Today we’re sharing how to find the right balance when you’re choosing between artwork or family photos for certain walls – and we’re revealing where we’ve subconsciously gravitated towards putting personal photos in our own home (and why we think that is!). We also have tips for how to personalize your walls beyond the usual smiling-at-the-camera snapshot. And we’ve officially gone shed crazy (like really, really shed crazy), and the silver lining that we discovered after a yearlong delay at the beach house that’s saving us money and getting us excited for the summer. Plus I’m finally jumping on the crystal train. I know, it’s unexpected.
You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.
What’s New
- Here’s a peek at the patio & shed work that’s going on at the beach house. The duplex is a little bit further behind (the sheds are just done being framed) but it’s shaping up to be a very exciting, very productive, and very shed-filled spring!
- If you want to hear some of our previous discussions about the small beach house backyard, it first comes up in Episode #84 (aka LAST February) where we outline our disagreement about the shed.
- Those
shownotes also include a lot of planning photos, including this reminder of what the original metal shed looked like when we bought the house.
- We also talked last summer (in Episode #107) about updated
plans & background layouts around the time we had our hot tub delivered. Spoiler alert: the plan evolved a few more times between that episode and now… - You can also learn more about our shed here in Richmond in this post, as well as in this post about how we organized it!
Listener Question
- That’s an older photo of our bedroom, before we simplified the big family photo gallery wall around the bed (we also mentioned the term “quieting the room” – and there’s more on what that means in Episode #111 about Cozy Minimalism).
- You can see that some of those photos landed in our guest room above Sherry’s sewing/craft desk.
- In the photo below you can also see an example of the “candid” family photos we have around – it’s our kids playing on some rocks at the beach several years ago. Nobody’s smiling at the camera, but between their accidentally matching striped shirts and the pretty scenery (and the memory of spending that day together) it was a definite keeper.
- In our kitchen we also enjoy a new family photo every single day thanks to our annual page-a-day calendar. We tape them up displayed inside our “mini mudroom” cabinets (it’s a nice way to personalize each person’s cubby).
- Beyond photos, we talked about hanging actual artwork that’s made to represent your family, whether it’s a shadowbox of little wooden pegs painted to look like your family, an embroidered version of your fam, or even a painting or sketch that someone on Etsy makes of your pet, child, or the whole family. Here’s a post about the portrait of our kids that we got made our children, which hangs in our foyer, below.
- And here’s that kid artwork we blew up and hung in our bonus room to create a large scale piece with a personal touch. You can’t expect to make successful cupcakes following the recipe, but it makes us smile every time we read it.
- And we promised a few other leads if you’re looking for ways to celebrate your family with homemade art from Etsy, so here are some cool options for ya (Sherry’s dying over these boots and you know I love the idea of a custom Simpsons-ified family portait).
We’re Digging
- Below you can see my crystals in action (yes ME, JOHN PETERSIK). Well, I guess I can just call them my glass window prisms. I ordered 2 sets of these and they have been such a success we’re going to get a few more for the beach house.
- We’re still figuring out the best spots for them to get maximum light reflection, but this one in our kitchen window is everyone’s favorite so far because the rainbows splash across the cabinets in the morning (all the way over to the far wall where our shoe cubbies are!) while everyone’s getting ready for the day. It has been such a fun pick-me-up.
- As I mentioned in the podcast, it was reading this Joyful book that Sherry talked about in Episode #130 that gave me the idea to buy them.
- Lastly, here’s a link to the not-kid-or-work-safe trailer for Russian Doll (warning: the bad language starts right away). It’s the Netflix show – definitely not for kids – that we recently binged and it’s funny, weird, intense, scary, and refreshing all at the same time. Also, each of the 8 episodes is only about 30 minutes, so it was the perfect quick low-commitment binge!
If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes. You can also see all the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.
And lastly, a big thank you to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. Sign up at Grove.co/YHL and spend your first $20 to receive a FREE gift: a trio of Mrs. Meyers cleaners, a 60-day VIP Membership
Thanks for listening, guys!
*This post contains affiliate links*
