House Heroes — Under a House

Most of my inspiration comes from other people who are doing something similar to me - muddling their way through home renovations one day at a time. While it's entertaining to watch the pros, it's more interesting and valuable to follow the people who make mistakes, take chances, and feel the reward of figuring it out yourself.

I have a few house heroes - some who I know, some who I admire from afar. If you're looking for some DIY inspiration:

I Love 2 Sweat

I have to start out with a nod to my favorite home renovators, Courtney and Mark, who post over at ilove2sweat.com. Courtney and Mark inspired us to take the plunge buying a row house in Lawrenceville and gave us the low-down on exposing brick.

They are insanely talented, positive, creative, and awesome people. Pittsburgh Magazine featured their renovations in an article this summer.

Door Sixteen

An Ikea-manipulation guru and decorating master, Anna Dorfman's Door Sixteen is a blog that gives me the gumption to do things like paint the bathroom black or the office floor white. Anna thinks outside of the box and has this really soothing consistency throughout her many home projects.

I have rekindled me love for Ikea thanks to Anna, who embraces a Scandinavian aesthetic I can only hope to achieve. And she recently moved to New Mexico, which has me all kinds of excited to see her future projects.

188 Sqft

188sqft is written by Mandy and Kevin, a couple who packed up their lives into a - you guessed it - 188 square foot camper to live on the open road, traveling across the U.S. this year. You have to check out their before photos of the camper in its original state compared to what they've done with it (see photo above). Their renovations are a reminder that no matter where or what we inhabit, that space needs to feel like home, and the size of that space is pretty irrelevant.

I think they are totally brave to take on this adventure and can't wait to see more about their RV renovations and travels.

I have quite a few other blogs, Instagram feeds, and Pinterest boards I follow for inspiration as I eagerly, but apprehensively begin projects. How did people do this before the internet? Also, are there any critical DIY-ers I need to know about? Share in the comments!