If there’s one thing we’ve learned about living here, it’s that we do a ton of living outside. Between each at-home learning break the kids are out there running around, we make s’mores at our fire pit every week or so, we sit on our front porch and watch the neighborhood dogs go by, and we often eat or hang out on the second-floor deck (we even work on our laptops up there on especially nice days – which is where I’m writing this post right now).

We can really feel the house working extra hard for us thanks to the location/climate (good weather definitely encourages us to be outside a lot), but also due to having so many great outdoor areas for us to enjoy (we had no idea how awesome an upstairs deck would be, but boy do we appreciate having it!).

Another pretty fortunate occurrence is that a lot of these outdoor areas just needed one or two simple updates to go from “things we used to walk by” to “a spot that gets used every day.” Like this covered porch…

You last saw it in this post about our house’s exterior updates (there’s also this more recent exterior post) – and it sat pretty much unused for the last 8 months until we realized it was the perfect spot to hang a big hanging tent that we got for the kids for the holidays.

Continue reading Updating A Covered Porch With Floor Paint & A Hanging Tent at Young House Love.

Sherry recently hinted on Instagram Stories that we were up to our old staple-coloring antics. And by that I mean we were installing another stair runner (admittedly one of the less popular definitions of “antics”). But after installing one in our old house 7 years ago it has become one of our favorite projects – just because we truly believe anyone can do it, and whatever runner you choose can give you a totally different look (and a nice grip underfoot, but more on that functional upgrade in a minute).

Why We Wanted A Stair Runner

Before we get into the “how” of adding this runner, let’s talk about the “why.” We’re not people who automatically default to covering our stairs. At our beach house, for instance, we decided against a runner because the original wood was so charming. We eventually did add some temporary stick-on runner treads to help our chihuahua, Burger, navigate the stairs more easily (we used this removable tape to hold them down, and it came up cleanly later when we sold the house).

Continue reading How We Installed A Stair Runner at Young House Love.

If you’ve followed along for a while you’ve seen our bedroom fireplace get a few updates over on Instagram Stories, but today we’re telling the whole sordid tale of how our update ideas recently veered off-course (and how we ended up at Plan B when Plan A went bust). Last time you saw it on the blog, it looked a little something like this:

similar stools |art | frame for art | similar rug | similar pot | wheeled plant stand

But we should rewind for a second. It was pretty bleak looking when we first started Operation Revive The Fireplace. There was a bunch of dried glue and gunk leftover from some tiles that had once covered the surround (not to mention a rusty screen and general grime). But Sherry had that look in her eye that said “don’t second guess me, this is going to work” and after nearly a decade and a half of marriage I have learned not to question this look.

Continue reading How Our Fireplace Makeover Plan Got Squashed (And How We Pivoted) at Young House Love.

I never thought I would use the word “mauve” and “fresh” in the same sentence, but here we are. As you saw in our last kitchen post, we decided to embrace the existing counters and go for a tone-on-tone look for Phase One – just because why the heck not?! When else do you get mauve counters to work with? Note: you can read more on why we prefer to make smaller updates & live with the kitchen we have for a nice long time (versus gutting it right away) here.

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

After doing five quick & easy updates to our kitchen that made a pretty big difference a few weeks back, we knew that painting the old chipping cabinets would also really go a long way in making this room feel a lot less worn out.

Continue reading Our Freshly Painted Mauve Kitchen Cabinets (And A Trick For Using Hidden Hinges) at Young House Love.

This bathroom came together in such a short period of time, we almost can’t believe it ourselves (and we witnessed it with our own four eyeballs). If we hadn’t watched it fly along ourselves, while everything just seemed to line up perfectly, we probably wouldn’t have thought it was possible – especially after the longest-bathroom-reno-of-our-lives that we started way back in October. (Yes it’s still going, but next week we’ll have a full reveal & budget breakdown! FINALLY!).

Meanwhile, in less than a week, this upstairs hall bathroom went from looking the way that it has looked for years (old painted double vanity, two yellow-beige sea-shell shaped sinks, bare white walls, old seams in need of some fresh caulk around the tub, etc) to a totally fresh & updated room! We are THRILLED!

And we did it with basically zero dust/reno!

Continue reading A Surprisingly Quick And Demo Free Hall Bathroom Makeover at Young House Love.

This post is for everyone who has been asking for a shed update since we finally painted it to match our white house (it only took us a year!). While we were updating things, we switched out the lights and added window boxes because I can now be described as “extremely passionate about sheds.” Like if I was on match.com that would be in my bio somewhere.

This is perhaps the largest personality change for me throughout adulthood. The idea that I like sheds is an extremely new revelation.

Remember when I didn’t care about sheds – and maybe even hated them – especially when John wanted to use half of our beach house’s tiny backyard for one and I basically said no and rebelled for an entire year while we lived with all of the stuff that should have been in a shed inside the beach house.

Continue reading New Paint, Lights, & Window Boxes For Our Backyard Shed (Finally) at Young House Love.

This is a smorgasbord of an update, since the exterior of our house has changed in a bunch of different ways since last year when we painted it white with masonry paint that lets the brick breathe (you can read all about that project & the cost right here).

It’s my very favorite makeover we’ve ever done to date, but as I mentioned in that post (probably 10 times if I know myself), the exterior was still very much a work in progress after the house got painted. So without further ado, let’s talk about the new path we added, the awning, the new porch lights (we not only switched them out, we lowered them when we hung the awning) and a bunch of other landscaping related things that have happened over the last 12 months. And the few remaining things that we’re still working on… because that’s how it goes ;)

First let’s take a second to look back at the before shot because it blows my mind every time.

Continue reading What We’ve Changed Since Painting Our Brick House White at Young House Love.

When we shared the duplex backyard makeovers last month, I promised more details about how we made the decorative oars that hang on each shed. So today I’ve got a detailed tutorial for you (including how NOT to screw up your attempts to make them outdoor friendly) along with a few other “hacks” you guys asked about.

The oars actually were not part of our original plans. But after the sheds were built we nixed our plans to run electricity to them (for cost reasons – and because they really don’t need it). But the empty space where we’d planned to hang a light above the door needed… something.

That something became oars after a trip to HomeGoods where we stumbled upon a decorative surfboard. Cape Charles isn’t really a surfing town, but there is plenty of kayaking and paddle boarding, so oars felt a bit more applicable for our little beach town.

Continue reading How To Make Decorative Oars (And How To Not Almost Ruin Them Like I Did) at Young House Love.