Don’t wait. We’re all about embracing our home at every stage — from fixing it up to adding finishing touches. We take pictures and celebrate progress all along the way. And even though we love a good before-and-after, you’ll see a lot more of the in-between. 

We believe in loving the home you’re in and making it beautiful along the way.

how we got started

In the end, this blog is a

from the beginning

chris & julia

In 2009, Chris came home from work to my announcement: “I started a blog, and I called it ‘Chris Loves Julia.’ Is that okay?” He said, “Yeah! It’s true.” The name stuck, and the blog evolved into a love of home, a love of uncovering potential, a love of each other, and a love of family.

love story.

We’re a couple of progress-embracing home renovators, bloggers, brand ambassadors, and educators. We love: modern cottage design, s’mores around the fire pit, and our three cute kids (but not in that order).

We started this blog in 2009, the year after we got married. But it wasn’t always a business! Like most bloggers back then, we were all about showing off our home projects and cute pictures of our kids. Our budget for home improvements was $20/month, and we were DIYing our hearts out (with borrowed tools).

In 2015, we took Instagram by the horns and started photographing our home and our projects with a *real* camera. We started talking to our audience every day. We got really consistent with our content, and we took big, go-with-your-gut risks. 

our story

A year later, Chris quit his day job, and we were pinching ourselves: We get to work on our house as a *job*. And we get to work right alongside each other. 

Looking back, I probably should have known that the girl who would beg the local bakery to let her design their store window (and get paid in cookies) would find a way to make a living out of making spaces beautiful — a truly sweet life.


We’re an in-progress blog.
We’re a troubleshooting blog.
We’re a figure-it-out-and-then-try-again blog.  

We make mistakes. We change our timelines. We get sidetracked by new inspiration. We embrace project creep. We scratch our heads and ask, “What’s not working here?” We’re a mood-boarding blog. A changed-my-mind-again blog. A what’s-my-budget blog. We do teamwork. And DIY. And knowing when to hire help. We don’t wait. We embrace what we love about where we live now and try to help our home realize its potential while we realize ours. 

Right now, we’re probably spooning PB2 over our Nice Cream and gushing with gratitude that we get to inspire so many to love where they live. We’re also staying busy collaborating with our dream brands and mentoring passionate, enthusiastic content creators on their path to goal-conquering, money-making, unprecedented success.

We’re not a before-and-after blog.

We've said it before and we'll say it again:

Chris

Julia

Tee, Jeans & Sneaks

Niche Sourdough Pretzels

Beatsaber on VR

Pool Volleyball

Pet peeve

guilty pleasure

Favorite Snack

Button-up & Jeans

secret talent

“Nice” Cream with PB2 

The Bachelor

Finding the perfect GIF

Open Space & Fresh Air 

Razorblade Knife

Burt’s Bees Chapstick

Gyroscopic Screwdriver

Personal style

CHRIS      JULIA

Where we fall on the important things... at a glance.

“Sweet Caroline”

Restaurant Menu Consultant

“How’s It Gonna Be?”

Realtor

Clothing Sizing Charts 

Tech Updates 

personal style

guilty pleasure

Favorite Snack

secret talent

can't live without

toolbox mvp

Karaoke song

secret fantasy job

Pet peeve

can't live without

toolbox mvp

secret fantasy job

Karaoke song

and

We fell in love through handwritten (and typed) letters back and forth.

2007

Got Married

2008

And moved into our first apartment, in the basement of a house in Utah.


2009

Greta was born!

2010

Bought our first house! We did our first IKEA hack in the living room, made our first fauxdenza, and made-over our first kitchen.

2011

look at these babies!

it's the shorts for me.

The timeline

Fell In Love

Started the blog! 

Bought our First House

And of course we gutted the primary bathroom

2013

Moved to Idaho!

because it all starts somewhere

(We laid 1700 square feet of tile in our home)


2014

Tilemageddon

Faye was born

Completely gutted and redesigned the floor plan of our kitchen.

2015

2016

2017

what a year, eh?

Kitchen Reno

6-day Pittsburgh Kitchen Project

Launched our clothing brand, ProperTee! 

Chris quit his job 

Built our outdoor fireplace

So we could both work on CLJ full time

3-day Baltimore Kitchen Project

Polly was born!

Launched our sofa line, the Charly, with Interior Define

We bought a cabin!

And bought our modern cottage!

2019

Cabin Fire

Launched our cabinet door line with Semi-handmade

Fullmer Kitchen Renovation

Moved to Idaho Falls

2020

Launched Loloi Line

Renovated our Exterior

And spent Christmas there

2018

Completely renovated our Cabin

2019

Sold our house in Idaho Falls

2021

Moved to North Carolina

new adventures await!

????

IN THE PRESS