Big renovations are exciting and fun, but it's no secret that they can also be really stressful - especially when it's one of those expensive, weeks-long, life-interrupting renovations like a kitchen or bathroom. Things go wrong, budgets get broken, timelines go haywire, and somehow there's always dust everywhere. EVERYWHERE. So since we've renovated 7 houses over the past 17 years, we thought it might be helpful to share our best tips for preparing for & minimizing renovation stress.

Continue reading How We Manage Renovation Stress: 5 Tips at Young House Love.

We’ve refinished hardwood floors in 5 of the 6 homes we’ve owned. That doesn’t make us professional floor refinishers, but as homeowners and DIYers, we’ve developed expertise for what to expect, what pitfalls to look out for, and how much refinishing your hardwood floors might cost. So in this post, we’ll answer all of your hardwood floor refinishing FAQs along with some before and after photos of our various projects!

Continue reading Refinishing Hardwood Floors 101 at Young House Love.

Wallpaper has made a big comeback as a trendy home design choice. But despite its resurgence, there are still plenty of us dealing with dingy, dated, or downright ugly old wallpaper we don’t want. In our old home, we had to remove wallpaper in so many rooms: the kitchen, the dining room, the foyer, and two different bathrooms! As we traveled from room to room removing wallpaper, we tested 4 different methods, and today we’ll share what we learned.

Removing wallpaper doesn’t require special tools or lots of money. It’s a totally doable project for any homeowner. However, it can be a tedious process that can take elbow grease and patience, depending on the size of your room and the stubbornness of your wallpaper. But having removed several rooms worth of decades-old wallpaper, we can confidently say it’s worth the effort!

You can also check out more before and afters of our once-wallpapered rooms.

Continue reading How To Remove Wallpaper: 4 Proven Methods at Young House Love.

In all of our years of DIYing, I don’t think we’ve ever used a solid stain before. But we recently had a project that was *perfectly* suited for it and, well, solid stain quickly won us over. It was recommended by a professional house painter to us, specifically because he thought it would be great for our outdoor shower. And we found it easy to apply, it gave us great coverage, and we got an even-better-than-we-expected result (which is always the best kind!). So here’s a post that covers all the pros & cons and hows & whys of solid stain.

As you can see, the “canvas” for this staining project was our outdoor shower. We gave it a mini-makeover right after moving in, but we knew it may need more attention and care down the line. Honestly, we dreaded the task of stripping and restaining it – so many nooks & crannies!

Continue reading Using Solid Stain In Our Outdoor Shower at Young House Love.

Many people think pressure washers are complicated to set up, expensive to buy, or hard to control. But good news! They are none of those things. Pressure washing is an easy, affordable, and TOTALLY AWESOME way to keep your outdoor spaces looking fresh. So here’s a comprehensive start-to-finish guide for anyone who’s ready to get their pressure washing feet wet (maybe even literally).

We were a bit intimidated the first time we tried pressure washing nearly 10 years ago. The cumbersome gas-powered machine we rented for a day was so big it didn’t even fit in our car! So I TOTALLY understand anyone with PWH (pressure washing hesitation).

Our Favorite Pressure Washer

But that all changed when we found a GREAT pressure washer that’s super compact and easy to use – this electric pressure washer from Ryobi. Both Sherry and I use it regularly – and neither of us have any issues controlling it or having enough power to get every single task on our list done.

Continue reading A Beginner’s Guide To Pressure Washing at Young House Love.

This DIY tutorial for adding built-in bookshelves is a lot simpler than it looks. That means getting this classic look of floor-to-ceiling shelving around a doorway is something anyone can do. We planned these bookcases as part of our big kitchen remodel, and they may be my secret favorite part of the whole renovation.

This wall did have a bookcase on it originally, as you can see in this before photo. But we demo’d and reframed it to be more open to the kitchen.

In addition to the DIY building tutorial, we’ll also share all of the measurements so you can make sure to create the best shelf height and depth for books and decor.

Tools & Materials for Built-In Bookshelves

Constructing built-in bookcases like this will likely be a multi-day project that requires some patience and attention to detail.

Continue reading DIY Built-In Bookshelves at Young House Love.

Our bedroom used to be a living room, so it’s taken some work to turn it into a comfortable, functional, and beautiful sleeping space (it’s truly one of our favorite rooms!). So today we’re outlining the 6 most impactful improvements we made to our bedroom, complete with some updated pictures.

bed | art | similar pillow | rug | curtains | brass rod | brass rings | similar table | chairs | ottoman | similar mirror | sconces

Our Bedroom, Before

You can check out all of the before photos of our home here, but as you can see below, it was a mostly blank canvas. Well, except for the crumbling drywall, crooked blinds, and wide doorways to the adjacent kitchen – all of which we had to address. But we loved the fireplace and the wall of french doors and pretty much immediately knew it would make for an amazing bedroom (since the house was listed as having only one bedroom when we bought it!).

Continue reading 6 Ways We Upgraded Our Bedroom at Young House Love.

Did you know you can add a Ring Video Doorbell without an electrician or having to fuss with any wires? You don’t even have to have an existing doorbell! We recently added one to our front door and it’s one of the easiest do-it-yourself projects we’ve done in a while.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. We paid our own money ($99!) for our doorbell. This is the exact Ring Video Doorbell we bought.

Why Add A Video Doorbell?

Video doorbells are an increasingly popular home security device, and the Ring Video Doorbell is one of the most popular models out there. With it, we can see and hear what’s going on at our front door from anywhere using the Ring smartphone app. We can even speak through it if we’re not home to a neighbor who stops by or to a delivery person with a package!

Continue reading How To Install A Ring Doorbell In 5 Easy Steps at Young House Love.