I learned in grade school that chasing perfection usually ends in a caffeine-and-panic meltdown, à la Jesse Spano (yes, Saved By The Bell taught me more than one life lesson). Since then I’ve adopted a “do your best, perfection isn’t realistic” mindset. So it’s always a little strange when people tell us they imagine our … Read more

And now for a post that’s a bit more about family life than pure home improvement. When people ask what question we get most often here at YHL, you might expect it to be about paint or demolition. Instead, hands down, it’s some variation of this: How do you like cloth diapers? How many do … Read more

Right before we installed the hardwood floors upstairs, we mentioned how we repainted all the blue trim and doors upstairs to freshen things up. Those freshly painted doors still needed one small detail: new knobs. We’ve refinished hardware before, but many of the original knobs were rusted, pitted, or simply didn’t function properly. Some were … Read more

Demolition is thrilling, but there’s always that little voice reminding you that everything you tear out has to be replaced. A bummer, for sure. We didn’t linger on it long. Right after demo we headed straight to The Tile Shop (in my sister’s borrowed SUV) to buy cement board so we’d have supplies ready when … Read more

Okay, let’s get some open shelves up in this space. With the hood cover now built, we could finally install shelves around it. We originally planned to build true floating shelves, but after revisiting our inspiration photos we decided to use brackets instead. For those wondering about dust and grease on open shelves: research and … Read more

Well, you can stick a candy cane in it—one of our favorite seasonal projects is officially finished! We were invited to help transform a family waiting room at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. The goal was to make the space feel warmer and more home-like year-round, and to add festive touches for the … Read more

As wedding week winds down, here’s the promised recap of how we celebrated our anniversary this year — where we went, what we ate, the gifts we exchanged, and the small keepsakes we added to our home. We kicked things off with a few photographic traditions. On Wednesday afternoon we went to Richmond’s Carytown to … Read more

John’s sister Emily has been busy since our last post about helping her move into the gorgeous new house she and her husband Todd designed themselves. In only a month she’s furnished, styled, and finished nearly every room, and she kindly let us come back for a fresh set of after photos. Welcome to the … Read more

We did it! We can check off “paint the walls,” “paint the closet,” and “paint the ceiling” in Clara’s room. It was a bit of a painting marathon, but the soft pink ceiling turned out so sweet. The color is Pink Cadillac by Benjamin Moore in an eggshell finish. In photos it reads subtle, but … Read more

Remember when we showed how shiny and polished the kitchen looked after we finished grouting? And then we revealed the chaos that showed up shortly after? The room is back together now, and we made a lot of changes to the lighting. Yes, the ceiling looks like Swiss cheese, but it’s all for a good … Read more