After months of behind-the-scenes work (seriously—this kind of redesign takes forever), we’ve finally launched our blog refresh. Like any big project, there were hiccups: strange coding bugs, unexpected site crashes (thanks for bearing with us), an earthquake and even a hurricane. But rather than wait for the perfect moment, we decided to push it live. It’s not entirely finished and there may still be a few glitches, but we wanted to get it out there and keep improving from here.
It’s surprising we didn’t do this sooner. The blog’s look and layout hadn’t changed since spring 2008, even though we’ve gone through countless room repaintings, furniture rearrangements and even a house move since then. It felt like we were wearing the same outfit that no longer fit. While we’re sentimental and know some people will miss the old design, we were ready for a fresher, more current look.
Our goals for the redesign were straightforward:
- Refresh the visual identity—colors, patterns and typefaces—to better match our style and the look of our home
- Make the header more representative of everything we write about (it shouldn’t feel like just the “house” part of our name)
- Lighten the overall palette so the site feels brighter and more inviting
- Improve navigation so readers can find content more easily
- Give the site a more modern feel—more 2011, less 2008
These are mostly DIY efforts from our own amateur web-design experiments. We love the new direction so far, though there are definitely details we’ll continue to finesse. Think of it like rearranging a room: at first it can feel unfamiliar, but give it a few days and it will start to feel like home.
For the header we photographed a collection of objects that mean something to us on white cardstock outdoors—small, personal items that tell our story. Here’s what’s included and why:
- Photostrips—something we’ve always loved (they even appeared at our wedding)
- A photo of Clara and Burger—our family members who are as much part of the blog as any project
- A wooden “C” block for Clara and a tiny bone-shaped treat to include Burger
- A little wooden skyscraper and taxi cabs to nod to the NYC days where we met in 2004
- Pennies we’ve saved—seven cents total, which is a lucky number for us; the pennies are dated 2007, the year we started the blog
- A Richmond magnet to represent our city
- Paint swatches and fabric samples to reflect our home style
- The key to our house (digitally altered for privacy)
- A photo of our current house, complete with the happy yellow door
- A white ceramic rhino—our little mascot after our beloved ceramic dog
The background pattern is a subtle homage to our old logo: many small heart motifs layered at different angles to create an abstract pattern. In addition to visual changes, we added and reorganized several functional features:
1. A new side site called Young House Life (visible under the header on the right) serves as a place for everyday posts—Clara & Burger photos and videos, behind-the-scenes snapshots and short updates that don’t require a full YHL post. Think of it as bonus content with its own feed for readers who want those updates.
2. A consolidated paint color page now lists all the paint colors we’ve used in this house and is linked from the sidebar—handy for anyone curious about our palette choices.
3. A dedicated source list page links to where we found nearly everything in the house, organized so readers can find products and inspiration more easily.
4. A Favorite Posts button on the sidebar highlights selected posts with thumbnails and links. We’ll refresh this list regularly to surface older content that’s worth revisiting.
5. A Videos button now displays video thumbnails and leads to our video archive. Previously videos lived under the header, but we moved them to a more accessible spot on the sidebar.
6. We added a Giving Back button to highlight three charities we support—organizations that reflect our passions for homes, kids and animals. Each year we donate to Richmond Habitat for Humanity, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Richmond SPCA, and this section explains why these causes matter to us.
7. We refreshed many sidebar elements (like the House Crashing button) with updated images and type. We also renamed the Twitter button to Tweetersiks—yes, a little punny and very on-brand for us.
8. Inspired by other bloggers, we added robust pagination so you can easily navigate back through the archives—even to the very first post if you have the time to spare.
There’s still more on our blog to-do list. Upcoming plans include:
- Completely renovating our Projects page to include images instead of just long lists of links (we’ve completed over 500 projects and want that to be easier to browse)
- Updating the designs and headers for the Mood Boards and Room Gallery pages so they match the new style
- Adding 100+ additional reader makeovers to the Room Gallery, pulling from our archive of Reader Redesigns
These updates should keep us busy for a while. We also have a few hands-on projects to wrap up here at home, including finishing the $6 cabinet repainting—a reminder that while web design is fun when you’re in the zone, nothing beats paint under your nails and a little sawdust. We hope you like the new look. Have you done any site tweaks lately? Any new color schemes or features that have you excited into the wee hours? We’d love to hear about it.