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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I co-host the Your Home Story podcast and believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!
Mom to Otto born April 2018 and Lucy born August 2020!

4.20.2021

Interview with an expert: Closet organization!

Getting dressed is something we have to do every day, and having clothes we like is only part of that. How we store our clothing makes a huge difference on how easy or stressful that start to our day is. I just interviewed an expert in personal style and wardrobe strategy, Jennifer Mackey-Mary, about function and design for great closets, no matter how much space you have to work with.

Disclaimer: this is from my recent closet reno, before I had heard any of Jennifer's tips! I think I did pretty well, but I definitely learned some things for next time!!


Hear the interview on this week's episode of the Your Home Story Podcast!

Jennifer’s giving our listeners 20% off any of her courses or guides you can grab from her website with code YOURHOMESTORY! Jennifer’s recommendations of easy, free design tools that can help you maximize your closet space:
  1. EasyClosets
  2. The Container Store
  3. Closet Maid-- Closet Maid has a free option, or a $5 option where they design it for you and send you a parts/product list.

You can find Jennifer:

You can find us on our blogs or connect with each of us on Instagram:
@suzannahstanley
@biggerthanthethreeofus
@yourhomestorypodcast

And you can join our Facebook group here to connect with other listeners and ask questions!

Listen here or in your favorite podcast app: iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, GooglePlay, or Overcast!

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4.14.2021

Colorful living room update and refresh for spring!

Something's gotten into me... I'm all about color these days! Not bright or neon color, but saturated, usually dusty/muted color. Recently I've done color in our upstairs bathroom, Lucy's room (not finished yet but you can see it here), and my pink closet! And now our living room! This latest update is a bold one, and perfect timing for spring.

This post is sponsored by Joss & Main. 

I've been wishing for more seating in our living room since we moved in and we've moved it around several different ways, but we're pretty set on how it is now--and it was still short a chair. I've been looking around and decided the perfect thing would be a large, comfy, traditional, velvet armchair. Something rust or pink, maybe English roll arm and with casters and curved feet? I wasn't sure it existed other than going an expensive custom route. 

Well, I found basically the perfect thing after shopping Joss & Main accent chairs: the Naomi armchair. It comes in several beautiful colors of velvet and has great traditional lines. (It also comes in a sofa! Great price point on that and looks awesome!)


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4.13.2021

Life, project, and podcast updates, and a sneak peek at Lucy's nursery

Time for some updates! I've had a lot of house and décor projects moving in the background lately and have some more planned.

We're doing a casual catch-up chat on the Your Home Story Podcast this week, talking about Ashley’s extra hair supplies (and where to store them), my projects with unique fabrics like the this Roman shade, and what’s coming up over the next month on the podcast.

One big one for me is Lucy's room and some projects in it. It's not done yet (notice the bare bulb! Pendant shade coming soon), but I've been working on it slowly and really loving it! We painted the wood paneling and added laminate flooring in here. I'll share all about this room soon!

This unique space is off our bedroom and we turned it into a room for Lucy when we moved our rooms upstairs. 

Links to some of the other things we talked about on the show this week:

  1. Curly Girl Method
  2. Tension pole shower storage
  3. My recent closet makeover
  4. Cotton block print for Lucy’s Roman shade
  5. Lucy’s room
  6. Fabric covered-Roman shade tutorial
  7. The wreaths Ashley ordered
  8. A peek at Ashley’s basement
  9. The Everyday Style Podcast

You can find us on our blogs or connect with each of us on Instagram:
@suzannahstanley
@biggerthanthethreeofus
@yourhomestorypodcast

And you can join our Facebook group here to connect with other listeners and ask questions!

Listen here or in your favorite podcast app: iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, GooglePlay, or Overcast!

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4.12.2021

The beginnings of our garden this year: starting vegetables from seeds!

We've dabbled with vegetable gardening for many years but last year we had our first real garden, with a huge variety of plants and a lot of dedicated space in our yard. I had almost nothing to do with it; Jason did it all himself with advice and help from his mom, but I was totally convinced by the end of the summer after having plenty of vegetables to harvest every day.

We did almost everything from starts last year, which is a bit more expensive but we thought would also be a safer bet. This year we're starting from seeds and we're so excited with how well it's going so far!

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4.06.2021

Tips for ordering custom wood pieces and furniture

If you’ve been curious about what is involved in purchasing custom wood furniture pieces...

...then this episode of the Your Home Story Podcast is for you. From lead times to cost breakdowns and what you should be asking before you purchase… tune in for all the details!

Image source

Resources mentioned:
  1. Matboard shop on Etsy
  2. Mat Cutting Tutorial
  3. Room and Board Vanity in Ashley’s Bathroom
  4. Room and Board Bathroom Vanities
  5. Wren and Cooper
  6. Hedge House Furniture
  7. Astoria Shuffleboard
  8. Exotic Wood Stores
  9. Questions to ask for when buying custom furniture

You can find us on our blogs or connect with each of us on Instagram:
@suzannahstanley
@biggerthanthethreeofus
@yourhomestorypodcast

And you can join our Facebook group here to connect with other listeners and ask questions!

Listen here or in your favorite podcast app: iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, GooglePlay, or Overcast!

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4.02.2021

10 favorite FREE download tree art pieces

There are so many great options out there these days for art!! Lots of print shops, DIY art ideas, and museums providing free downloads. It's overwhelming. I actually got a request from an Instagram follower for a collection of my favorite pieces of tree art, and I thought... yes! I do have a list!

Her request came after I shared this fabulous large art I just got for our bedroom. It's a print of an etching done by Bertha Jaques in 1937, and it's available for download (Cabin in Wilderness | Smithsonian American Art Museum).

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3.30.2021

Top organization tips I actually use

There are so many popular organization and decluttering tips these days, and we’ve talked about a lot of them in the past! 

This week on the Your Home Story Podcast we’re sharing our top faves that we actually do at home as part of our normal routines. We share about dressers/clothes, kitchen storage, cleaning, and more!
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3.25.2021

Lessons learned: 3 things to remember for your bathroom reno

This is a funny post. We've redone two bathrooms in the past two years and we're done for now, but I just installed a new toilet handle downstairs and wow, I should have done that when we first renovated it!! A detail like a toilet handle that matches the faucet and towel bars make a big difference, but I overlooked it before. Sharing that and other lessons I've learned for bathroom renos!

If you're tackling a bathroom reno, you've probably researched a lot of the important steps and made a shopping list. The tile and how to lay it, which vanity you want, any drywall patching... bathrooms can be super complicated for how small they are! (See all my tutorials here including some great tile ones.) But in the past few years I've done 6 bathroom renos (see all Room Reveals here), plus consulted on others, and learned a few extra steps for getting a high quality feel, plus more function for everyone who uses them.

3 Elements to Remember for a Beautiful, Functional Bathroom Reno


1. Art!!!

This is a hard one, because you're making so many decisions about big, permanent things like the sink and toilet that art might seem unimportant. In terms of resale value it probably isn't too important. But for creating a really beautiful space you love?? Key! 

I've learned this slowly--I hardly thought about art at all in the three bathrooms we did at our first fixer upper house (you can see them on the bottom row of bathrooms on my Room Reveals page), and I don't think we had any in our master bath. (It was a great room but it could have used some art and a pretty Roman shade.)

For our latest bathroom reno, our upstairs half bath, I thought about the main piece of art early, and included something similar in design collages from day 1 (you can see the plans/collage here). It really, really helped to know the color and vibe I was going for.

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3.23.2021

Home office design and function - now that so many of us work from home!

With a 2021 work-from-home update, I'm doing a deep dive into office design and function. 

This week on the Your Home Story Podcast, we cover the utilitarian essentials (and how to make them more attractive), some design features you can add that are also practical, and facts of office space life like the table-vs-desk debate for work surfaces.
From this office makeover I did last spring


We talked about so many ideas and solutions (contains affiliate links):
  1. My upstairs office
  2. My dining room desk and picture light
  3. My townhouse home tour and office/sewing room
  4. Ashley’s current sunroom/office
  5. The HP printer that charges you based on prints/usage if you use HP Instant Ink
  6. Ashley’s office board on Pinterest
  7. My office board on Pinterest
  8. The Nesting With Grace “Magic Light Trick” you can use to add sconces above a desk or to add interest and light
  9. Inspiration image of a hanging light over a workspace
  10. My affordable and cute office chair round-up
  11. Butcher paper roll holder and clip set for to-do list
  12. Inspiration image of an oversized design board
  13. Some cute acrylic wall-mounted calendars: 1, 2, 3
  14. The clear plastic pegboard system I used in my sewing room
  15. The Grid-It product you can use to corral and hide cords mounted to a desk

Plus shared four office inspirations we love:
  1. Ashley from the Gold Hive - Hand Painted mural, pendant light, table (without drawers)
  2. Lindsey from Hello Hydrangea - A weaver so her office displays lots of her yarns, looms, etc.
  3. Yellow Brick Home - Small office setup with table and storage and then seating area on the other side.
  4. Jones Design Co - Office/studio with desk and table setup

You can find us on our blogs or connect with each of us on Instagram:
@suzannahstanley
@biggerthanthethreeofus
@yourhomestorypodcast

And you can join our Facebook group here to connect with other listeners and ask questions!

Listen here or in your favorite podcast app: iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, GooglePlay, or Overcast!

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