Last fall, I got to eat, walk, and gasp my way through Florence, Italy (including a day trip to Venice) with three friends. Literally, it was the stuff of dreams. I already shared how I packed light for this trip, but today I'm recapping everything we did, saw, and ate. So if you're considering a trip to Florence (and/or Venice), here are my thoughts on what was extremely enjoyable to see/eat/do... and a few things we'd actually skip if we were to do it all over again!

Continue reading My Girls Trip To Italy at Young House Love.

We needed some heavy-duty garage shelving for our new shed, so we turned to this easy shelf tutorial from our friend Ana White. They stand up to the weight of heavier items like paint cans or large tools (more than your typical plastic or wire garage shelf) and are also SUPER straightforward to construct. I’ll show how we got there, but here’s where I ended up.

We ended up loving this technique so much, we repeated it when we needed heavy-duty shelves in the shed at our beach house too (seen below). They’re such an easy DIY project (even for beginners) and I find them FAR superior to most store-bought garage shelving units. Building long shelves with generous spacing between them gives me flexible storage and easy access to even my bulkiest tools or supplies.

As you can see they’re adaptable to pretty much any sized space, and they’re especially easy to install when you have exposed wall studs to drill directly into.

Continue reading How To Build DIY Garage Shelving at Young House Love.

It’s wild to think that this is our second year of decorating this house for the holidays (what even is time?!). You got a peek at some of it in our new kitchen door post, but today we’re gonna show it all! I’d describe Year Two in this house for the holidays as a more minimal Christmas but still a festive one.

Last year we got a mini real tree for upstairs in the family room as well as putting up our skinny faker (that’s what I affectionately call this tree right here) in the bedroom. But this year we had a more central spot for our main tree… right in the nook our new pantry created in the kitchen, which can be enjoyed a ton of the time. So I think it eliminated our urge to add a secondary little tree upstairs (you can see all the photos of how we decorated the house last year in this post).

Continue reading Our Minimized Holiday Decor at Young House Love.

When we recently painted our kitchen cabinets mauve, we took the opportunity to swap out the old surface-mount hinges for new, hidden hinges. It’s a small tweak and only cost us $40, but it went a long way towards making this dated kitchen look a little more current (while we wait to take on a full renovation). Plus it didn’t require boring crazy holes into the back of the cabinets like most hidden hinges require!

pendant light / similar table / kitchen chairs / similar basket tray / cabinet hardware

Hidden Hinge Before & After

You can see in this photo from our first kitchen post that the cabinets originally had those old surface-mount hinges that are visible on the front of the cabinet. They were painted over at least two times, so they creaked and just felt gummed up and past their prime.

Continue reading How To Add Hidden Hinges To Old Cabinets at Young House Love.

Since sharing our list of Black-owned businesses that hundreds of you so highly recommended, we’ve been receiving messages from all types of experts, professionals, and creatives who would like to volunteer their services to help small Black-owned businesses. We didn’t want them to get lost on Instagram, so we’ve copied their messages and contact info below:

Business Coaching

Bryn Braaten – “I’m a Recruiting Manager for Amazon that focuses on Software Engineers, Managers, Technical Program Managers, Research Science, Data Engineers, and Program/Product Manager Tech. I’d love to offer 5 Resume Reviews per month to help edit/curate skill set and connect them for applicable jobs within Amazon.” CONTACT: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/

Kathy Campbell – “I would love to offer my Magical Business Checkup for any BIPOC businesses that need some help, support, maybe a review of how they can streamline what they do or what they can concentrate on to grow or become happier with balance or anything at all!” CONTACT: Magic@TheUnicornSidekick.com, https://www.theunicornsidekick.com/magical-unicorn-checkup/

Lindsey Stamps – “I have a successful Etsy and Amazon Handmade business and would love to mentor 2 BIPOC Etsy/Amazon Handmade businesses just starting out, or are in need of help to grow their shops.” CONTACT: https://www.etsy.com/shop/winewifehappylife

Liz Heron – “I help entrepreneurs prevent and recover from burnout so they can keep bringing their gifts to the world.

Continue reading Volunteered Expertise For Black-Owned Businesses at Young House Love.

Over 10 years ago we launched a small t-shirt line featuring designs for women, men, and – yes – even dogs! I’m not kidding. Who remembers that?! We eventually retired it, so who knows how many still exist out there in the wild – beyond the dozen or so in my dad’s closet (he was our best customer) and the one below that showed up at a book signing in 2015.

Earlier this year we got the itch to relaunch the line, but this time with a shift away from logo shirts and towards styles that could fit easily into anyone’s closet… all while maintaining a distinctly Young House Love look.

So for months we’ve been fine-tuning the designs, researching the best fitting tees, and even “test-wearing” them around the house. So without further ado, we’re THRILLED to launch them today – complete with a little video to show you the whole collection (it’s actually very important that you watch this, so please press play):

Note: If you’re having trouble viewing the video above, you can watch it here on YouTube.

Continue reading Our T-Shirt Line Is Baaaaaaaack! at Young House Love.

We knew our new house in Florida would involve some big repairs, but we didn’t anticipate a certain plumbing curveball to get lobbed our way (although given our past plumbing luck, maybe we should have seen this coming). So this week we’re sharing how it popped up, why it cost thousands of dollars, and what we’re doing to resolve it. And with so many people suddenly working from home, we’re sharing our top tips for being productive in a home office (even a temporary one) – including what has and hasn’t worked for us over the last decade. Plus, the app that’s blowing our minds and the binge-worthy show that we still can’t believe.

You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Continue reading #168: Our Florida Renovation Kicks Off With (Surprise!) A Plumbing Issue at Young House Love.

BEHOLD! The new & improved middle bedroom at the beach house (*crowd goes wild, people do The Hype, battle rap horns sound, DJ Khaled shouts “DJ KAHLEDDDDD”, maybe Cardi B. is there with one of those t-shirt cannons?*). I hope you enjoyed that mental image as much as I did.

daybed / rug / curtains / gold frame / wallpaper / ceiling fan

ANYWAY, the beach house middle bedroom update is done, and I can’t get over how sweet the board & batten and the wallpaper look together – especially with the old heart pine floors and doors. Those are 115 years old, and the wallpaper and the wall treatment are brand new, but they feel so good together – especially in person. My biggest pet peeve with this wallpaper is that it’s much more beautiful in person and it photographs brighter and busier (in real life it’s muted and soft like a blurry subtle watercolor).

Continue reading A Beach House Bedroom With Wallpaper And Board & Batten at Young House Love.