Lights, camera — it’s time for our March recap. It was a busy month of home projects: crown molding went up in multiple rooms, we refreshed paint (including a new kitchen color), and we even tackled a few tech upgrades. We’re pausing to celebrate everything we finished in March as motivation to make April just as productive. If you want a faster way to catch up on the last couple of years, we’ve condensed our monthly roundups into a handy collection of posts here.
Most Colorful: A hint about Monday’s giveaway—stay tuned.
Scariest: Starting crown molding in four rooms. We weren’t thrilled remembering our first attempt during the kitchen renovation (pre-nail-gun), but with two new tools the job went much smoother. That confidence led us to write a full tutorial here.
Most Colorful: We shared our 2013 Benjamin Moore paint picks and mused about how we might use several of the colors. There’s a combination we’d still love to try someday.
Most Overdue: We finally addressed three inactive ceiling fixture boxes in the living room. We hired an electrician to convert two into recessed can lights and relocated the third so we could hang a pendant over the table—what a relief to have it finished here.
Most Mixed Up: The layered decor in Clara’s big girl room inspired our response to a reader question about mixing prints and patterns here. It’s a favorite example of playful pattern mixing.
Most Hilarious: Someone tweeted a photo after we posted about replacing the hallway doorbell and tidying up other eyesores here. Their picture riffed on our photo of Burger barking—so funny we were laughing for days.
Least Gray Paint With “Gray” In The Name: We changed the kitchen color, moving away from a tricky grellow to Benjamin Moore’s Colorado Gray. It photographs more blue than gray and feels like a fresh update here.
Most Likely To Include Superlatives, But Doesn’t: We printed a family yearbook to recap everything from last year—highlights on the first page and an Instagram gallery in the back. It felt good to package 2012 into something tangible here.
Most Arrow-Happy: That would be me—based on a graphic we created to explain the plan for our fireplace refacing project. If the arrows make your head spin a little, you’re not alone here.
Coolest: We “crashed” a local ice cream shop to admire its decor—milk bottle pendant lights, mixed materials, penny tile—and shared the inspiration here.
Purtiest: The marble subway tile we set in a herringbone pattern along the fireplace hearth—one of our favorite little details from the remodel here.
Most Familiar: We shared a house crash of my sister Emily’s Richmond home. House crashes usually happen on first visits, so it was unique to photograph a place that’s hosted so many family events here.
Laziest: Guilty as charged. I used a remote control to turn off both bedside lamps without getting out of bed—it’s a small act of ingenuity that feels perfectly justified here.
Biggest Nerds: The folks who tracked all the quirky stats for our book tour infographic—hours on planes, cupcakes received, and other oddball metrics. Yes, we kept count, and the results are adorable here.
Best Photobomb: I nearly snuck myself into a photo during the fireplace framing—you could call it a beginner’s photobomb. Burger, you missed your moment here.
Most Magical: An IR-extender we added to the TV so the remote works even with the cable box hidden in a ventilated drawer. We also revived an old media cabinet using Restore-a-Finish—simple fixes that feel like magic here.
Least Pregnant: Sherry’s frank post about not being pregnant and why asking someone if they’re expecting can be uncomfortable struck a chord. It sparked almost 1,500 comments and ranks among our most-discussed posts here.
Most Neglected: The guest room had been mostly untouched since we set it up in 2010. A quick mirror swap brightened the space above the headboard and answered a common reader question about when to splurge here.
Most Transformed: The fireplace after we completed the refacing project. The update had a ripple effect, making the whole kitchen feel fresher and more cohesive here.
Most Inspirational: Sherry’s experiment with temporary tattoos on wood for quick, meaningful art was part of a trio of small updates in a single post. Alongside that project we added a timer to Clara’s play kitchen and framed a piece of metal art—simple, low-cost ways to refresh a room here.
How was your March? If you could sum it up in one word, what would it be—relaxing, hectic, productive, or Easter-y? Ours would be: nail-gun-riddled.
Psst — Our latest Clara Conversations are over on Young House Life, and as usual they’re our favorites. That girl really has a way with words.