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A Whole New Look, Who Dis?

Happy New Blog Week to us! Man, this has been a long time coming, and we thank all of you so much for bearing with us over the last handful of months while we worked on changes behind the scenes (and simultaneously caused countless glitches that made our blog less-than-friendly). We’ve migrated to a new server, improved speed drastically, cleaned up old (read: useless!) baggage and drafted up a wish list of what we wanted to see in a blog. This blog. Any blog, really. We shot for the moon (always), and we asked you what you wanted, too. Then we added your wishes to our list, and we brought that big, heavy list to a talented designer to bring as much of it as possible to life. Let’s show you around!

Welcome to the New Homepage

Things should look a lot different around here! One thing we’ve noticed more and more is that blog landing pages have shifted away from a linear chronological layout, and although we resisted that at first (#oldschool), it’s a look we’ve ultimately grown to love. Now, we’re embracing a homepage that encourages you to explore and stay awhile. The new homepage allows you to see your favorite projects, our favorite projects, the latest vlogs and what we’re currently loving. That said, it’s still super easy for you to find our latest posts, chronologically, under the header ‘On the Blog.’ Tip: Tapping on the ‘+’ under every category will bring up more content!

There’s an Easier To Read Mobile View

The mobile view has been a pain point for far too long. We heard you, we agreed with you. Finally, we’re featuring a larger font and the ability to click around easily without needing to magnify your screen. (Welcome to 2019, Vargos. Ha!)

Actually, There’s an Easier to Read Everything View

Whether you’re on mobile or desktop, we’ve changed up our copy font to be reader friendly in every way. We’ve nixed the smaller sans serif font of yore for a more universally friendly serif font, bolded the hyperlinks (no more distracting yellow!) and enlarged the text. And because Scott and I both write posts, we’ve made sure that the author name is prominently displayed at the top of every blog post. Plus, this new design is responsive to whichever device you favor – whether it’s your smart phone, tablet or laptop!

Hey There, Improved Menu

We’ve cleaned up the menu bar to feature the pages that you want to see most – from our house tours to where we purchased our navy rug. Both menu bars lay out our most searched pages, and if you’re feeling social, you can find us online elsewhere through the gray bar at the very top. Tip: Our Etsy Print Shop can now be accessed through the social icons.

Find What You Need from Top to Bottom

From the double menus at the top to the improved footer at the bottom, we’ve laid it all out to include the most relevant information. The expanded footer menu is your one stop spot for all things YBH; you can read back to 2009 in our archives (my, how things have changed!), shop our house or follow a room renovation from the very beginning!

Choose Your Own (Room Makeover) Adventure!

Speaking of, we are so excited about this one! The brand new Room Makeovers page – located in both the menu and footer – allows you to hop from room-to-room and follow a renovation from the very beginning. This was a request we heard over and over again, and we tweaked it over the last couple of months to make it just right. (God bless our designer who had to carry out my endless requests to fine tune this page!) You start by choosing our Chicago Home, Tree House or Garden Apartment, and from there, you can select any room you wish, choose-your-own-adventure-style. Each room features a small slideshow of images in its current state, followed by the blog posts of the makeover process! We had a lot of fun scrolling back to the very beginning of some of our most memorable renovations. Lucy’s nursery might still be our favorite, but the entryway may have been the most time consuming.

Easy to Navigate Shopping

In addition to the Shop Our House pages, we’ve added another new feature: Our Go-To Sources! Here, you can find the places we turn to time and time again, organized by item type. These are the places we know will have a selection we love without the overwhelm, and without sacrificing quality.

Kim + Scott, Simplified

Our former About Page was holding on to too much information. It was time to start anew. New blog, new Kim + Scott, right? We scrapped that old page, started fresh, and for fun, we sprinkled in some tidbits that make us, well, us.

We’ve Cleaned Out Every Nook, Every Cranny

When it comes right down to it, a new layout doesn’t need to be overly fussy. All the bells and whistles in the world don’t mean a thing if this blog isn’t easy to navigate! So? We kept it simple. We think you’ll find that there’s no unnecessary fluff. We’ve moved our search bar to the top, simplified our categories and what you see – every page, every icon, every last blog post (even that privacy policy at the very bottom!) – is what you get.

Can We Be Pen Pals?

To our email subscribers, we need to apologize. (Wait, did you even know we had an email list?) For far too long, our emails have been messy, unattractive and difficult to view. We’re vowing to change that – starting now! If you’d like to receive (pretty) weekly recaps, a personal letter from us to you (yes, really) and bonus content, tips and all-around fun stuff, you can sign up right here in a hot second. We promise to never spam your inbox (we hate that, too), and you’ll always be able to hit ‘reply’ and have a direct conversation with us, if you’d like! Let’s be pen pals.

How Can We Be Better?

Although we took note of your requests and wishes (and implemented what we could, where we could), we know we can always be better. Please let us know if you see anything that doesn’t feel right or that could be further improved upon! It’s so important to us that this blog remains a place of positivity, and we welcome a community where every voice is heard. We want you to feel comfortable, stay awhile and find joy in these words, because so much of what we do is inspired by this very community.

Of course, we couldn’t end this post without our most sincere thank you to Matt at La Lune Creative for bringing our vision to life. For those interested, we use the ProPhoto blog theme (and have been for almost 10 years!), and we love the flexibility it provides while allowing our content to shine. Thank you to all of you for sharing in our renovation journey!

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  • Michelle | Birds of Berwick4.16.19 - 6:34 AM

    Looks great! I love the wide format (PC user) and larger font. Already so much easier to read! ReplyCancel

  • Stacy4.16.19 - 7:12 AM

    I love the new look and format. The larger font is excellent! I will disclose that I am “resisting reading glasses” years old. Ha! Thank you for always working so hard to improve. :) ReplyCancel

    • Kim4.16.19 - 8:17 AM

      We absolutely love hearing this, thank you, Stacy!ReplyCancel

    • hannah4.16.19 - 11:20 AM

      I’m “it hasn’t even come up” years old but still found myself pinching to zoom every time I clicked through, so it’s not just you! Agree that the new font and format is gorgeous and much easier to use, thanks guys!!ReplyCancel

  • Marie4.16.19 - 7:21 AM

    Hi Kim and Scott ! Love the new blog design !! Love the new kim+Scott page too.. it seems there is a little typo in the first sentences « we we packed a van » … otherwise it’s so fun !!ReplyCancel

  • Michelle4.16.19 - 7:33 AM

    Still not allowing Feedly? ReplyCancel

    • Kim4.16.19 - 8:05 AM

      Our preference is that your reading experience is within this new blog design. By reading directly on YBH, you’re supporting us, which allows us to continue to create content. We sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts.ReplyCancel

    • Crystal4.16.19 - 8:50 AM

      I use Bloglovin’ to track the blogs that I read, but always click through to the actual blog website, as it makes the reading experience better, and also allows the owner of the blog to track analytics better. But Bloglovin is a great option to be able to track blogs, know when new posts are up, etc. ReplyCancel

      • Kim4.16.19 - 9:28 AM

        We use Bloglovin’ to read our faves, too – and always click through! Thanks for the feedback, Crystal. :DReplyCancel

  • Jessica4.16.19 - 7:37 AM

    The blog looks wonderful and very thoughtfully put together! Bravo!!ReplyCancel

  • Crystal4.16.19 - 8:52 AM

    The new format looks great! And it loads much faster, which is fantastic. ReplyCancel

  • Katya4.16.19 - 8:53 AM

    Dear Scott and Kim,  Though I’m fairly new to your blog, and not that computer savvy to begin with, it will take some time to fully appreciate your new look over the old one.  I always thought you did such a good job documenting very clearly the steps you went through in all your renovation posts in the past, so It will be fun to see how you’ve evolved for the better.  I wish you all the best!   KatyaReplyCancel

  • Debra4.16.19 - 9:14 AM

    It looks awesome!ReplyCancel

  • Cristin4.16.19 - 9:51 AM

    LOVE the bigger font on mobile – thank you! Makes it much easier to click through from Feedly now instead of remembering to head to your site later from my laptop. :) And can’t wait to check out the rooms page! ReplyCancel

    • Kim4.16.19 - 12:22 PM

      We’re so sorry it was troublesome for so long! Hopefully this new design makes up for it. :) Thank you, Cristin!ReplyCancel

      • Cristin4.16.19 - 3:27 PM

        Well, I will confess I never clicked through before until YHL told their followers that Feedly doesn’t allow bloggers to track analytics, views, etc. It was something I never realized or thought about! So I always tried to click through after that, and now it’s an even better experience! ?ReplyCancel

  • Matt Hudson4.16.19 - 12:16 PM

    We’re SO incredibly happy that you and your fans love the new site! :) Can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for everyone!ReplyCancel

    • Kim4.16.19 - 12:23 PM

      Whoot! Thank you for being so patient with all of our requests, haha.ReplyCancel

    • Stacy4.16.19 - 1:32 PM

      Note to self: Keep Matt’s contact info. Bravo!ReplyCancel

  • Martina4.16.19 - 2:36 PM

    Maybe I’m the only one with this issue but the front page of the blog is really hard to scroll. It does this skip and stagger thing and it takes me a few trys to get to the content. If this is something you are working on please disregard. But, if not I took a video of the experience, if you want it just shoot me an email.ReplyCancel

    • Kim4.16.19 - 2:40 PM

      Emailing you now! 

      Is anyone else noticing this issue?ReplyCancel

      • Katya4.17.19 - 7:23 AM

        I have noticed this as well.  It’s as if the content is revving up, yet doesn’t move…only for a few times until it kicks in.ReplyCancel

        • Kim4.17.19 - 7:57 AM

          Thank you for the feedback! Scott and I have both tried to replicate this issue, but can’t seem to. I’ve already sent Martina’s video over to our support to see if they can figure out what’s going on.ReplyCancel

      • Rosie4.17.19 - 9:01 AM

        I had this issue a little while reading this post on mobile. Otherwise really loving the changes!ReplyCancel

        • Kim4.17.19 - 9:10 AM

          Thanks for the feedback, Rosie! Our web developer has already spotted why this is happening and is working on it. Can’t thank you guys enough for staying on top of it! :DReplyCancel

  • Krystal4.17.19 - 8:52 AM

    Very nice! As a graphic designer myself, I have to say I heartily approve all the changes you’ve made – so well done! Well designed websites … people sometimes don’t understand how important and HARD they can be. I really love your improvements, beautifully done and very well thought out. I’m especially excited in regards to updates to your email formatting! That has been such a pet peeve for so long, but luckily the click through to your always worthwhile content was worth those aesthetic pains lol. If I’m already on your email list, do I need to sign up again for these new and improved emails?ReplyCancel

    • Krystal4.17.19 - 8:58 AM

      Ooh – one more thing. A couple more things. 1) I don’t know if I ever noticed it before but can I just say how much I am in love with the star turning yellow on the roll over on your logo? Gah, such a tiny detail that just make me so happy. 2) I wonder if it would be possible to somehow allow comments to be edited after submission, perhaps for just a small window of time? Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many times I find a typo or something immediately after hitting submit and then shucks, too late, it’s out there now. :( Just throwing in that as my two cents on this new design. :)ReplyCancel

      • Kim4.17.19 - 9:13 AM

        Yay, can’t tell you how much I appreciate your feedback, Krystal! And that star – makes me so happy, too. :) To answer some of your questions: Unfortunately, the comment form in our theme is a little limited in that sense, and I’ve always wished the same. It’s something I can add to a rolling wish list for the future, and I’ll keep tabs on it. As for the email list, great question! The new newsletter will roll out weekly instead of every time there’s a post. So if you want an alert the day a post goes live, you may want to subscribe to our blog in Feedly or Bloglovin’. (We personally use Bloglovin.) No, you don’t need to sign up again!ReplyCancel

  • Julie4.17.19 - 11:02 AM

    I love the new look! Much easier to read on my tablet. I’ve been reading your blog from the beginning over the last few months and have loved it. I’m a bit sad that I’ve caught up and have to wait for new posts in real time, but sincerely enjoy all your projects and the time you put into the blog. :) ReplyCancel

  • aussiebushgirl4.17.19 - 8:22 PM

    You nailed it! It’s a perfect platform going forward. Well done. x HeatherReplyCancel

Let's be Pen Pals

Our Pen Pals have direct access to first looks, a peek behind-the-scenes, and exclusive interviews showcasing members of the #YBHDIY community. We can’t wait to connect with you!

Kim and Scott

We’re Kim + Scott, Chicago based content creators behind the Home + Lifestyle brand Yellow Brick Home.

Join us as we renovate and nurture vintage homes across Chicago + SW Michigan!

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