Lights, camera — it’s time for a March recap. Last month was packed with projects: crown molding and fireplace work, a fresh paint color in the kitchen, and a few tech upgrades. We’re pausing to celebrate everything we finished in March as motivation to keep the momentum into April. We also included a small hint about what’s coming next week.
Most Colorful: Monday’s giveaway — here’s a hint.
Scariest: Tackling crown molding in four rooms. Our first attempt during the kitchen renovation (pre-nail-gun) went poorly, so this felt intimidating. Two new tools made the job much easier, and I finally felt confident enough to write a full tutorial on the process.
Most Colorful: Sharing our 2013 Benjamin Moore paint picks and imagining ways to use them around the house. There are a few pairings we dream about trying one day.
Most Overdue: After living with three inactive ceiling fixture boxes in the living room for ages (they were capped but unused), we hired an electrician to convert two into can lights and moved the third so we could hang a pendant over the table. Finally, proper lighting!
Most Mixed Up: Clara’s big girl room, where we mixed prints, patterns, and decor to answer a reader question about how to combine different textiles and motifs.
Most Hilarious: A photo someone tweeted us after our post about replacing the hallway doorbell. Our picture of Burger barking tipped them off, and the result had us laughing for days.
Least Gray Paint With The Name Gray In It: The new kitchen color. We swapped out the hard-to-photograph grellow for Benjamin Moore’s Colorado Gray — a surprisingly blue-gray that photographs much better.
Most Likely To Include Superlatives, But Doesn’t: Our family yearbook, printed to commemorate everything we did last year. It includes a highlights page and an Instagram gallery in the back. It’s nice to finally add 2012 to the stack.
Most Arrow-Happy: A graphic we created to explain the plan for our fireplace refacing project. If it makes your head spin, you’re not alone — it made mine spin too.
Coolest: A local ice cream shop we visited to highlight inspiring decor elements like milk bottle lights, layered materials, and penny tile. It was a fun, design-forward stop.
Purtiest: The marble subway tile we laid in a herringbone pattern along the fireplace hearth. It’s one of my favorite details and has a big impact on the room.
Most Familiar: A house tour of my sister Emily’s home in Richmond. Instead of the usual same-day house crash, it was special to photograph a place that’s hosted so many family memories.
Laziest: Me. I did, however, embrace a remote control to switch off both bedside lamps from bed. Call it clever laziness — it’s allowed when you’re cozy under the covers.
Biggest Nerds: The folks who tracked all the quirky stats from our book tour infographic — hours on planes, cupcakes received, and other random details. Yes, we kept track, and yes, it’s delightfully nerdy.
Best Photobomb: A not-so-epic cameo of my face in a photo documenting the fireplace framing. Burger, you can do better next month.
Most Magical: An IR extender we added to the TV so the remote works with a cable box hidden in a ventilated drawer. We also revived an old media cabinet with Restore-a-Finish to remove decades of built-up grime — a small miracle.
Least Pregnant: This award goes to Sherry for her honest post about not being pregnant and why asking someone that question can be sensitive. The post sparked nearly 1,500 comments and ranks among our most-read posts.
Most Neglected: Our guest room had been largely ignored since we set it up in 2010. A simple mirror swap brightened the space above the headboard and answered a common reader question about when we splurge.
Most Transformed: Our fireplace, after finishing the refacing project. The small update had a big ripple effect and made the whole kitchen feel fresher.
Most Inspirational: Words of wisdom from Silver Tree Art that inspired Sherry’s experiment applying temporary tattoos to wood for simple, meaningful art. It was one of three small updates in a smorgasbord post that also included a kitchen timer for play, framed metal art, and a finished book project finding a home.
How was your March? If you had to sum it up in one word, what would it be — relaxing, whirlwind, productive, Easter-y? Ours would be: nail-gun-riddled.
Psst — our latest roundup of Clara Conversations is up on Young House Life, and they’re our favorites yet. That girl really has a way with words.