This year I decided to re-invest in long-form video – I figured since we worked so hard on this house, we may as well give it the proper reveal on the big screen. We used to do a ton of videos, but with TikTok totally disrupting media I didn’t really know how to do it in a way that I felt aligned with. The goal wasn’t to turn into some sort of YouTube star or go viral – it was just to tell the farm makeover story for a different audience. I wanted to expand beyond just IG reels and am not currently interested in TikTok because I love long form (I like to read “articles” and enjoy long-winded substack). We hired a local videographer, shout out to Michael Raines, and had so much fun producing these 11 videos over the last year. We plan on doing more next year, although now that Brian is done with grad school he might get back into shooting these (like he did the last two). And yay for Gretchen who has stepped it up to become a great producer and story editor – helping me keep things straight and stay on track with the script. Per usual it’s way more work than it looks, with most videos taking about 20 hours of time but hey, we’re learning and growing. Emma Chamberlain watch out!!
I thought it would be fun to revisit them in case you missed any and get a little insight into each one:)
This was our first one to see if we really wanted to do this – we rearranged the furniture for hours, it I totally hurt my back but it was a fun video to create and watch ?
This was the real (re)launch of YouTube, with the living room being a big reason to watch. This one got the most views and I think I can see why – there was just a lot of fun footage and it was such a huge transformation.
I used to shoot so many videos; if you aren’t organized they can be super chaotic, time-consuming, and draining (and you forget to get the right footage based on the script). So this year I tried to be super streamlined and write a script, shoot it more interview style, and then rebuild the room on camera (or restyle) where Michael would then have to “cover” the video by getting details of all the stuff that I’m talking about. This was so much easier for me than doing what is called a “walk and talk”, but it’s also a bit more stale so we are trying to shake it up.
By far the most asked-about thing we’ve installed in our house – the Soake mini-pool. And yes, we have absolutely used it as a hot tub a lot so far in the fall/winter and the kids have been in it with many friends even on freezing days. IT’S GENIUS.
An impressive before and after, with drone footage no less!!! I can’t wait for the landscaping to grow in more and I am still so grateful we aren’t surrounded by mud anymore!!!
Possibly my favorite room in the house (I’m sitting in it right now). We built it from the ground up and it looks like it was always here.
This was a long time coming (we styled and shot it multiple times). It’s a simple bathroom in a lot of ways, but my goodness I love being in here.
This was a sneak peek into the first floor so regardless if you want to peek at the rugs or not, watch it to see how the first floor flows.
Tied with the sunroom as my favorite room (mostly because of the design) the family room turned out better than I could have imagined (and I don’t say that about every room).
Kaitlin’s bedroom makeover was a fun respite from the farmhouse makeovers and I think turned out perfect for her and Corey. It was strangely easy (the wallpaper and headboard really helped) and we got it done in less than a month.
Last but not least, Birdie’s room that we are both obsessed with – full of butterflies, vintage, and a DIY corkboard. She begged for me to let her in the YouTube so you’ll get to see a little bit of her personality in here.
My big takeaway for YouTube next year is that they are fun to do and even if only 30,000 people watch, it’s still 30,000 people! It’s fun and it’s a different audience/an added bonus for you all. The biggest benefit of these is that we also produce 30-second cut-down videos for the blog (the little pop-up video ad) and while our YouTube revenue is still growing, these shorter cuts do totally cover production costs of the videos. So while I’m not the internet’s biggest YouTube star, we’ll keep doing them when they make sense because they are fun! Now go like and subscribe and comment and all those things that affect the algorithm!!!!!