OKAY, OUR TOP 10 POSTS OF THE ENTIRE YEAR. Thank you so much to all of you who read, share, comment. Seriously, we read all of them and it does truly impact and inform what we do next. While we know throughout the year what is doing “well” traffic-wise, it’s always interesting to see what really HITS, both on that day as well as picked up in page views throughout the year. I’m glad that this truly showed a variety of posts: hair (ha. always), reveals of the mountain house, informative roundups and a couple of really personal posts. Thanks to my incredible editorial team Arlyn, Jess and Ryann for all they do for these posts. It takes SO MUCH time to produce each one, but I’m still so proud that we are doing such high-quality content that you guys seem to like. THANK YOU.
Here goes:
#10: Turns Out I’ve Been Blow Drying My Hair All Wrong—Here’s How to Get It Right
Our big staff hair transformation reveal from last year was on 2018’s top posts of the year, so…no real surprise here that hair made the list again. Any requests for hair stuff in 2020??
#9: Mountain House Reveal (Yes Another One!): The Coziest Upstairs Guest “Bunk” Bedroom
HECK YEAH. I love this room. There were a lot of mountain house reveals this year, and this was one of the last ones we did, so a little surprising to see this one make the “top 10” cut but it did show some good ideas for fitting multiple beds in a room that works so well for guest rooms catering to families. Which was your favorite mountain house bedroom?
#8: Are We Done Having Kids?
Ha, juicy stuff. This was what we like to call a “Dead Cat” post. Last year, when I wrote about the death of Bearcat and Mimi, it kind of blew up in such an insane way page view wise, so any post that went gangbusters got the “Dead Cat post” moniker. We don’t write these for traffic, but I know what I would want to read and that informs how much I share.
#7: 15 of Our Absolute Favorite Go-To White & Gray Paint Colors
Paint color posts always seem to do well for us over time (thanks Pinterest) and there’s nothing more universally needed then basic, neutral paint colors like whites and grays. Makes sense.
#6: It’s Finally Here: The Reveal of the Mountain House Kitchen
One of our first mountain house reveals (after the kids’ room which was in partnership with Target for Pillowfort). Man was there a lead up to this one, and according to page views, it was worth it. Quite possibly the most time-intensive project of my life, I’m SO grateful that you guys actually liked it. THANK YOU. (I love it, too, so much in case you are wondering).
#5: #Janstewary: How Soup Changed My Life (& Body)…Really
2019 was the year of the soup at EHD, and I’m not stopping in 2020. Stay tuned (and share any of your favorite recipes in the comments). In case you are catching up and wondering why I’m the unpaid ambassador for soup, it’s this: soup is the easiest way to cook and stay satisfied while eating healthy (and yes likely shedding the pounds you might want to…I mean it’s eating vegetables, protein and water). Some people responded HIGHLY to it, others were annoyed that we were delving into food content.
#4: The Ultimate Budget Living Room Furniture Roundup
If you need a sofa, coffee table, media cabinet, side tables…any kind of furniture for your living room and you’re on a budget, this is your post…and you all agreed if your visits to this article had anything to say about it.
#3: Mountain House Reveal: Our Light-Filled Neutral & Textural Living Room
I’m glad you all liked this room as much as I do because being in there really just feels so good. The light, those windows, it’s all to warm and inviting and a place I never want to leave. The effort put into this design and post was far more than I could ever explain. So THANK YOU.
#2: 10 New Bathroom Design Ideas We’re Super Pumped About for 2019
There are two rooms in a home that are essentially kryptonite to Pinterest: kitchens (hang tight) and bathrooms, hence, our 2019 bathroom trends claiming our #2 top blog post of the year. #1? Well…
#1: 9 Kitchen Trends for 2019 We’re Betting Will Be Huge
…Kitchens (not a huge surprise). We’re working on our 2020 predictions now, but kitchen design moves pretty slowly due to the investment that goes into them, of course, but we’ll see what we can dig up/predict and we’ll check ya later in 2020 to see if it takes the top spot again next year.
That’s the year. We don’t plan our projects based on “popularity,” but it’s hard to not let it influence our brains. Obviously, please let us know any feedback you have. The page views and shares on these proved that indeed you guys liked them but any more we can hear from you is always great.
And thanks again for reading, sharing and commenting. In a digital world full of noise, know that we listen to you as much as you read us…likely more :). Thank you. xx
Honestly could do with more tried and true soup recipes. And like, do you eat a side of bread with it? Or a side salad? Do you eat desert? Do you just drink water with it or a glass of wine? Said another way, do you fill out the meal with anything else besides soup? Also, do you take it to work for lunch and if not, what happens for lunch? I am not normally into food posts as I’m not a great cook nor do I savor the process, but I am practical and don’t have a lot of time, and who doesn’t want to eat healthier.
I really loved the post on making sustainable choices in your home (reusable snack bags, ditching paper towels etc.) and I would love to see an update on how everyone is doing – changes that were easy to stick with, others that were a lot harder to keep going, new things you’ve started doing since then. I actually stopped using paper towels after I read that post and I’m so happy about it!
Long time reader…. Maybe 2nd time commenter? 🙂 Just wanted to say thanks and let you know your blog always has me thinking. Even if we don’t agree it’s thought provoking. Soup posts are great. I too am a fan. I’m a woman living in LA so I’m on a budget. More affordable posts are really what connect with me. I started reading when EHD was heavy into the Target sponsorship so what I fell in love with was the timeless look of affordable decor. We keep coming back so you all keep doing what you’re doing. You do you ladies. Well done!
Surprise me in 2020! I enjoy all of the posts you feature on home design, style, renovation as well as on fashion and flea-market finds and soup. I am less interested in the personal-life/religious/etc posts but they’re not hard to skip over. So keep up the good work. As for specific posts I’d like to see: 1. How to arrange things in a china cabinet. 2. How to use vintage furniture for different purposes. I know there was a post on armoires before, but I’d like to see more of this. 3. Paint colors for rooms facing north or northwest (ie., help me figure out what white paint colors will look good in my living room). 🙂 4. Lots more on flea market shopping and how to use/display what you find and how to mix old and new. 5. How to mix furniture styles — like how to combine modern pieces of furniture with traditional ones. 6. How to pick mats and frames for art. 7. More recommendations on kitchen gadgets, cookware, etc. 8. I love the fashion and shoe posts so keep them coming. 9. The top 10 home and interior design books you flip through again and again.… Read more »
This is such a great list!
Great list – especially 3, 5, 9, and 10! I’d especially love to hear about #10 from your staff with small spaces – even though I have more space than they do, I think we have the most to learn from those with the most challenging storage situations!
I also second the comment below asking for an update on your yard – and no shame about what didn’t make it or if it hasn’t quite fulfilled your Hope’s and dreams for a lush english cottage feel. You’re a busy family with small children, we’re just as curious about how things did for someone who doesnt have time to micromanage their landscaping, because realistically that’s where mostly of us are as well!
Here’s a soup recipe that I really love:
https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/the-best-chicken-soup-recipe/
I’ll usually sub chickpeas for the chicken for a more cost-effective option. Swap the chicken broth for veggie broth as well and it’s a great vegan soup option for the vegetarians/vegans out there. Its full of anti-inflammatory ingredients like turmeric, garlic, and ginger. SO TASTY!
Love all of your posts, Emily and company!!! I watched you become Design Star, and you still are!!!
Long-time reader, infrequent commenter: I loved your 2019 content, team EHD! You guys hit it out of the park. I’d love to see the soup posts come back in 2020. Here are a couple of my favorites:
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/red-lentil-dal-coconut-milk-and-kale
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/portuguese-chourico-and-kale-soup-recipe-1939580
Very much a fan of soup posts!! I love making soup-it’s so satisfying and usually lasts more than one meal!
I’d love to see how your yard is doing- what died, what stayed strong, etc.
Vintage, flea market, thrift store posts!! For your home and body!! Vintage art, vintage rugs, budget and not.
I am very lucky to have scored the same piano as you ($400, I know it’s such a brag but I can’t help it!) Would love a post on different ways to style it!
Love your personal posts!! Love the different voices of your team although would love someone in the late 40’s range once in a while! (late 40’s here and late to having kids)
Lastly, are you going to get another cat? Thanks for a wonderful blog!
Yes! I second the suggestion for a stronger/more frequent 40’s-something female voice!
I third it! But also enjoy the younger voices, too : )
Here’s one of my family’s fave soup recipes, and it’s made in the slow cooker (which is great for nights we come home from school/Girl Scouts at 6:30pm): CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP 1 large chicken breast, frozen 1 large container of chicken stock Chopped veggies: onion, zuch, corn, broccoli, etc 1/2* to 1 can of diced tomatoes, with juice 1/2* to 1 can of beans (any kind), with liquid Seasoning to taste: salt, cumin, chili powder, etc Toppings: baked corn tortilla pieces or tortilla chips**, guac or chopped avo, sour cream or plain greek yogurt, shredded cheese, good hot sauce Put all soup ingredients in slow cooker, and set to LOW for 6-7 hours. When soup is done, shred chicken breast that’s in soup with a fork, and season soup to taste. In soup bowls for serving, place baked tortilla pieces in bottom, ladle in soup, then top with avo/cheese/sour cream/hot sauce. *I’ll use half a can of both the tomatoes and beans, and then freeze (together) to use for a second meal; add to slow cooker frozen **Baked corn tortillas are so much better tasting and healthier than store-bought tortilla chips! Turn oven to 400, cut corn tortillas into 1-2″… Read more »
Mountain house reveal week was so fun! I loved waking up every day and seeing what amazing project was up on the blog.
I reference the “round up” posts often and love them. Round up rugs, sides tables, coffee tables etc. I’d love to see more, since some of the older posts on this have products that are now discontinued.
You guys have done truly amazing work this year, thank you!
I love almost all posts that are home design or styling related. Not really a fan of the “soup” posts. I love that your blog is unique and not another HGTV or Southern Living type. Keep it weird, make it weirder:)
Thank you for this round up as I am new to your blog, (I started following after the MH kitchen reveal), and I missed a few of these posts. My favorite is the soup post as I am a huge fan for all the reasons you mention and I’m always looking for new and interesting recipes for my picky husband! I have a great Mediterranean Halibut stew recipe that I promise to share another time as I have to type it all out but it’s great and healthy! And Happy New Year!
Love the top ten…many of those I archived for future referencing. I can see why the mountain house got oodles of love! It’s stunning! Thanks for all the hours you put into your job and sharing with all of us. Happy New Year Emily! XO
All of your mountain house posts have been amazing! I’ve loved watching that come to life!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
I remember loving that particular bedroom post because it was refreshing to see something less blue from you. I love blue so much, but I seem to pay extra attention to your design decisions when you steer away from the tried and true.
Thank you, Emily and team, for the never ending inspiration! Your blog is a little highlight for me every day.
Thank you for brightening 2019 with your style, humor and humility. So excited for what 2020 will bring.
Happy New Year, EHD team. Can’t wait to see all the great content you will come up with in 2020.
Congrats on a great year! I especially enjoyed the top 2 posts here, and many others. Looking at the list as a whole, it’s also really interesting how posts with the most hits differ from posts with a lot of reader engagement or comments (thinking of the living room reader ideas post for instance). Looking forward to next year, 2nding several of the thoughts above for specific posts – mixing different eras/styles, paint for north-facing rooms (the eternal struggle). Would love more flea market/vintage/antiques posts; more on micro and overarching trends – seems like there might be a shift coming up, wondering what you think; and MOTOs and design for others. I really like the ‘design inspiration’ posts, and loved the style round-ups from last year like Modern Victorian etc – would be interesting to see more of that. And it would be amazing to hear more about about your top design books, as mentioned above; sharing more about folks whose work you find exciting, and also maybe more of a global focus featuring and discussing interiors/design/trends from around the world. And also continuing on sustainability – I think the Mad About the House blog has a ‘do less harm’… Read more »
I’m shocked that the Mountain House master bedroom didn’t make this list. It’s my favorite bedroom in the Mountain House. I think I audibly gasped when I saw the reveal. I mean, those Allied Maker sconces! The nightstands! The CHAIR! It all worked together so perfectly.
I read others’ comments saying they like roundups and I totally agree. But I also looooove the shop section of the website and use it all the time. That’s basically an evergreen roundup right? Please tell me that’s getting traffic and you’re keeping it! Even if I don’t buy the specific products it’s a total goldmine for discovering new shops and brands and it’s been a huge help to me as I’ve been trying to make some design decisions for my own home. Maybe the people asking for roundups forget that’s there?
I can’t believe Bowser’s post about buying her home didn’t make the top 10. It was the best thing I’ve ever read here, and I’ve been a follower since the Design Star days.
On another note, I want to thank you all, but especially Em and Caitlin, for helping make 2019 such a wonderful year for me. I’m still thrilled that I had the opportunity to visit the mountain house (and see your stunning master bathroom in person)! It was definitely a highlight of what was a great year for me.
Wishing you all the best in 2020!
I enjoyed your mountain home posts most of all. I live in Lake Arrowhead and not far from yours, so it was exciting to view what was happening on the inside. I love your prow wall of windows!
My favorite post was when you had the ceiling blasted with crushed walnut shells to take the orange out of the wood. I have an A-frame and the tone of the wood is a mix of honey and orange which makes the room look warm, like the glow from a fire. I love them and it works with my boho/eclectic aesthetic. But I get that your ceiling needed to go with your Scandi design and the flooring – I appreciated your attention to detail, no matter how painful the process. My husband talked about that post for a long time! I love soup, btw.
I agree with the various comments about mixing old and new furniture, especially in an old house. At first, I wasn’t sure about the fashion posts, but then I grew to love them! Something specifically about how to put some edgy art into a very characterful home would be great (funky art in a restored craftsman home). Kitchen? Did someone say kitchen? Particularly how to use old cupboards/cabinets, while updating other parts of the kitchen to make it more functional OR how to retro-fit gizmos to make those old cabinets function…on a tight budget! We thought about the Ikea wire baskets that go into cupboards, but they don’t fit into 1950 cupboards! Eich! I love the budget stuff, even though I have a bit more room to move financially, simply because it’s easier to be inspired and apply the ideas upwards, than it is to see ‘perfect’ high end inspiration and fail to apply it downwards (if that makes sense?). I’d love a few thought provoking posts from EH, like tge “Why’d you Vote for Trump?” post. It really made me think and open my mind to hiw other people think and their motivations for voting for a oerson who… Read more »
Happy New Year! Thank you so much for this blog that I read practically every morning. I’m busy with a full time job, side jobs (design) and a toddler but I always carve out a time to read. It’s a daily treat to myself!!
Things I would love to see in 2020:
1. More sustainability focused posts (vegetarian soups? Two birds, one stone?)
2. Cute kids furniture round up, especially storage pieces or out of the box solutions
3. Shopping for vintage and styling it in the home
4. Old school weird Emily
Seconding kid’s furniture round up.
Posts I’d love to see more of:
– Home offices. There’s so little content on how to design a good office. And so much of what you see on Pinterest involves huge offices that most of us don’t have the space for.
– Related to offices, how to effectively organize and store office stuff. What do you do with paper, pens, a lot of tech equipment and wires, etc. A lot of what you see on blogs involve very pretty offices but I’m always like where is all their stuff??
– How to lay out different rooms. For example, what do you do if your front door opens straight into the living room and you don’t have an entryway. Or what do you do if you have an upstairs with low, sloping ceilings.
Yes, home office design and organization!
When can we expect kitchen and bathroom trends for 2020 trends?! ?
Thanks to your team for the great content in 2019 – I’m one of your readers who loves the personal, fashion, and soup posts as much as the design posts. For me, the post I referenced quite a bit from 2019 was Bowser’s blog about her bathroom – I renovated a very small bathroom at the end of the year and used hers as inspiration and a reference point a number of times, even though ultimately my bathroom turned out quite different than hers. The post was a great inspiration to just get me started on the design. – Also, not 2019-related, but in 2016 you did a post about favorite pastel paint colors. My mom used a blue from that post (Sherwin Williams Topsail) in several rooms in her house, and since I have used it twice, as has a friend of mine, because that blue was just so so good. – One thing that I’d love to see is more posts that feature spaces that don’t have beautiful, natural lighting. None of the bathrooms in my house have windows, and my basement is quite dark despite having windows (and I’m sure other readers have similar spaces) – I’d… Read more »
I love your posts, especially the one from 2015 on art resources.
I was wondering if you could possibly add https://artres.xyz, which contains hand curated art tutorials.
Great work on this blog and cheers to a great 2020!
Hi,
I’ve only been coming around here a few months but I enjoy it quite a bit. I love hearing what all the staffers are doing in their own homes. The makeover for the homeless family was awesome. I don’t care at all about soup or fashion, or flea markets. I love love love before and after, room layouts, why do you make the design choices you do…oh, and trends are fun. Would love to hear your thoughts for those of us with 8 foot ceilings and no architectural features to speak of!
Hi Emily, I’ve been following you the past few years. I started following you because I was working as a set designer/stylist and you shared great tips and I was inspired by your style. But then As I followed along on your posts, I was drawn to HOW you wrote, and liked the peaks you gave into your personal life. I look forward to your posts that cross into other topics like fashion and cooking because of the “trust” and “relatablility”(this should be a word!) that you’ve built up. I don’t spend hours shopping or hours on Pinterest looking for recipes, so the ones you share are valuable to me. And To this day, I don’t follow endless designers/stylists, I pick and choose based on their content and how it relates to me. I am not one who really leaves comments typically, but I will LIKE a post on social media.
I saw you meatball maker video & just now saw this meatball spoon, have you seen or heard of it?