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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That Time Our Beach House Photobombed HGTV

Despite not even being close to finished, our beach house made its television debut on HGTV this past Sunday night! See it there on the right side of the screen? Our rotten siding basically worked its way into a solid 5% of the episode. We had no idea it was going to be on, hence Sherry cranking her excitement level up to 11 on Insta-stories that night for those of you who got to witness that (here it is below, in case you missed it): It was part of an HGTV show called Beachfront Bargain Hunt because the house RIGHT NEXT DOOR was one of the three homes the featured couple was considering (the show follows a

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Our New Project Is Gonna Knock Your You-Know-Whats Off!

The last year or so has felt a bit like a smorgasbord of side projects – a coloring book, a teacher’s lounge makeover, a podcast, new lighting designs, and a big ol’ beach house renovation. But behind the scenes, we Petersiks have had one more thing in the works for a while. And it definitely takes the proverbial “random project” cake. But we are so, so, SO excited to finally share it with you guys! We’re a shoes-off-at-the-door household, but there’s no denying that our feet felt a little chilly at times. Plus, just like you hang art or paint your walls to express your design personality – we though, shouldn’t your feet do the same thing? And thus the idea

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Updating The Bedroom With A Chandelier & A New Bed

It seems like every room in our house undergoes a gradual (and often never-ending) evolution, but our bedrooms seem especially prone to this slow-burn decorating process. Exhibit A: this old “Evolution Of A Bedroom” post that chronicled the meandering path of our bedroom in our last house. Exhibit B: this more recent one about the winding evolution of our daughter’s current bedroom. Well, if it pleases the court, I’d like to submit yet another bedroom into evidence: our current bedroom. (I don’t know why I doubled-down on the legal metaphor guys. Consider your objection sustained). bench / rug / plant / similar floor lamp, chair, pillow / garden stool / chandelier / art (top, bottom) When we bought the house, the room looked

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How To Fix A Rocking Toilet

The toilet in our hall bathroom has rocked a little bit from the day we moved in (the inspector even noted it on our little home inspection form). Some people can fix this with plastic shims or tightening bolts, but we quickly diagnosed the issue as a rusted bolt under the toilet flange. That’s a fix that requires removing the entire toilet and replacing the bolt, so it took us a while to get to this to-do task. But here’s how I finally decided to seize the day toilet and show this rocking throne who was boss! The process is similar to our toilet installation tutorial, but that project didn’t involve removing an old toilet

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Taking The Beach House Down To The Studs

We’ve shared some random details about our beach house progress here and there, but we’re waaaaay overdue for a giant picture-filled blog post about everything that has been going on over there, complete with our latest (and hopefully final) floor plans! Let’s just say that things are looking VERY different these days (you can check out the before pictures here and virtually walk through via this video tour). We definitely have the whole “sometimes it has to get uglier before it can get prettier” thing going on. As you can see from the photo above, we’ve demoed out all of the existing walls. The big “LEAVE” is not some horror-movie-style warning, just a note the contractor left for his crew so nobody

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Refinishing Our Hardwood Floors: Before & After

The new floors in our kitchen are easy to forget amidst all of the other big changes (a completely new layout! a wide doorway to the living room! new cabinets! new counters!). But every now and then we’re reminded that the floors are a HUGE reason that space – and heck, the entire first floor – feels so fresh, updated, and open. So we thought it might be helpful to recap the entire process, including time & cost, for anyone else who’s debating a similar upgrade. This before picture does a good job of demonstrating just how much of a difference the new floors have made. Yes, the photo below was taken from the same exact spot as the after shot

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Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet in the last couple of years, you’re probably well aware of a new generation of mail-order mattresses: Casper. Leesa. Tuft & Needle (just to name a few). They’re these affordable foam mattresses that ship straight to your door, magically unfurl on your bed, and promise an improved night’s sleep or your money back. Having been bombarded with that message for months (years?) we decided to jump on the bandwagon… but quickly second-guessed our decision. And so the “Is this The One?” mattress spiral was born. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been hesitant to write this post. We generally don’t like to spotlight products that don’t

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How To Make Long Reclaimed Wood Shelves

Long ago we promised more details about how we made the reclaimed wood shelves that we hung as part of our big kitchen remodel, so we’re finally back with every last measurement, stain method, and hanging tip. We hadn’t originally planned to put shelves there, but after our initial idea to display a large piece of art fell flat (literally – it felt like that wall needed more dimension) we turned our attention to shelves. Besides adding some storage for things in heavy rotation like drinking glasses (if you cycle through things fast enough they don’t have time to get dusty), Sherry has never met a shelf didn’t have fun accessorizing. Also, plants. Gotta love plants. These shiny

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How We Picked Our Pink House Color

Picking paint isn’t always easy, and boy did we have a hard time deciding on a beach house color. If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you probably saw us share a bunch of photoshopped options a few weeks ago that flashed by, slideshow-style, like this: And if you listen to our podcast, you’ve heard all about the house colors next door and the other factors that need to be taken into account (like not wanting to paint our original wood door, for example). All of that’s in Episode #28, which you can play below to get all caught up. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to

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2016 Rewind: Our Favorite Makeovers & Projects Of The Year

2016 was an interesting year, to say the least. Between starting a podcast, buying a beach house, creating a coloring book, and taking on various projects around here and beyond, well, there were lots of firsts. So we thought we’d end 2016 with a quick recap of the year’s highlights. Topping the list as our most memorable room makeover was this speedy space-themed bedroom update that we did for a local family whose young son Mason passed away suddenly (the bedroom that he shared with his older brother Hudson needed a refresh so that Hudson could work towards sleeping in there again). We’ve stayed connected to the family via Facebook, so they’ve been on our minds frequently throughout the year, and

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Behind The Scenes: Making A Coloring Book

Our coloring book has been out a couple of months now, and I realized we haven’t really talked about how it got made. I can’t say we ever really thought about how a coloring book is made, so finding ourselves in the middle of doing one was quite the surprise. In case you missed our previous mentions, Color at Home is an 80-page coloring book for adults, filled with everything from full room drawings, decorated vignettes, design mood boards, frameable art prints, and collections of things like pillows, chairs, and lighting. It’s $12.99, but places like Amazon have it for under $10 now (stocking stuffer alert!). We’ve got some peeks at it throughout this post, but you can

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Beach House Video Tour & Floor Planning

Thanks so much for all the sweet and excited comments over on IG & FB about our needs-lots-of-love beach house project (for anyone who’s like whaaaa??, here’s that post to get you up to speed). As promised, we’re back with the rundown on the floor plan, and what we’re currently thinking we’re going to do with it. Warning: we’ve been known to change our minds – so this is just the plan thus far. This house is like a giant iceberg that floated into our lives, and we are just at the tippy top of the thing, waddling around like excited penguins. But before we throw a bunch of floor plans your way, how about we

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