Jolie transformed a dark, brick laundry room and adjacent office into a bright, welcoming space with a few simple updates. Her project is a great example of how paint and a handful of affordable changes can completely alter a room’s mood and functionality. Here’s her story: My den transformation was such an amazing inspiration to … Read more

I think this marks our first-ever reader submission showing a video of a furniture makeover, although the photo transformation is impressive too. If you haven’t watched Susan’s time-lapse of her couch reupholstery, it’s worth a look: “I’ve long admired your blog and work. Recently my husband and I reupholstered our 8½-foot couch. The frame has … Read more

We’ve had a lot of requests for a monthly roundup to make it easier to find posts and quickly see what we’ve been up to. While out to dinner—our first night alone since Clara was born—we joked about giving cheeky nominations to our projects, and the idea of monthly superlatives was born. Also, we resolved … Read more

In an unfortunate bit of timing, our washer died just after the major plumbing mess we wrote about yesterday. We had hoped the issue would be simple and inexpensive, but the appliance gods apparently had other plans. The repair technician inspected the machine and pointed out extensive corrosion, rusted bolts, a broken belt, and other … Read more

Get a load of Kelly’s budget bathroom makeover. Here’s her letter: We’ve been working really hard on the house and it seems that the most “done” room is of course the smallest – one of the bathrooms! Here’s what the bathroom looked like when we moved in: And this is what the bathroom looks like … Read more

Like we’ve done for past blogiversaries, this week we’re taking time to share what running our blog looks like as a business. We never set out to build a company when we published our first post in September 2007, and we didn’t write a formal business plan. It’s been a learn-as-you-go journey full of adjustments, … Read more

True to form, we’re juggling a lot right now. After switching up the blog design (and tracking down why the header disappeared for some readers) we’ve been working on our $6 cabinet makeover — painting and building are still in progress, and we hope to share photos and details next week. Alongside that we’ve done … Read more

We finally made it back to Ikea this year to check out the new collections and pick up a catalog in person after waiting ages for it to arrive. It did not disappoint. We took a handful of photos of the displays that inspired us most and wanted to share the highlights. First up: an … Read more

Alternate punny title: Leaf it to me. There’s nothing like a bit of corniness on a Tuesday afternoon — I blame being downright giddy to have power again. Anyway, the weekend before the chaos of Irene I helped host a small bridal shower for our cousin Megan, who’s getting married this fall. John’s mom hosted … Read more

Today we’ll walk you through how we built the bookshelves in our son’s room. It’s a straightforward project that we’ve reused to create custom shelving in other areas of our home — from built-ins around a living room doorway to pantry shelves at our beach house. These bedroom shelves were our first attempt and we … Read more