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.

I've daydreamed about buying a backyard movie set-up (projector, screen, etc) for several summers now. But the logistics and potential expense always stopped me... until last month! And now I feel silly for waiting, because we pulled it off with just 3 pieces of equipment that cost less than $200 total! That's cheaper than the cost of some projectors... or a few family trips to the theater! And now we can host unlimited movie gatherings with friends (we've already had two in the last two weeks!).

Continue reading Hosting An Outdoor Movie Night – All Of The Equipment You Need For Under $200 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.

Star jasmine is a fast-growing and fragrant evergreen vine that offers great coverage & privacy as a climbing or creeping vine. Even better, it bursts into bloom with incredible-smelling white flowers in the spring! The plant is native to Asia, but is incredibly popular in the Southeastern United States and areas of California. In warm environments like these, star jasmine is also super easy to care for and grow. Just another reason we love it!

Star jasmine can grow as dense ground cover or container plants, but our favorite use is as a climbing vine. This does require a trellis, pergola, stakes, or some other structure for it to grow up. Those are easy to make and we have two tutorials for DIY trellises: a wire trellis on a wall as well as a freestanding privacy trellis. It makes a great living screen!

Continue reading Star Jasmine – Plant Growing & Care Guide at Young House Love.

Behold: our DIY wire trellis! I’ve wanted to try this project for over a decade and I’m over the moon with how it’s turned out. All it took was some basic tools, wire & hooks, plus a climbing vine to bring it to life. Oh, and planning. It does a bit of planning. So let’s show you how to make your own!

My urge to make a vine trellis intensified after we painted our house white last fall. The back of our garage practically screamed “ADD A DIAMOND TRELLIS ON ME!” It feels like such a chic garden accent, that our white house finally felt fancy enough for one.

Wire Trellis Before & After

Before we jump into the tutorial, let’s show you the progress our little clematis vines have made so far. Here is how the area looked before we installed the wires.

Continue reading How To Make A DIY Trellis at Young House Love.

We love a blue porch ceiling (something you very commonly see – especially in the south). In fact, we’ve painted our porch ceiling a light blue color in nearly all of our homes! The tradition of a blue porch ceiling actually has a name – “haint blue” – along with a rich cultural history and some very practical reasoning behind it. So let’s dive into how it started and why so many people love a haint blue porch. We’re also sharing some of the best haint blue paint colors if you’re looking for one for your porch.

In addition to photos of our own homes, this post also features many haint blue porches we saw on our recent family trip to Charleston, South Carolina. That’s the Airbnb we stayed in shown above.

What Is Haint Blue?

Haint Blue is not one particular color.

Continue reading The 12 Best Haint Blue Paint Colors at Young House Love.

As we mentioned in our post about making a bigger backyard pool area, we’ve also made some big changes out front. Namely, we now have a legit front walkway and driveway! Break out the champagne! Release the doves! Rewatch the #Scandoval episode of Vanderpump Rules (or whatever else people like Sherry do to celebrate). I know this may seem unworthy of celebration – a driveway? cool story, bro – but when you live without one for THREE YEARS, it feels like a major win.

Why We Needed Parking & Pathways

I know most houses come with a place to park your car and some sort of path to the front door. Every other house we’ve lived in certainly did. Some even had garages! But this particular house had no such thing. The entire property, apart from the house, was just pine straw, dirt, and leaves.

Continue reading Adding Poured Concrete Walkways & A Driveway at Young House Love.

For nearly a year, we’ve been in the process of reimagining our pool area as a bigger, more multi-functional space.

You first saw it two years ago when we posted this behind-the-scenes of putting in a pool, along with lots of before & afters. We LOVE our pool and this area quickly became our go-to outdoor family hang-out spot. So back in Spring of 2022, we realized we could make it work even harder for us if we did one somewhat simple thing… moved one section of fencing back (thereby doubling the size!).

lounge chairs | adirondack chairs | firepit | similar table | dining chairs | nest chair | solar lights | umbrellas | pillows

It ended up being a bit more than just that, so I’ll take you through the various steps we took to maximize this yard. In short, here’s what we did:

• Moved a section of fencing
• Built a platform deck to create an outdoor dining space
• Poured concrete walkways, stairs, and retaining walls

As part of this overhaul, we also added a driveway and pathways along the front of the house too, and we’re in the process of putting all of those details and photos into another post.

Continue reading How We Doubled The Size (And Function!) Of Our Backyard Pool Area at Young House Love.