Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Posts By John Petersik

John Petersik is one half of the duo behind the award-winning home improvement and do-it-yourself design blog, Young House Love. Together, he and his wife Sherry have renovated seven homes, published two New York Times Bestselling books, and designed products sold in Target and Home Depot. They are currently enjoying their downsized home on Florida's Gulf Coast with their two kids and their dog, Penny.

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Making An Arts & Crafts Room For Our Kids

Some of you will remember that way back in January, Sherry talked about grabbing these wood chairs from Target on Instagram Stories for “a side project we’re working on that we’ll share after we complete the bathroom.” And then the bathroom dragged on for a few more months (you can see the finished product & full budget breakdown here) and somewhere in there this big thing happened too. So while we’ve been enjoying this completely new room for a few months, we’re excited to FINALLY share the update with you guys. So let’s show you around and tell you why we decided to revamp this room. The space you’re looking at is actually our old

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#167: Have Our Moving Plans Changed?

With everything that’s going on right now, we’re the first to admit that house stuff feels trivial, but we’re keeping our podcast going in the hopes that it’s a welcome escape for anyone tuning in (it’s definitely a nice distraction for us). This week we’re answering the most common question we’ve gotten in the last few days: how the coronavirus is impacting our Florida move and our house sales (spoiler alert: one contract has fallen through). We’re also having a strangely thorough discussion about high-tech toilets and bidets. Plus, we’re sharing two things that are helping us make the most of being home with kids 24/7. What’s New Can We Just Talk About Bidets? We’re

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#166: We Sold Our House!

Our Richmond home is officially under contract (!!!) and it all came together unlike any other house we’ve sold before. So today we’re breaking down how it all happened, why it was surprisingly emotional, and what it means for our move in June. We’re also highlighting an unsung hero in our bathroom renovation and exploring whether we’re all doing bathroom storage totally wrong. Plus, the app that may be bumping Instagram out of the top spot in Sherry’s heart. What’s New Over a whirlwind weekend, our house saw lots of foot traffic and at the end of it all… a signed contract! And boy are we grateful! The full story is in this week’s episode,

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Before & After Photos Of Our Bathroom Makeover & How Much It Cost

We waited over 6 years to start our bathroom renovation and now, nearly 6 months later, it’s fully completed! And you know what that means – the ensuite bathroom curse that we discovered over the last month definitely seems to be in play (more on that here). All jokes aside (but really, is the curse a real thing, because it seems like it might be?!), let’s put all of this waiting to an end and get to the goods. Including a source list and a full budget breakdown at the end of this post! Believe it or not, the “after” photo above was taken in virtually the same spot as the “before” picture below. As

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#165: The Dumb Thing We Did Before Listing Our House

We’re fessing up to an extremely poorly timed project that made our house look WORSE right before it hit the market. Whoops. Plus we share the smorgasbord of ways we’re selling our houses. All three are being sold differently (including some with and some without the help of a real estate agent). So we’re breaking down how and why we chose each route, including why we paid to have a “pre-inspection” done for our Richmond home and how that changed our preparations for listing the house. Plus Sherry talks about an unconventional (and completely accidental) way she decluttered her digital life. What’s New This is literally the cleanest, emptiest, cobwebless-est our garage has been since

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#164: How We’re Getting Our House Ready To Sell

With our big move only a few months away, what do we need to do to get our house ready to sell? This week we’re outlining some of the projects we’re taking on – both big and small – including the fast-tracked makeover of our hall bathroom. John also outlines a shopping challenge of his very own for 2020 that’ll push us to look more locally when we seek certain items. Plus, can a simple pen and paper save you money? We’re looking into an ancient budgeting method that promises to do so. Oh, and there’s an unintended rant about The Bachelor. What’s new If you missed our big news about moving last week, you

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Why We’re Downsizing To A Smaller House In A Warmer State

In case you haven’t had a chance to listen to this week’s podcast or read the transcript, we wanted to put our big news into an actual blog post. This is one of the biggest life changes we’ve made in the last decade, so we want to get everyone up to speed. And a huge thank you for all the support and encouragement you’ve shared for this new adventure of ours. We can’t wait to live with less, be outside a lot more, and eat even more fresh-caught shrimp than we ever thought possible. And yes, to everyone asking – we definitely plan to share more about downsizing, moving, renovating, and even things like feeling

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#163: Our Next Big Project (It’s REALLY BIG)

Wanna know what our next big renovation project is? Well, it’s actually something that we’ve been contemplating for years but finally have the courage to do (thanks in part to selling our duplex). So this week we’re breaking down why we want to do it, why we think now is the time, and why it has us feeling excited, sad, and inspired all at the same time. Plus it’s really going to put our fondness for simplifying to the ultimate test. And some recent travel hiccups led us to a few new books that we’re loving – and one that I’m looking forward to loving… as weird as that sounds. What’s New If you can’t

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How To Drill Through Tile

One challenge when building the floating shelves in our duplex kitchens was drilling through the tile backsplash. After all, we had just spent a lot of time and money installing all of this beautiful tile. We didn’t want to mess it up! Was it a little scary? Yes. But is it totally doable? Also yes. Let’s talk about it. Ideally, we would’ve hung our shelf supports before tiling. Buuuuuut we weren’t seeing eye-to-eye about where to (or even *if* to) hang shelves. Luckily we resolved our stalemate shortly after tiling (I won’t bother you with who was right… but let’s just that person is very handsome and very humble). We decided to install a chunkier

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#162: What Sherry’s Not Buying For An Entire Year

That’s right, there’s a new personal shopping challenge going on at our house – and this time Sherry has committed to skipping any purchases in a specific (and pretty wide category) FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR. We’re also talking with simplicity expert Emily Ley about how she combats “busyness” and creates more time and space in her life. She’s giving us tips on everything from tackling your family calendar to fun ways to get the kids involved in streamlining your days. And we’re sharing our favorite way to hang heavy objects quickly, without a lot of dust or tools – along with our new favorite guilty pleasure show that makes us laugh out loud (and even

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#161: Then Half Of Our Lights Went Out…

This week we’re sharing the mystery of how half of the power in our house suddenly went out when we were just about to leave the country on vacation. We’re also catching you up on the highs and lows of getting our bathroom nearly completed, including how the flu, a surgery, and a sudden deadline kept us on our toes. Plus, an illuminating update to our upstairs hallway and what we learned about “life admin” and how to better tackle it. What’s New First off, if you missed last week’s episode and our big duplex news, you can listen to it here or read a full transcript here. Sherry also referenced a previous episode about

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How To Make Built-In Pantry Shelves

I’m so excited to share how we constructed these built-in pantry shelving for our beach house. They’re surprisingly straightforward to construct and can be easily customized to any space, even if you’ve got a small pantry or simple pantry closet. They’re made entirely of two things: 3/4″ MDF sheets and 1 x 2″ pine boards (well, and some screws and nails). Plus, this process can be easily adapted to just about any space where you want to add some custom storage or shelving (bedrooms, playrooms, living rooms, etc). So even if you’re a beginner, you can do this. Seriously. Also, if you’re looking for more shelf ideas & DIY shelving projects, this post has 16

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