Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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We Bought A Moose Lamp

Knock Knock. Who’s there? Moose. Moose Who? Moose Lamp!!! Wait, but some of that pic is photoshopped. I can explain. It all started when I saw a moose lamp at an moving sale back in West Virginia when we were there to makeover Granny’s bathroom… I couldn’t resist grabbing him for ten bucks. His shade was an odd too-small shape and his paint was flaking off in a few places… … but I knew I could take him from log-cabin to log-cabin-chic with a little spray paint and a new shade. So guess what? Dude, I got on that (see how these odd, usually-animal-related “Dude Get On That Already” challenges started here). I got on

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Fab Freebie: It’s The Tiny Things

***This giveaway is now closed – see who won below!*** Now that the Christmas countdown clock has ticked to 67 days left, how ’bout we announced who random.org selected for this prize? That lucky person is… Janaya McKeon (who is “crazy excited for my husband and I to share our very first Christmas together as a married couple, and dreading the inevitable weight gain that accompanies me.”) Congrats Janaya! There are 70 days ’til Christmas, y’all. Yup. It just got real up in here. So if you’re looking to help keep the holiday hysteria at bay, we’ve got a great way to check one thing off your list: cards. Tiny Prints is gonna hook one of

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Slowly Updating Our Landscaping

When it comes to our jungle-esque backyard, we last left off with transplanting/digging up one giant 15′ garden bed and leveling it all off in the hopes of growing some lush green grass. And we’re back with a little backyard update (why yes we did spend the weekend getting muddy and why no, I still don’t have Madonna arms, but maybe a third day of bush whacking will be the charm?). Much like any other “room” in the house, it’s definitely a do-it-in-phases thing, especially since it’s such a you’ll-be-sore-after-each-phase process, but there’s something awesome about digging around in the yard for a few hours while the bean naps and Burger sleeps lazily in the

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How To Host A Yard Sale

When Sherry and I hosted our first yard sale over four years ago, we remember feeling rushed to get everything outside and set up, being stressed about how to price everything, and constantly obsessing over how much money we had made as the day went on. It’s like we were both so excited to sell stuff that we didn’t like (so we could go buy more stuff that we did like) that it became a bigger deal than we initially expected. Fast forward a few years (we also had a moving sale back in 2010) and we found ourselves hosting another clear-things-out yard sale now that it’s 2012 (I guess our pattern is every two

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A Peaceful Gray & White Nursery

Nancy’s room for her son Owen is a great example of how a nursery or kids room can be cool and sophisticated while still being playful and fun. Which is pretty awesome, especially when the price tag is a mere three hundred beans. And since we get a bunch of folks asking for kids rooms, we couldn’t wait to spill the pics along with Nancy’s note below: Hey guys! I have been living in my home for four years now, and I finally decided it was time to decorate it. I started with my two year old son’s room, and now I am questioning why I didn’t start with my room first. I may just

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Simple and Sweet Fall Decorating

We spent yesterday painting the outside of the new doors (along with caulking and painting some peeling siding, because I’m kind of a maniac once I get going) but I thought it would be fun to go from sharing something kinda big that happened around the house (Jean-Luc the french door) to something smaller and totally free. Sometimes it’s the little things – and you guys have been asking for some fall-decor-related posts for a while now. So remember our old kinda minimalist mantel in the kitchen? Well, I decided to slap some fall into it and spend zero bucks. Call it a Use Whatcha Got Challenge if you will. And why not do it

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We Have A New French Door!

Yesterday we shared a little ditty on DIYing vs. hiring things out with our busted old sliders as the star. They got stuck, had a broken screen, wouldn’t lock, and were rotting (you can read more about that right here). Then we decided it was high time that we finally sprung for a set of pretty new french doors that were the same style as the door in our laundry room to keep the house from feeling too hodge-podge. Here’s a process pic during the whole switcheroo… You can read more about the how and the why on the new french doors here. This post is all about the pictures (especially now that we’re done

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Window Shopping: The Calm Before The Tour…

We’re doing our best to keep our word to those who have requested more window shopping posts, so we decided we’d keep the fun going by trying to hit up some awesome boutiques and shops when we’re traveling for our book tour in November. But lo and behold, before we have even left, we noticed that Target has some pretty awesome stuff out right now, so we thought we’d snoop around (and take you with us). For those who remember these things, we just stroll around a store and take photos of all of the things we love. Not for compensation or anything – these sprees are just for fun. So let’s all go skipping

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When To DIY vs. When To Hire It Out

We get the whole “to DIY or not to DIY, that is the question” question a lot, so we thought this might be a great way to crack open our brains in a nice rambling and meaty post that hopefully makes sense of our thought process to you guys. And who better to demonstrate than our purty new french doors that lead out to the deck? Surprise! I’ll pause while you burst out into enthusiastic applause. We’ll be back tomorrow with more before & after photos and details on why we went for a french door, what the screen situation is now, and how they look open/closed/from the outside as soon as we’re done painting

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Fab Freebie: Richmond Or Bust!

***THIS GIVEAWAY HAS REACHED ITS 10,000 ENTRY CAP AND IS NOW CLOSED – SEE WHO WON BELOW!*** And our VERY lucky winner this week is… Hallie (who knows that Belle Isle was once a fishing village for the Powhatan Indians – something even we hadn’t heard). Congrats – and see you in a few weeks! We’re spending today with the family for the holiday, but we had to drop in with our big giveaway for you guys. See, when we found out we’d be speaking at this year’s R.Home for the Holidays event on November 8th (which we’ve gone to for the past four years for fun, so it’s really crazy to think that we’ll

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Adventures In DC

Ok, so this random Friday post is 25% about a quick little project, 25% about some house crashing-ish shots, 25% about general Clara cuteness, and 25% about Jewel. Yes, the singer. Who’s ready? It all began with a weekend trip to DC to visit my BFF Cat (who John and I set up with John’s cousin Travis and then they got married and had two kiddos- so yes I’m now related to my BFF). She, Travis, and their cute kiddos Elsa and Edison live in Arlington, Virginia and took us into the city to check out the National Aquarium in DC (John’s sister Katie along with her two sons John and Ben and her hubby

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How We Liked Renting A Bagster Dumpster

So. My basement workshop. I owned up to how messy it was a few months ago. Then building Clara’s dollhouse prompted me to tidy it up a smidge – as in, look you can actually see some of the floor. And then the deck happened and it all went to crap again. A big sawdusty, scrap wood cluttered pile of it. But I made a promise to myself that once the deck was done I was going to take care of this issue once and for all. And I’m happy to report that after many hours, many calls, and some serious scrap-wood-carrying, some major progress has been made. My secret? The Bagster. I walked by

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