This fall marked the 10th anniversary of Young House Love — a decade of renovating homes, growing a business, learning from mistakes, and sharing the whole journey online. Over ten years we made countless choices, some brilliant and others cringe-worthy, and a few key moments shaped where we are today. Many of those turning points didn’t feel good at the time; in hindsight they were essential.
We recorded a special podcast episode reflecting on that first decade — the wins, the missteps, and the lessons learned about decorating, entrepreneurship, and running a public-facing site. You can download the episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio, or stream it from your preferred podcast player. Use this page as a companion to the episode: scroll through the notes, view the slides we presented, and revisit the photos that illustrate our story.
Presentation Slides
- Below are some of the key slides from our talk in Bristol, VA. The episode provides the full context for these images — it’s essentially ten years of our lives summarized in about thirty minutes.
One slide shows an early snapshot of our website. Both blog design and our coding knowledge have evolved a lot over the years — looking back is a useful reminder of how far we’ve come in visual style and technical skill.
- We also shared a slide about paint color mistakes from our first house. Paint choices taught us more than we expected — undertones matter, and some colors simply don’t photograph or live well. For those wanting a deeper dive, we’ve written posts on choosing paint wisely and how to avoid gray undertone pitfalls.
In a lighter moment, one slide revealed our first month of Google AdSense earnings — a modest $10.59. It still makes us laugh, but it also shows how small beginnings can grow into something meaningful.
- Early magazine features were another breakthrough. We recounted several shoots and stories, including a Do It Yourself feature and a Nest magazine shoot. These experiences taught us how to present a project for editorial photography and helped introduce our work to a broader audience.
- One slide walks through making our first book, Young House Love. Publishing taught us how to translate blog content into a different format — more narrative-driven, more photographed, and packaged for readers who wanted a deeper home tour experience.
- We shared peeks at our second house during the presentation. If you want to explore that full renovation, our House Tour page includes room-by-room photos and details about the changes we made.
- Another memorable moment was our feature on The Oprah Winfrey Network. We recount that experience and its impact on our reach — it was a surreal milestone and a reminder that unexpected opportunities can change a site’s trajectory.
- The slides also trace the development of our lighting collection. Launching products taught us the realities of design, manufacturing, and retail partnerships. We highlighted a few early pieces and how the collection evolved over time.
- We offered a peek at our showhouse projects and the planning that goes into staging and decorating for an audience. Showhouses push you to think about scale, diversity of spaces, and styling under tight deadlines.
- Our second book, Lovable Livable Home, represents another chapter in how we communicate design ideas. We talked about the book-making process and shared images from the tour that accompanied its release.
We also included beach house photos shown during the talk. Some images captured early demo days while others show the exact condition the property was in when we bought it — a useful reminder that potential often arrives wrapped in a mess.
Finally, we previewed a duplex project that points toward our next big undertaking. For details and context you’ll want to listen to the episode — we shared the backstory, the stakes, and why this project excites us.
Happy Thanksgiving to our readers and listeners! A special thanks to Modsy for sponsoring this episode — they helped reimagine a tricky, angled bonus room into a serene master suite. Visit Modsy.com/YHL to see their work with our space and use the code YHL20 for 20% off your first Modsy room. (This weekend only: Friday, Nov 24 – Monday, Nov 27, the code YHL50 offers 50% off.)
Thank you for listening and following along over the last ten years — your support has made this journey possible.
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