This year we decided to try starting a selection of herbs, vegetables and flowers from seed. After reading a simple seed-starting post and spotting a small greenhouse kit at Home Depot, we felt confident to give it a go. The greenhouse kit cost $6.99. Each packet of seeds—sage, lavender, rosemary, salvia, cilantro, tomato and basil—was … Read more

We finally made a major functional upgrade to our office — perhaps the most important one since we first started planning this space back in March. We added two tall storage systems on either side of the desk, giving us six roomy shelves and six extra-long drawers. The new units balance the desk visually and … Read more

You might remember the sunroom quick-change from a few months back when we transformed our former third bedroom—previously home to a West Elm daybed and a desk—into Clara’s nursery. Being proponents of making the most of what we already own, we moved that daybed into the sunroom and mentioned that one day we’d prime and … Read more

Hope you’re having a wonderful week between Christmas and New Year’s. We’re enjoying family time while also sanding, priming, and painting our kitchen cabinets (it looks like a paint bomb went off with a few stray gingerbread cookies mixed in), so we hope to share progress on Monday. Today, though, we wanted to show a … Read more

Holy cow — you all had even more questions than the last time we did this after we announced that Clara was on the way! It was so much fun to dive in and answer as many as we could before we hit our self-imposed word limit. After our little bun announcement you made us … Read more

Remember that grid of eight Ribba frames above our sectional (the same arrangement we got right the second time around)? In the meantime we needed something to fill those frames so we weren’t staring at plain brown backing every evening. We wanted a quick, inexpensive fix until we decide on a long-term solution. The result: … Read more

Board and batten is one of our favorite easy DIY projects. It’s beginner-friendly and instantly elevates a room, entry, or hallway. This is the third home where we’ve installed this style of wainscoting, so we’ll share our tips for making the project faster, simpler, and more affordable than traditional board-and-batten installations. For this beach house … Read more

We did it — we found a stainless steel range hood on Craigslist. It’s an industrial-strength JennAir model (worth around $350 new), and we snagged it for just $60. Craigslist strikes again. The listing stated $65, but a quick “how about sixty—we have cash?” sealed the deal. When we inspected it, the hood looked like … Read more

We were amazed when we saw this stunning kitchen transformation. Here’s a note from Gord about the project: I wanted to share an update on our recently completed kitchen renovation. We moved windows and doors, tore down walls, closed off the odd railing between the kitchen and family room, and completely reconfigured the layout. We … Read more

Favorite project ever! I probably say that a lot, but this one might take the top spot for a while — especially among small, easy projects. (Our sunroom renovation and Teddy’s built-ins could have challenged it if this had been a heavy-duty upgrade, but this was delightfully simple.) Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Clara’s … Read more