We’ve heard from readers who wanted a quick monthly recap — a single post that makes it easy to find what we worked on and what we finished. While out to dinner (our first night out together since Clara was born), we jokingly started inventing cheeky award titles for recent projects. The idea stuck, and a monthly superlatives list was born. We also agreed we probably should stop talking about the blog on dates, but old habits die hard.
Quick background: if you enjoy yearbook-style awards, you’ll appreciate that John was voted “Friendliest Male” by his high school marching band three years running, and I once shared the “Best Friends” spot in a yearbook after some overly adventurous hair highlighting with a friend. Neither of those facts will help your home projects, but they explain our taste for silly superlatives. Here are the July winners, organized for easy browsing and inspiration along with short, useful notes about each project.
Most Cheerful: Painting the Laundry Room — A Bright Green-Yellow
A quick color update can lift a room instantly. We chose a warm, greeny-yellow that makes the laundry room feel sunny and much more welcoming. Painting was inexpensive and transformative — perfect for anyone wanting impact without a big budget.
Most Improved: Adding Laundry Room Built-Ins
We repurposed space with custom-built shelving and storage, then painted everything to match. Built-ins can be daunting, but once in place they dramatically increase storage and make small rooms feel organized and finished.
Nicest Legs: ORBing the Parsons Chair Legs
A coat of oil-rubbed bronze turned ordinary chair legs into a sleek accent. Small hardware or trim updates like this refresh furniture without replacement expenses.
Most Likely NOT to Succeed (first try): Guest Room Light Switch Swap — and Re-Swap
Electrical updates sometimes take two or three attempts to get right. We learned that patience and double-checking wiring solutions save headaches down the road.
Runner Up — Most Likely NOT to Succeed: Framing Our Anniversary Note Cards — Then Reframing Without Borders
A framing experiment that required a second round of tweaks. Sometimes the aesthetic you imagine needs a second pass to match reality.
Most Likely to Please the Queen: Tea-Dying Pillow Covers
Tea dyeing is a charming, budget-friendly way to add a vintage patina to fabric. It’s low-cost, simple to experiment with, and yields beautifully muted tones that feel timeless.
Most Likely to Produce a Crack Joke: Filling Patio Cracks With Polymeric Sand
Outdoor fixes that involve cracks are irresistible for puns, but the real benefit here is a cleaner, longer-lasting patio surface that prevents weeds and shifting pavers.
Runner Up — Most Likely to Produce a Crack Joke: Caulking the Laundry Room Ceiling
Caulking small gaps is an easy way to freshen a room and often starts a domino effect of other small, satisfying maintenance tasks.
Most Outdoorsy: Spray-Painting Patio Furniture (ORB)
A spray-paint refresh can make outdoor furniture feel brand new. Oil-rubbed bronze finish is durable and gives pieces a cohesive, upgraded look without replacing them.
Runner Up — Most Outdoorsy: Mini Porch Spruce Up
Small curb-appeal improvements—like new planters, a quick paint touch-up, or rearranged furniture—can make your entry feel welcoming and put-together.
Class Nerd: Coding a Room Gallery
We built a gallery layout for room photos, focusing on responsive coding and clean presentation. A well-coded gallery makes browsing projects easier for readers and helps showcase design details.
Most Boob-Centric: My Breastfeeding Post
A personal breastfeeding diary post prompted an unexpectedly thoughtful and large conversation from readers. Honest, personal posts sometimes resonate more deeply than project tutorials.
Most Free-Spirited: The Unironed Ribbon Chandelier
A handmade ribbon chandelier that remains delightfully imperfect. It’s a reminder that not every DIY needs to be pristine to be charming.
Most Controversial: Painting the Laundry Cabinets, Switching Hardware, and Mounting the Ironing Board
A simple cabinet refresh prompted a lot of opinions about placement and direction. Small stylistic choices can spark big conversations—fun if you like debate, frustrating if you don’t.
Most Glamorous: Painting Clara’s Closet Pink and Experimenting With Champagne “Stencils”
A playful, glamorous closet update with homemade stamps and stencils—an inexpensive way to add a luxe touch to a child’s space. Small pattern experiments can transform a simple room into something memorable.
Most Embarrassing: Our Pinterest Challenge Video
A video attempt that didn’t go as planned — a reminder that not every viral idea translates perfectly into real life. We laughed, learned, and moved on.
Video removed from this recap.
Most Spontaneous: Around the start of July, Clara started walking after some playful crawling and cruising. That change snuck up on us — one day she was content to crawl, the next she was off and too cool for baby gates. It was a quiet, joyful milestone for our family.
Home video removed from this recap.
Most Immature: The Twig & Berries Project
A playful series of experiments with spray painting frames and mats that included a few mishaps (and the mystery of a lost duvet). It was silly, low-stakes, and oddly satisfying.
That’s July in review: a mix of quick, inexpensive wins and larger projects that took time and planning. It’s been useful for us to stop and list accomplishments rather than only adding new tasks. Some projects cost almost nothing — tea-dying pillows, painting a closet, creating a ribbon chandelier — while others required more investment, like custom built-ins and a room gallery. It’s the variety that keeps things interesting, and looking back like this makes the progress feel real.
What did you tackle this month? Do you keep a running list of finished projects, or do you only document the big things? We find it motivating to note even the small wins. If you made anything — even a tiny update — it’s worth celebrating.