Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Posts by Sherry Petersik

Sherry Petersik is one half of the duo behind the award-winning home improvement and do-it-yourself design blog, Young House Love. Together, she and her husband John 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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Green Aventurine: Crystal Meaning & Properties

Green aventurine is a special type of quartz that’s characterized by sparkling metal fragments embedded within it. It’s found in a variety of colors, but green is the most common (and my personal favorite!). Like its color might indicate, it’s thought to be the luckiest gemstone and is said to bring prosperity and good fortune to those who hold it. I definitely love decorating my shelves and tabletops with it. The subtle green color is just gorgeous. What is Green Aventurine? Aventurine is a form of quartz that’s characterized by mineral inclusions that give the crystal a shimmering or glistening appearance. This effect is called “aventurescence.” Different kinds of mineral impurities produce different shades of

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A Quick Way To Hang Curtain Rods

Here’s a simple trick we used to hang curtain rods FAST and EVELY in our duplex rental. We had 16 curtain rods to hang in one afternoon, so we devised a simple & free way to minimize measuring, while keeping everything looking level and equally spaced. This should take a lot of the headache out of hanging new curtains, especially if you’re doing more than one window in your room. Plus, the trick is totally free! For this installation, we’re using affordable curtain rods like these that you can get at most big box stores and these ring clips. We also are hanging simple $14 white Ikea curtain panels using this trick for making Ikea

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Fiddle Leaf Fig – Care Guide

Fiddle leaf figs are equally beloved and notorious in the houseplant world. When they’re big & healthy, a fiddle can make a room. We’ve all seen the glossy magazine shots to prove it. But they can also leave you feeling like a good-for-nothing plant killer when they droop & die. Luckily I’ve got some simple methods to keep your fiddle leaf fig happy, thriving, and looking its best. Fiddle leaf figs (Ficus lyrata) are native to African rainforests, so they thrive in sunny and humid environments. So the better you can recreate those conditions for it in your home, the happier it will be. That’s why keeping a fiddle leaf fig alive boils down to three

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Blue Calcite: Crystal Meaning & Properties

Blue Calcite is a rare version of an otherwise common mineral – and it’s one of my favorites to collect! Calcite is found all around the world and is a key ingredient in limestone, marble, and other building materials. Blue calcite, on the other hand, is a beautiful crystal that’s less common and is said to have calming properties. It definitely has a peaceful look to it – like a soft blue sky or peaceful blue waters. I have several blue calcite crystals in my home, like the large one on the open shelves in our bedroom. Their rich moody color and polished surface looks good with everything, and definitely adds a nice calming vibe.

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2022 Holiday Gift Guides

Did Christmas come early this year? Nope! But our annual gift guides did (by a smidge, at least). So, without further ado… let’s dive into the 3 categories that we cover every year, which are all here in just one post: Gift Ideas for Grown-Ups Gift Ideas for Kids Gift Ideas Under $12.99 It’s probably helpful to mention that nothing was sponsored/gifted in order to get into this guide. If something’s in here, we just genuinely love it (and in many cases, already own it and can vouch for it). Each list also includes some things that we plan to give a friend or family member this year, and a few things we’d love to

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How To Pack Light For Paris

Walking onto the plane carrying just a duffel and a purse for 7 days in two different areas of France (and a stop in Germany!) was my goal. And here I am standing at the airport, right after John dropped me off and took this shot. Yup. Just a purse and this duffel. I did it (with space to spare!). And because I’m nothing if not a minimal wardrobe hype woman (more on that here), please allow me to sensually tip your head back and shout directly into your mouth: “knowing how to maximize your options without dragging your entire closet with you is a real actual life hack.” So read on to see how

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We Downsized – And Here’s What We Kept

Settle in. This post is a DEEP DIVE. One of those long detailed dissection/reflection posts that feels like the blogging days of yore. So if you love those & wanna grab a cup of coffee and go on a little journey with us – today’s the day. We’re about to dive into: This whole post idea came to us when we were in our downstairs sitting area recently and we realized that a lot of the furniture hadn’t moved with us from our previous house in Richmond. The loveseat, the chairs, and the coffee table were all purchased after we moved here to fit precisely into this new smaller sitting area that we slowly figured

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Adding Storage To A Small Kids Bedroom

When we thought about all the functions that would be helpful to have in our son’s bedroom, which can definitely be described as “cozy” when it comes to the size (real talk: this room is small), he needed: We definitely could have pulled the “your room is really small for a desk, not sure we can do that” card – but we thought it was worth a try thanks to the idea of customizing a built-in desk right next to the bed that could double as a nightstand. And low and behold, it worked like a charm. So yes, this small room has everything on that list we shared. A bookshelf, a desk (that also

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Our Minimized Holiday Decor

It’s wild to think that this is our second year of decorating this house for the holidays (what even is time?!). You got a peek at some of it in our new kitchen door post, but today we’re gonna show it all! I’d describe Year Two in this house for the holidays as a more minimal Christmas but still a festive one. Last year we got a mini real tree for upstairs in the family room as well as putting up our skinny faker (that’s what I affectionately call this tree right here) in the bedroom. But this year we had a more central spot for our main tree… right in the nook our new

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Adding A Door To The Kitchen

There’s been a big change in our kitchen! As in, new-hole-in-the-house kind of big! Okay, so really it’s just a new door. But that’s big, right??? Our last post covered all the photos and angles of the new kitchen porch we created outside – just steps away from our cooking area inside. So let’s take a look at what went down inside. It’s always fun to rewind, so if we take a step back in time, this is the kitchen as it looked when we bought this house in Feb of 2020: We talked about our initial updates to the room waaaaay back in this post from May of 2020 (before we moved in). And

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How To Make A Faux Sheepskin Seat Cushion

We used some quick and easy upholstery techniques to add some softness and texture to a storebought bench in our family room. We even knocked it out just in time for the holidays, adding to the coziness of this room! We scored this woven bench at HomeGoods mostly because it was the right size and we liked the woven texture. But as soon as we got it home, it was clear that the netted texture of the bottom was less-than-desirable. It wasn’t scratchy, just felt – I dunno – like you were sitting on a bunch of ropes. You can see in this post about the storage unit that we immediately threw some leftover sheepskin

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