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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Fab Freebie: A Simplified New Year

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down for special discount and to see who won!*** If the words “simplify,” “organize,” “declutter” or “make more time for [blank]” will be showing up on your resolution list this year, boy do we have the giveaway for you. Simplify 101 provides all sorts of fun interactive tips and online workshops to help you achieve those goals, and this week a trio of you will win TWO free workshops. Our three winners can choose from any of the following workshops being held early next year: “Quick + Simple Clutter Control,” “How To Achieve Your Goals And Create A Life You Love,” “Organizing 101” and “It’s About

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How To Hang Your Shower Curtain Higher

By the time we unpacked our shower curtain last week, it had been 48 hours since either of us had showered. And those two days were filled with lifting heavy objects, if you catch our whiff drift. So hanging the shower curtain was a welcome step in our moving process. What was not so welcome? This result: You know we love hanging an extra long shower curtain all the way to the ceiling to add height to the room (the 95″ waffle curtain is from amazon.com and the 86″ fabric liner is from Bed Bath & Beyond by the way). But the trick doesn’t work so well when the tension rod you inherit is too

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How To Remove Bi-Fold Doors

Our new place sure has its share of bi-fold doors. Like this pair sectioning off the future dining room and the main hallway (see a floor plan here to get your bearings): And this nearby set that closes off the hallway that leads to most of the bedrooms (we removed one door to get the daybed through on moving day): Then in our bedroom we’ve got another big set closing off the bathroom sink area… …and a single bi-fold door right next to it closing off the walk-in closet. That doesn’t even include all of the bi-folds that close off the other three bedroom closets. So basically… yeah, there’s a lot of ’em. And unfortunately

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Fab Freebie: Skil-ly Weather

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!*** I won’t lie. When the folks at Skil wanted to offer up one of their tools this holiday season, we had trouble picking out the perfect prize for you guys. Then they offered to give away a four-tool-tastic combo pack so we didn’t have to make that call. Nice, right? So this week’s winner will be scoring all four tools pictured above, which are officially dubbed the 18V Lithium Ion Cordless 4-Tool Combo Pack. Which means the drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw, and flashlight all work off of the same rechargeable battery. So here’s how you can snag this last minute

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Monday The 13th

You don’t even know the half of our moving day adventure. We glossed over it because we knew you deserved empty shots of our old place and pics of the new house’s interior – but we couldn’t let this story go untold. So take a moment to pantomime the buckling of your seatbelt and get ready to enjoy the ride. As we mentioned earlier, the day started off with an unexpected surprise: a snowstorm. And even though it wasn’t a Friday, the thirteenth of this month (aka Monday) surely lived up to its less than lucky reputation. Which is so not a good thing when it’s closing/moving day. Sure the snow was pretty, but it

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Did We Make A Profit Selling Our First House?

Are you kidding? In this market? Of course not. We managed to sell it for around $5k more than we bought it for back in 2006 (in “the bubble”) and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we spent more than five grand on improvements (we estimate that we spent around $35K on new bathrooms, a new kitchen, new flooring, new windows, a new roof, a new patio, a paved driveway, and upgraded details like crown molding and wider doorways). This is where a “womp-womp” sound effect would come in handy. But we’re sleeping like babies and are downright giddy about the sale of our house and the purchase of our new one.

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How To Make “Baby’s First Christmas” Silhouette Ornaments

Back when we admitted to putting up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving (oh the shame) a bunch of you asked if Clara was getting a special “First Christmas” ornament. Well, we finally got around to DIYing one right before moving boxes took over our house (at which point we got so caught up in packing that we neglected to write this post, which is why it’s getting posted about a week after our tree came down). Oops. Anyway we decided to make something silver so it would have a good chance of matching our tree for years to come (we tend to use some element of silver since we have so many silver ornaments and

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Everyone Loves A Freebie…

Ain’t free stuff awesome? If it weren’t, why would Oprah’s audiences blow a gasket on national TV every year when she says “Faaaay-vo-rit thiiiiiings!” But enough about Ms. Winfrey (Sherry’s perma-smiling over here, because Oprah’s her jam). We’re bringing up freebies because we’re making a swag related declaration. Moving forward, we’re just saying no. We’ll still offer up free house stuff to you guys in the form of our weekly giveaways, but we’re not going to accept products or services for our casa at any special “blogger discount” or for free – even if we genuinely love them. We have absolutely nothing against other bloggers who do (it’s definitely an obvious perk of the job)

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Fab Freebie: Gifts In Bloom

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won (and check out a special discount!)*** It’s the season of giving, aka: the season of gifting. Which is why this week’s giveaway from GiftTree.com should come in handy. Fresh blooms always make a room feel more festive and inviting, especially around the holidays. And GiftTree has a great selection of florals with some holiday flair: And no worries if you’re having trouble deciding whether to send a bouquet to your loved one or just to yourself. The $100 gift card that’s up for grabs means you can actually do both. Here are all the dirty deets: PRIZE: An $100 gift card

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