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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Easy DIY Window Plant Shelf

Let’s show you how we whipped up this CRAZY simple window plant shelf! You can make it in less than an hour & without any fancy tools, meaning you’ll be out shopping for more plans in no time. We even used some scrap wood we already owned, so the DIY project only cost us $2 to complete! We’ve put some greenery in this window, but adding the floating shelf gave us room for lots more! It adds some interest to a formerly non-descript window and the plants are super happy in the sunlight! You can see what it looked like previously along with all of our bathroom before and afters. Note: We recently had our

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Sherwin-Williams Pure White (SW 7005) – The Best Whole House White

Picking the perfect white paint can be a mind-numbing process. But after trying several, we’ve gone ALL IN on our one true favorite: Sherwin-Williams Pure White. It’s got all of the things you’re probably looking for in a crisp white, without any of the pitfalls that you run into with others (too bright! too gray! too yellowed!). Plus, it’s versatile enough to work on just about every surface of your home: walls, doors, trim, ceiling, cabinets, and more. Is Sherwin-Williams Pure White the best white? Anybody who has looked for white paint knows finding a “true white” is nearly impossible. Whites vary greatly depending on their undertones, often skewing yellow, pink, violet, or even green.

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Two Days In St. Petersburg Florida With Kids

Rather than take one big vacation this summer, we opted instead for a few short trips so we could experience more new places. We kicked things off with a 3-night trip to Charleston, SC, we met up my parents in the Georgia mountains in July, and then capped off the summer with a getaway to St. Petersburg, Florida. Sherry and I had only been there very briefly during this 2008 beach vacation, so we were excited to spend more time there and explore it with our kids. So here’s a quick recap of what we did, where we ate, and why we’re excited to go back. Where Did We Stay In St. Petersburg? St. Petersburg

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Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray: The Perfect Greige

We’ve used Edgecomb Gray in nearly every room of our home because it’s a warm, inviting, and versatile neutral. You might even call it the perfect greige paint color! It’s popular with designers and DIYers alike, whether you’re painting a living room, bedroom, kitchen cabinets, or even your siding. Let’s show you why. We’ve also scoured the Internet to find the best greige paint colors that experts recommend again and again (yes, Edgecomb Gray made the list!). The #1 spot did surprise us a little bit. But you’ll find some great alternative greiges if you want want to test a few. When should you use Edgecomb Gray? Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray (HC-173) is one of

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#183: What’s Next, House Vibes, & Yet Another Embarrassing Moment

We’re dropping this random pop-in episode to share one of the most embarrassing tales Sherry has ever told on this podcast. Of course it had to happen in the nicest house we’ve ever been in (in front of one of Sherry’s personal heroes). We’re also listing what’s left on our to-do list, and answering the much-asked question: what’s your next big project? Plus, we break down what feels different to us about this house compared to our last one (and the varied impressions you might get about us if you walked in without us being there). Lastly, we each share some recent home-related purchases and the books & tv shows that are keeping us laughing

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The 12 Best Haint Blue Paint Colors

We love a blue porch ceiling (something you very commonly see – especially in the south). In fact, we’ve painted our porch ceiling a light blue color in nearly all of our homes! The tradition of a blue porch ceiling actually has a name – “haint blue” – along with a rich cultural history and some very practical reasoning behind it. So let’s dive into how it started and why so many people love a haint blue porch. We’re also sharing some of the best haint blue paint colors if you’re looking for one for your porch. In addition to photos of our own homes, this post also features many haint blue porches we saw

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Easy Board & Batten Tutorial

Board and batten is one of our favorite, easy DIY projects. It’s completely beginner-friendly and it makes a big impact in any room, entry, or hallway. This is the 3rd house where we’ve installed this type of wainscoting, so we’ll show you our trick for making this project faster, easier, and less expensive than traditional board and batten! For this particular installation in our beach house, we did a higher board & batten and hung peel-and-stick wallpaper above it. It was exactly the mix of traditional & colorful that we were going for in this guest bedroom! What is Board & Batten? Board and batten originated as a style of exterior siding, but is also

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Adding Poured Concrete Walkways & A Driveway

As we mentioned in our post about making a bigger backyard pool area, we’ve also made some big changes out front. Namely, we now have a legit front walkway and driveway! Break out the champagne! Release the doves! Rewatch the #Scandoval episode of Vanderpump Rules (or whatever else people like Sherry do to celebrate). I know this may seem unworthy of celebration – a driveway? cool story, bro – but when you live without one for THREE YEARS, it feels like a major win. Why We Needed Parking & Pathways I know most houses come with a place to park your car and some sort of path to the front door. Every other house we’ve

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How We Doubled The Size (And Function!) Of Our Backyard Pool Area

For nearly a year, we’ve been in the process of reimagining our pool area as a bigger, more multi-functional space. You first saw it two years ago when we posted this behind-the-scenes of putting in a pool, along with lots of before & afters. We LOVE our pool and this area quickly became our go-to outdoor family hang-out spot. So back in Spring of 2022, we realized we could make it work even harder for us if we did one somewhat simple thing… moved one section of fencing back (thereby doubling the size!). It ended up being a bit more than just that, so I’ll take you through the various steps we took to maximize

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A Weekend In Charleston, SC With Kids

Last week our family took a last-minute, 2-day-3-night trip to Charleston, South Carolina and it was *chef’s kiss*. It was our first time there, and we arrived having done zero planning and no itinerary with the goal of exploring, enjoying the sights, and eating some good stuff along the way (spoiler: we achieved all three!). Honestly, it might have been our favorite weekend trip yet (tied with New Orleans). So here are all the places, activities, and meals that made our trip so great. Why We Vacationed In Charleston Ever since we moved to Florida three years ago, our family vacations have changed a bit. We used to almost always pick places with a beach

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Free Summer Reading Printable

With our kids’ summer break kicking off this weekend, we came up with a fun twist on our usual summer reading goals. We had the idea while playing “would you rather” on a family walk this morning, came home and whipped up a paper template, and an hour later Sherry mentioned it in passing on Instagram. Then Sherry’s DMs filled up with people asking her to share a copy of the bracket or tell them where we got it (we whipped it up in Photoshop), so we decided to drop two free printable options of it here in this post. I even had some fun myself, as a 41-year-old man, making this filled-out sample above

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Adding Ikea Floating Shelves In Our Bedroom

For over a decade, one of our renovating mantras has been “the middle makes no sense.” Basically, don’t fret if your house is mid-reno, not fully furnished, or otherwise in limbo. Take your time, try something out, and just course correct as you go. See what you like and what you use. Live with something for a little while (or a long while). Take the expectation of having a finished perfect house right away and throw it in the trash (it always takes us years to get to that point!). Just keep letting spaces evolve in ways that work for your family and make you happy. And eventually, you’re very likely to end up with

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