Psst- We just learned about another awesome way to raise money for the relief fund for the Sandy Hook tragedy thanks to some generous Etsy artists who are donating money that they make this week from their Etsy shops to the cause. Check it out here.

We’re putting the finishing touches on Clara’s DIYed Christmas present, so we’ll be back with a ton of pictures and details for you tomorrow (ahhhhhicantwait) but in the meantime, lots of folks have requested a post about what we’d do differently if we were decorating our first house now, instead of 2-6 years ago. See, back in this video we mentioned that when we look at old pics we love it, but there’s always at least one or two things we’d change if we were living there now – and you guys have been asking for more details. Sing it with me “if I could turn back tahhhhhhhm.” So without further ado, here’s the room by room lowdown.

Continue reading What We’d Do Differently In Our First House at Young House Love.

A bunch of folks have asked for a little deck mood board, just to see what we’re imagining when this beast of a project is actually complete (oh man, that might make our year). Of course since money is tight and we have yet to finish furnishing the patio that we built last year, we won’t have this thing thrown together overnight (which means any or all of the items on this board could sell out before we get to snag them all – wah!) but here’s what I’m loving today, just so you guys can start to picture it…

1. This fun indoor/outdoor pillow from World Market is really pretty, dontcha think? And at 50% off, it’s pretty tempting…

2. I’m obsessed with the idea of these yellow metal chairs for the head of the table (whether I DIY them with primer and yellow spray paint myself, or find them as-is somewhere).

Continue reading Mood Board: Outdoor Deck Furniture & Accessories at Young House Love.

Well, I guess we did rehang the shower curtain at ceiling height right after we moved in – but other than that we haven’t really touched this room. In fact, pretty much all three of our bathrooms are uncharted territory for us when it comes to updates. But you’ve gotta start somewhere, so we decided to start in the one we use the most – and probably find the quirkiest. See, it doesn’t have a sink (that’s in our bedroom, actually) so it’s a really small room. We’re talking around 5′ x 6′ total (including a regular sized tub). So yes, the door practically hits the toilet (it just barely misses it). And John can stand in the center of the room and touch all four walls (my husband has quite the wingspan, but this room really is tiny).

The room’s a total beige box. Beige tile with gray veining on the floor, the same tile in the shower and even on the walls around the toilet and door, an accent row of tiles with gray trees on them, beige paint on the walls, off-white-trim, even a beige futuristic toilet (check out the curve in this video).

Continue reading Our Long Ignored En-suite Bathroom… at Young House Love.

I was inspired by a chipper yellow table runner and a fiery pendant light to make a warm-blooded dining room mood board just for fun. Whoop, here it is:

1. The wall color could be a soft olive-khaki tone, like the stripe in the background of the mood board (try Benjamin Moore’s Limestone 513) with browns, oranges, deeper olives, pops of yellow, and some crisp white in the furnishings/accessories. Maybe even a smidge of navy if you’re into that sort of thing. And now that I see that stripe of olive-khaki, big wide horizontal tone-on-tone stripes might be pretty fun for the walls if you’re feeling feisty (try Benjamin Moore’s Limestone 513 and Flowering Herbs 514).

2. These Target chairs are $70 a pop, and the Ikea table is under $300 (but you could always find something on craigslist and refinish it for even less if that’s your jam).

Continue reading Mood Board Making: En Fuego at Young House Love.

It feels like years since I made my last mood board (you can see over 125 of them here). What the heck is up with that? So I’m breaking the dry spell with this just-for-fun creation that I tossed together with some cheerful and sunny summer color. I wanted to pick some fun accessories that anyone with a neutral toned sofa and neutral colored walls could use as a springboard for pulling together a room with a warm, happy, and inviting vibe:

1. The color palette for the room is full of warm tones like sunny orange and yellow along with some rich dark wood tones, some basic neutrals like mocha and tan, and glossy white trim. As for the exact wall color, since I cobbled this board together with the intention that these items would seamlessly slip into an already neutral room, I added that strip of warm cream paint along the top of the board to represent the wall color (like Water Chestnut by Glidden), but really any warm-ish neutral on the wall should work.

Continue reading Mood Board Making: A Neutral Living Room With Citrus Accents at Young House Love.

After over two weeks of doing it, sleeping on the floor is officially getting old.

So we bought a bed frame. Oh happy day! We had big plans for possibly building one (using one of Ana White’s amazing tutorials). And we debated just getting a cheapo-metal frame and laying slats of wood across it so we could rest our mattress on that (so we could DIY another upholstered headboard down the road). But in the end the four poster bed that caught our eye back when we whipped up this future bedroom mood board won out (click here for more mood board details).

One of the issues is that our organic mattress (which you can read about here and here) is super thick and made of extra dense all natural latex rubber. So as I’ve weirdly described it before, it’s heavier than thirty dead people.

Continue reading Done. Over it. Finito. at Young House Love.

We have no idea what our future living room will actually look like, but today this is what I’m loving:

1. Soft gray walls (like Benjamin Moore’s Light Pewter) with crisp glossy white trim
2. A huge comfy sectional (with washable covers- score) in a gray-brown hue. The fact that this baby is $848 has me permasmiling.
3. Some sort of woven round ottomans (like these) that can be moved around for casual texture that can double as extra seating in a pinch.
4. This sleek TV stand in high gloss gray from Ikea (we figure a room that’s big enough for a large sectional will probably dwarf our current TV stand, so we might need to go a bit bigger).
5. A lovely wool rug like this one with a gray and lime green modern design- although the price for an 8 x 10 (which we’d need with a large sectional) has us sweating a little.

Continue reading Mood Board Making: Hunting Lodge Chic at Young House Love.

I can’t promise that we’ll execute this mood board to a T when it comes to our future bedroom – heck, the entire vision could easily shift by the time we move into a new home. But as of right now, this is what I’m loving (and John’s surprisingly right there with me):

1. I’m dreaming of a cozy and enveloping room painted in a rich and saturated teal like the stripe of color across the top of the mood board (Benjamin Moore’s Rendezvous Bay 726). I’d temper the bold color by adding some white furnishings/accessories and some rich dark woods to ground things. And then I’d add a pop of tangerine, just because I’m feeling crazy. Layering in a few different prints and patterns along with some geometric shapes and modern lines will be the icing on the cake.

2. This round mirror will bounce around lots of light and break up the rich hue on the wall to make sure it still feels relatively light and airy.

Continue reading Mood Board Making: Dark Teal, Wood, & White Bedroom at Young House Love.