help us make our house a home.

Sharing our DIY budget kitchen updates. Affordable kitchen updates that will make a serious impact on a small budget!

One of the biggest "Phase 1" improvements we made was updating the floors throughout the house. The girls' bedrooms were recarpetted; the din ...

When designing a kitchen it is common to spend most of our time focusing on the big things, like cabinetry color, countertops, and flooring.

Beautiful ways to decorate those little corners around our homes.

The family table is such a special place in the home, I had some important priorities for designing our dining room. My main two goals were, first, to be comfortable. Our kitchen is not right next to our dining room, and I wanted it to be a really good space that felt a little compelling for us to go and sit down each night.READ MORE

Good morning! Here is my attempt at a tutorial for how we made the cabinetry for our dollhouses. You can read more about the dollhouse kitchens here. You can also check out our highlights section on Instagram from pictures and to keep up with the room we are working on now (the study).Read More

We're totally inspired to paint our kitchen now.

Our DIY modern farmhouse IKEA kitchen remodel before & after with 8 most helpful ideas: kitchen design & layout, beautiful styles, storage tips, & more!

Considering painting tile in your home? Here is a review of our painted tile a year after doing it so you can decide if painted tile lasts!

.... Honestly I never ever ever thought I would be writing this. EVER!! but here I am sitting here at my computer typing to you that... WE ARE PAINTING OUR FLOORS. Holy hannah it feels good. Ok, I have a lot of explaining to do. Ok, where do I start? Let's start way back into 2016 when we decided to put wide plank pine boards throughout our house for our flooring. When we moved in the house we started ripping up the old carpet & flooring & discovered the old 1800's floor underneath. Most rooms were in horrible shape &

Forget everything you know about above the kitchen cabinet decor and take a look at these 28 beautiful concepts.

Learn how to make the perfect peanut sauce with just 8 simple ingredients and less than 10 minutes of your time! This is one of our go-to recipes in our house when we are in need of a good dip or dressing, and it hits the spot every time.

Holy cow guys. I feel like I might finally be able to sleep tonight after weeks & weeks of trying to decide what we should do with our new pine flooring. So if you remember a few months ago we made the decision to install 8 inch pine boards into our house. Well, that was an easy decision... & I thought deciding whether to paint or stain would be easy as well. No. No it wasn't. I completely locked up & didn't know what to do because I loved painted & stained floors equally. So, I asked you guys ...

We renovated a 1930s house in the UK and here we show our favourite shots from the renovation. Come on in for a room-by-room tour of our home!

Shop Emery Wood and Upholstered Bench … and other curated products on LTK, the easiest way to shop everything from your favorite creators.

Many people choose not to use wallpaper in a bathroom as they worry about the durability and practicality in this space. Let us put these anxieties to rest once and for all, and let us introduce you to one of our top design secrets and what will become your new DIY best friend!

Learn how to transform your space with this clever hack on turning Ikea Billy bookcases into a custom wall of built-ins. Easy and affordable!

Have an awkward built-in desk in or near your kitchen that you don't use? We did not use ours, so converted it into a Butler's pantry!

It’s been a while in the making but it’s finally done! This mini A-frame cabin we built is ready to hang around in and we’re SO excited to share with you how we built it. You can use it as a playhouse, an outdoor lounge space, or even a little dinning area! There’s so much you can do, let your imagination run wild.

Ready for a kitchen refresh? Here are the best kitchen cabinet paint colors to help you with the makeover.

When a client emails us a photo's of their kitchen ... Here's the before photo... they told us their planning on renting the home and are looking to update i…

Learn how to transform your space with this clever hack on turning Ikea Billy bookcases into a custom wall of built-ins. Easy and affordable!

We've completed the bead board island in the kitchen! I love it! It was my number one wish for our dream projects for 2011 . I was...

I CANNOT believe we are in 2022!!! Where has the time gone Since my last post, there has been MANY updates to the house physically and things that happened behind the scenes. For starters, we were unable to touch the house in terms of renovations until we had lawyers stuff situated. We had TWO lawyers...Read the Post

Hello friends! Have you ever felt like you don’t have enough storage space in your kitchen? I definitely do! Today, I am sharing how to build a kitchen pantry c…

Share this with crafty friends.... Pinterest Facebook Twitter We have an old house with old drains and our kitchen sink is always getting clogged up. The first time it happened my husband was out of town on a business trip and I spent hours and hours trying to get the double sink unclogged. Drano, baking […]

Hey guys!!! So, I haven't blogged in nearly 4 months. It's crazy. I barely even know where to begin! There's so much to say and so much to share, so let's just jump right in and pick up where we left off. Our little Ava is now 5 months old and doing really great. We survived 4 months of colic/milk allergy/reflux and between that and a pretty difficult pregnancy, I felt like the wind had been knocked out of my sails. But, little by little, things are getting so much better and I'm slowly starting to feel like my old self again. Thank you guys so much for being patient with me and understanding that I needed some time off to focus on Ava. I'm so grateful for this precious girl, and I'm sure one day I'll look back and laugh about the past year. But, like, not yet. Ava on Halloween...finally giving us all sorts of sweet smiles. So, let's get down to business. In the final few months before I had Ava, I was able to share with you guys the finished basement renovation, our upstairs flooring redo, and the nursery. But I kinda ran out of time (duty called) before I could share the finished living room. So, a quick 5 months after I finished it, today I can finally show it to you. Many of you guys have been following my blog for awhile now and have already seen the before pictures of the upstairs living area, but I'll share them again, as it's always a nice reminder of how outdated our house was when we first moved in. So, here are the before pics. This is the living room in May of 2010 when we first moved in...wall to wall carpet, outdated light fixtures, dark wood trim, and windows so old that you could feel the wind in your hair when you stood next to them. This was what the entryway looked like. Outdated light fixture, parquet flooring and carpeted stairs, rickety old stair rail, and dark wood trim and door. This was what the dining room looked like. There was a wall between the kitchen and dining room that made the room almost too tiny to use. There was an old glass sliding door that barely opened, dark wood trim and wainscotting, outdated light fixtures, and a tile/carpet combo. This is what it looked standing in the dining room and looking into the living room. This house sat on the market for a really long time before we bought it, as it was obviously totally outdated. I was a little scared, as it was our first house and I had never renovated anything in my life. But, ultimately I decided to just go for it and I'm so glad I did. Renovating it took me almost 5 years to complete. Sometimes it was totally stressful, sometimes I wanted to quit, but ultimately it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. And I learned a lot. Which is great because we won't live here forever, and the next time I renovate a house, I'll be much better equipped. So, that being said, here are the pics of what this upstairs area looks like today. Let's start with a little recap of the dining room and entryway and then we'll move into the living room. One of the things that made the biggest difference was knocking down the wall between the dining room and kitchen. We also built a new stair rail, painted all of the trim and wainscoting white, added new light fixtures, and installed white washed hardwood flooring. I painted our kitchen cabinets and updated the hardware when we first moved in the house, and although in an ideal world I would have been able to fully renovate the kitchen, I decided that I could really stretch our budget by just painting the cabinetry and working with what we already had. In the dining room, I added a bold rug that I found for $60 (I know it's not for everyone, and that's okay.). I found the dining room table at a salvage shop, and the white leather chairs with metallic legs I found on Overstock. The original post about the dining room with sources can be found here. Also, we've talked about my orchid sabotage many times, so...that's a fake orchid. I've got a child to raise. Here's a quick view from the landing at the top of the stairs. You can see where we also knocked down the wall and widened the old doorway into the hallway. Here's a look around the corner. You can see how we painted the old outdated wainscoting white. We also replaced the old sliding glass door in the dining room with nice french doors. In the entryway, we replaced the light fixture, and installed double doors on the coat closet. We replaced the carpet on the stairs with hardwood treads and painted white risers, and we also built a new stairrail. I painted the existing front door Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze (favorite!), and added a little silver coat hook from HomeGoods. One of the deer heads broke off after I brought it home. And now this little coat hook reminds me of Jesse tinkering in the garage for an hour, determined to fix it for me. I think there was some ametuer welding going on in the garage, but I was too pregnant to waddle out there and watch. And now, let's move on to the finished living room. I don't expect this room to blow anyone's mind. But, it's come such a long way, and it's where we spend most of our time, so it definitely deserves at least a little time on the blog. We replaced the light fixtures, added some inexpensive tufted couches and a giant comfy ottoman, the rug is from awhile back, and then I thrifted the TV console. Here's a pic of the TV console I found at the thrift store. It's obviously nothing special, but it was the right size and $20, so...sold! I painted it (using the only furniture paint I ever use anymore) and changed out the hardware. It has a super glossy lacquer finish and looks really great up close. I'll eventually mount the TV on the wall, too. Here's a closeup of the hardware. Some little polished nickel pulls from Home Depot. I haven't decided on what kinda curtains I want to hang yet, so for now the windows are just bare. It took us 5 years to finally replace those old windows, so I don't mind looking at the new ones in the meantime. I added some Etsy pillows to the sofas. Here's a view of the living room looking back into the dining room, one of my favorite views. We built the mantel and made the stacked log insert for the fireplace (both were done awhile ago) and then I freshened up the mantle with some things I had around the house. The little framed floral art is a print I found on Etsy. And then, I made some art of my own...some black and white abstract art for above the sofa. I had Jesse build me a basic wooden frame. And I spray painted it with this Krylon Foil Metallic silver spray paint (affiliate link). It's good, ya'll. I think I'll be using it as my go-to silver spray paint from now on. It made my little frame look like actual metal or like it was silver leafed. Either way, good stuff. For the painting itself, I just used some Sherwin Williams Simply White paint (the same color that's on the walls), mixed it with a little gray, and then sketched out a doodle and filled it in with some Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze (the same black paint I used on the front door). It's probably not gonna end up at a museum, but it took me an hour and only cost me a few bucks, so homemade art for the win. And that, you guys, is the finished upstairs living area! I'm sure it will continue to evolve and change, but it feels great to at least have it furnished and not under construction. We lived in the basement throughout most of my pregnancy, so it's nice to no longer be a cave dweller. And I'll leave you with this picture of how the living room looks in real life, filled with baby stuff. Because it would be ridiculous to pretend like my house always looks like the above pictures....it took me at least twenty minutes to clean out all the baby apparatus before I could take some blog pics. Let's be honest. :) As for the blog, a lot of you have asked what my plans are. I plan to slowly get back into the swing of things, as time allows, and as quickly as my brain starts functioning like normal again. Thank you guys for all of your sweet comments and messages. I appreciate it so much. I know I'll eventually find my groove again, but right now I'm still doing a lot of this. And I wouldn't have it any other way. 'Til next time! Follow my blog with Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email! Enter your email address:

Do you need inspiration for a fantastic hardwood floor and wall color combination? Then you’ve come to the right spot to find it. We have seventeen different combinations to inspire your design. Each of these floor and wall color combinations are a knockout. Finding the right wall color is one of the top design decisions […]

Reeded Glass Window Film adds privacy with a touch of contemporary luxury to you glass. Ideal for Internal Doors, Glass Partitioning, Windows or Cabinets. A Sample is available for this Product New - Coloured Reeded Film products We've introduced a new range of NINE colour options for our popular 1/2 reeded window film. The new coloured range of reeded window film is here. Want to practice installation first? All orders are sent with a FREE offcut piece of similar window film. Trade Orders Welcome Ordering over 10 metres of window film? All our window films are available with a trade discount for large orders and commercial projects. We can supply full (30 metre) or part rolls of Frost, Reeded, Solar, Tint, Mirror and Safety window films.

How we stained, finished and installed our new pine flooring in our renovation. #flooring #pinefloors #diy

Explore 20 stunning white kitchens with white oak cabinets that blend timeless elegance with modern functionality. Get inspired!

These green home exteriors will inspire you to choose a nature-inspired paint for your next home improvement project!