Painted Brick Fireplace Before & After: Should You DIY or Hire Out?

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Today we're sharing pictures of our painted brick fireplace before & after...but are we finished? When we first toured the upstairs of our current house, we were pleasantly surprised to see there was a red brick fireplace in the bedroom. (Well, technically it's in the master bedroom's raised sitting room.) While a bedroom fireplace wasn't something we were looking for, I wasn't going to kick it out of bed in the morning. (Bad metaphor, but…

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Let It Go: 3 Refreshing Reasons to Declutter Sentimental Items.

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Decluttering sentimental items can be one of the hardest projects to tackle—but also the most pleasurable in the end! Today we're sharing what we've learned from our personal experiences of purging unnecessary items—and the benefits we've enjoyed! (And there are more than 3!) Over 15 years ago, when Matt and I had just gotten married and had very little furniture, he made us our first bed. Furniture making being his dream job, Matt was chomping…

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Mercilessly Ripping Out the Wood Railing Dividing Our Bedroom

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You may not know this about us yet, but when we were house shopping, we were actually looking for a home half the size of this one. We had just moved from New Zealand back to the U.S. One reason we were looking for a smaller house was simply because we got used to living in smaller spaces (and we liked it). Another reason was because we knew housing was (and is) expensive in southern…

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Before & Afters of Our Dry Bar Makeover.

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When we first walked through this house, we weren't looking for a bar area. But—whether we liked it or not—the house already had one. I'll show you a backed-up picture (from when the prior owners lived there) so you can better see where it is in relationship to the rest of the Great Room: A complete before tour of our downstairs! More pictures can be found on the tour of our house's downstairs. Why you…

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3 Things to Do While You’re Waiting.

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Are you waiting for something? I am. Have you had to wait before? I have. Did you learn something helpful during that waiting? Oh man, I did. Do you remember and apply those lessons each time you have to wait now? I DON’T!  (I’m raising both my hands high while dancing a goofy dance as I say this, because it’s that hilariously incredible to me that I forget so easily. Hellooooo human nature!) Yep, I…

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Social Media: Genuine Connection vs Focusing on Numbers.

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Never having been on Instagram before in my life, I started my account six months ago when we launched our blog. Of course, it seemed everyone had more followers than me and—as I started learning about The Gram—it appeared that’s what everyone was focused on! I learned that when you get 10k followers, IG would grant you the “swipe up” function—a feature that definitely would be nice so people could see our blog posts with…

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Shower Shelf: Is Corner or Inset Smartest?

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Today we're sharing alllllll our shower shelf knowledge! We'll talk about Why built-in, inset shelves are better than corner shelves, How to determine the number of shelves you'll need, How to determine the dimensions of your shelf or shelves, and Our tips to keep in mind when planning your perfect shower shelf setup! More about our GROUTLESS porcelain shower walls! We knew we wanted a porcelain shower shelf in our new shower during our bathroom…

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5 Simple Tips for Styling a Minimal Fireplace Mantel!

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Mantels can be the #1 magnet for attracting a plethora of decorative items! I knew I needed to go to a minimal fireplace mantel—while still keeping the look warm and cozy. For years, I felt an underlying stress in certain rooms and could never figure out why. Fast-forward several years (or decades!) to now, and I'm now aware of why. One of those reasons was visual clutter! (I talk a little more about my story…

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Finding Extra Space: Bonus Walk-in Closet Floor Plan with Dimensions!

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What are the ideal walk in closet dimensions? And how do you determine what size will work best for YOU— while maximizing what you have? Today we're walking you through our walk in closet dimensions and how we're using those dimensions to actually create a larger walk in closet floor plan! We'll be adding walk in closet space in an unusual way. How? Well, if you've taken our house's upstairs tour, you've seen our master…

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Our IKEA Homeschool Room: Minimalist, Organized & Simple.

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Our IKEA homeschool room is a simple, minimalist homeschool room. (Which is technically the back half corner of a larger room.) We've been simplifying our lives and enjoying the results, so we applied the same principles to this minimalist homeschool room of ours! We also wanted to do as much as we could with things we already have on hand, which ended up being a lot of fun and making our homeschool room unique and…

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