When I hyper-focus on a task, I'm known to go ALL IN. And that's exactly how I approached the giant job of digitizing all of our old photo albums. We crowdsourced suggestions, took some deep dives into message boards, and Googled the heck out of it. From there, I narrowed our options to 5 photo digitization methods that we tested for quality, price, and speed. There was one clear winner for us, but also lots of other good ways to go about it (even free ones!), depending on your personal priorities. So I'm going to lay out everything we tried, and why we had a clear favorite.

Continue reading The Best Way To Digitize Old Photos at Young House Love.

Our big renovation project isn't anywhere close to done (it just started this week, and Sherry's sharing peeks over on Instagram in stories) but I've already embarked on another project that I've wanted to tackle for years: digitizing all of our old photos! It's arguably less exciting than our renovation, but I'm genuinely eager to tackle this long-overdue project. And since we're not the only ones who suffer from photo clutter, I plan to document my process for anyone else who is also interested in digitizing their photos. So I'll be testing out a few digitization methods, and sharing tips along the way.

Continue reading The Other Project We’re Starting… at Young House Love.

The annual Color of the Year announcements are one of our favorite traditions to follow (and predict, with varying degrees of sucess). Each year, a lot of the largest paint manufacturers select a hue and/or palette they believe "captures" and/or "forecasts" design trends. Some are bold. Some are boring. Some are straight-up bonkers (who remembers the color we affectionately dubbed "hot dog"?). So we'll continue to update this post as the 2026 COTYs are announced over the next six months.

Continue reading Every 2026 Color of the Year at Young House Love.

Every year, people ask us for theme ideas from my family's annual Christmas gift exchange. We first mentioned this tradition on a podcast episode in 2016 and now, nearly a decade later, we're putting the full, updated list in an easy-to-reference blog post. So if you or your family are feeling stuck or overwhelmed by your holiday shopping list, see why introducing a theme might do the trick!

Continue reading 25 Holiday Gift Exchange Theme Ideas at Young House Love.

I love an iced something for my daily coffee. And most days that's a cold brew I make at home. For over 2 years now, I've relied on this cold brew maker to keep a delicious batch at the ready in my fridge. I'm going to show you exactly how I make homemade cold brew and why it's my method of choice. Sherry and I aren't expert baristas or even persnickety coffee connoisseurs. We prioritize simple & straightforward brewing methods that can be successful without treating coffee like an intricate science. No shade if you have time & energy for it, but this guide is for the average home coffee drinker who wants good, reliable cold brew without stressing over the details.

Continue reading How To Make Cold Brew Coffee At Home at Young House Love.

We love having friends over to our backyard firepit, which means we eat A LOT of s'mores. That means A LOT of opportunities to try unique twists on traditional s'mores. There's nothing wrong with the tried-and-true recipe, but introducing new ingredients and combos keeps things fun, interesting, and even better tasting. So here are 5 of our favorite "upgraded" s'more ideas for your next firepit gathering.

Continue reading 5 Ways To Upgrade S’mores – Including Savory S’mores! at Young House Love.

Our kids are very much into the traditional Jack-O-Lantern-style pumpkin carving, often trying to make a scarier, grosser, or goofier face than last Halloween. But we still remember a time when toddler-friendly (even baby-friendly!) pumpkin “carving” was the name of the game over here. So we wanted to highlight six simple, fun, but unconventional pumpkin decorating ideas for kids that we’ve used in the past. Including a “romantic” one we made pre-kids (yes, I’ll pause while you ponder what exactly can be romantic about a pumpkin…).

We’ve included a brief description of each below, but you can also follow the link to the original posts for more photos and details about each pumpkin-carving project.

“Baby’s First” Handprint Pumpkin

Materials Needed:

• Paper or cardstock
• Pencil or pen (for tracing on hand)
• Sharpie or marker (for tracing onto pumpkin)
• Scissors
• Pumpkin carving tools

Our daughter was only 5 months old by the time her first Halloween rolled around, meaning there wasn’t much she could do to lend a hand in the pumpkin decorating process.

Continue reading 6 Fun & Easy Pumpkin Decorating Ideas For Kids at Young House Love.

We got lots of questions about the "miracle" cloning paste we showed on Instagram recently. What is it? What does it do? And why the heck is it called "keiki"? Short answer: keiki paste is an easy-to-apply growth hormone for your houseplants that can help fill out bare spots on pothos, orchids, and more. It's a smart solution for any plant parent, but we'll tell you why it may fall short of being truly miraculous.

Continue reading What Is Keiki Paste? And How To Use It On Your Plants at Young House Love.