago we celebrated our 5th anniversary by sharing a quick post about our “Five Richmond Top Fives” –

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