Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Landscaping The Front Yard

Somehow we always find ourselves rushing to accomplish something each autumn. One year it was trying to sell our first house before the leaves fell (along with our curb appeal). Last year it was cramming things in before setting off on our book tour. And this year it has been trying to grow grass in our sad excuse for a front yard. I know, I know – landscaping posts aren’t always that exciting.  I know I’m weird for browsing fasttreeremovalatlanta.com so much. But we’ve crammed about two months worth of progress into one post in the hopes of making it a bit more satisfying than “hey, we threw down some grass seed. Doesn’t it look…

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Pregnancy After A Traumatic Birth

Some people have been asking for a little update on how I’m feeling and how this pregnancy is going, so I thought a quick Young House Life check-in would be fun. The short answer is that I’m so excited about this little bun (as are John and of course Clara, who tells anyone who’ll listen that she’s going to be a big sister). Burger seems ambivalent at this point, but I’m sure when a kid with sticky crumb-dropping hands comes along he’ll be elated too. It took me a long time to feel ready to carry a child again (more on that here), and it took us longer to get pregnant this time than it

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Meghan’s Dilemma: Ideas Anyone?

You guys. You’re varsity. Once again, I was blown away by the 500+ awesome and fun ideas that you shared – along with some pretty amazing photoshop skillz – for Jamie’s design roadblock last week. There’s nothing like a group brainstorming session, and Jamie’s so excited about all of the options she has to explore (and has promised us after pics when she’s done). So let’s dive right into Meghan’s dilemma, because I can’t wait to hear your take. Say hello to my little friend! Yes, I have a giant Scar Face bathtub. My husband and I bought our 1987 home a little over a year ago. We have been up to our eyeballs in

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Fab Freebie: Bling Bling!

Happy Veteran’s Day guys! First we want to say thank you to the men and women currently serving our country and to those who have bravely done so in the past (like my dad, my grandfather, and Sherry’s grandfather). We’re so grateful. And now, onto the giveaway… Who doesn’t need a little more gold in their life? This week someone’s getting $350 to spend at Hattan Home, which is well stocked with decor, accessories, and jewelry that can inject a little (or a lot) of sparkle into your home. But even if you’re not looking to live the lavish lifestyle of owning your very own golden piggy bank (Sherry’s dream of all dreams) there are

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How To Pick The Right Paint Colors

Two weeks ago when John shared this post about the times that we’ve made bad painting decision, we received a bunch of requests for a follow up post in the comments: Q: I guess I just have a hard time picking colors because I have a hard time telling which swatches have grey or brown undertones. Maybe you can show some swatches (of say the teal from the built ins). One that has a grey or brown undertone and one that is more saturated? It might be helpful to see them side by side! – Aubrey Q: Thank you for this! I actually think tip #3 (pick a muddier color) surprised me the most because

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How To Use Ceramic Paint

Sorry to anyone looking for Weekly Crafty posts on Tuesdays, it seems that they’ve shifted to Thursdays for the past two weeks! Since my hands are still recovering from staple pulling, more wallpaper peeling, and more painting (we’re doing our stair risers today so we can hopefully install the runner this weekend and have that post for you on Monday), I wanted to pick something fun & easy for this week’s crafty little endeavor. And here’s where I ended up: with a big ol’ hand-painted planter full of succulents and colorful cacti. You know I like sharing house plants that we’re adding/loving/killing every once in a while (like this and this), and this project all

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A Graphic Kid’s Bedroom Makeover

Last fall we featured a redesign that Nancy did for her son Owen. Well, she’s back with another awesome room makeover… but this time it was for another family with a great story. Here’s her letter: Hi John and Sherry! A while back, I entered the contest Creating with the Stars hosted by East Coast Creative, and I was teamed up with Kari from U-Create. I had the wonderful opportunity to makeover a space for a couple who have been trying for over ten years to get pregnant. Accepting this may never become a reality, they are in a foster to adopt program and are adopting three siblings. KK is the youngest out of the three

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Removing An Old Carpet And Staples

We’ve never been more all over the place than we have been lately (Clara’s room, the master bath, the kitchen, the sunroom veranda) and we can’t believe it has been around a month and a half since we last mentioned our staircase. Several of you have been eager to hear about the new runner that we ordered, and we’ve been eager to tell you all about it (it was back-ordered and arrived a little behind schedule, but it’s finally here). But the last vestiges of the old carpet in this house were standing in our new runner’s way… When we finally removed the carpet from our master bath, the stairs became the sole remaining carpet

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Fab Freebie: Lovely Lulu

Lulu & Georgia is an online decor boutique that recently marked their first anniversary – and to celebrate, someone’s getting $500 to spend on their stylish assortment of rugs, pillows, and other home decor. The site’s name is a feminine spin on the founder’s grandfathers (Lou and George) and that angle continues to products they carry, which cover the gamut from fresh and girly to rustic and industrial (there’s enough ceramic and gold to keep Sherry happy for a very long time – especially in their gifts section). Oh and they’re giving everyone 20% off now through November 7th with the code YOUNGHOUSELOVE20. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a

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How To Take Down Kitchen Cabinets & Rehang One

Well, that can of worms is officially open. We’ve started making some changes in the kitchen. I realize this isn’t totally new news, since we removed the wallpaper in there a few weeks ago, but towards the end of last week we used that little jolt of momentum to start down the path of some more serious changes. We still want to live in this house for a nice long time (and save up some money) before we take on our full kitchen reno – we’re still changing our minds daily about what configurations and countertop materials we’d like for the long haul – but this is officially the beginning of a series of what

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How To Test For Lead

We’ve had a few moments lately where I’ve thought to myself, “self, this is not ideal.” And you know we like sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly around here, so here are three things that fall into the latter two categories. First we have this page I saw in Domino magazine with a mixture of black and white frames, which inspired me to add some black frames to the grouping over our TV in the living room (initially I was leaning towards a few black mats and some darker art). So I thought I’d be clever and use black electrical tape on the front of a few of our frames to “get the

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How To Make Vacation Keepsake Globes

The last few weeks have been deliciously random and so productive for us! I think we should bounce around from room to room all the time like this… at least until we dive into a big renovation that demands all of our attention. So far this week we’ve painted raindrops & a pink door in Clara’s room, had some fun with Shannon’s design dilemma, finally finished our big sunroom floor project, and we’re actually starting to work on something in the kitchen for Monday (ahhh! that room needs more help than I did in Calculus class). And this week’s little crafty project didn’t bomb, which is a huge relief because there were definitely a few

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