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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House Crashing: Swanky Panky

We made some pretty awesome progress on the deck this weekend – even with a big water main break right in front of our house, which resulted in gallons of water rushing down the road until we discovered it and phoned it in. The result? Five men working for around seven hours (with our street’s water turned off) to fix it via a giant hole that they dug in the corner of our yard/the road. Yikes! But they got ‘er done, and the neighborhood rejoiced (running water is totally one of those things you take for granted until it’s gone –  like electricity and Oreos). So all is right with the world again (the water’s

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Shopping Ikea’s New Stuff

Dude, my last trip to Ikea made me weak in the knees (especially since they rolled out a bunch of new stuff) so I took a bunch of photos for ya. Not for compensation or anything – these sprees are just for fun. So here’s a little virtual store tour for ya. Let’s get down to bid-ness. Check out this gorgeous chair. I want him. Bad. This guy is the Storsele and it’s $119. The black lacquer-ish finish had me at hello. There were also these beauties: Hogsten ($89.99) & Storsele in yellow ($119.99). Doesn’t that sound like a fancy store that sells… ties? Or cigars? Welcome to Hogsten & Storsele. It has a nice

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Outdoor Deck Furniture & Accessories

A bunch of folks have asked for a little deck mood board, just to see what we’re imagining when this beast of a project is actually complete (oh man, that might make our year). Of course since money is tight and we have yet to finish furnishing the patio that we built last year, we won’t have this thing thrown together overnight (which means any or all of the items on this board could sell out before we get to snag them all – wah!) but here’s what I’m loving today, just so you guys can start to picture it… 1. This fun indoor/outdoor pillow from World Market is really pretty, dontcha think? And at

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A Series Of Unfortunate Events

First there was a fortunate event. We found a giant piece of art in a pretty wood frame selling for $20 at a yard sale in our neighborhood. And when I say giant, I mean giant. It’s over 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. The only issue with it was there was a small dent in the frame, which is totally not a big deal for us, so we went for it. John wasn’t really a huge fan of the painting itself, but we figured you couldn’t even get a canvas this big and build a wood frame around it for $20, so it was a good deal if only for the “base” that

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What We Registered For When We Got Married

Q: Hey guys!! I find that I often look to you all on things DIY related, but more often than not, on things life related. I would love to hear items in or around your house that you are so glad you own because it helps with the day to day. I really enjoyed reading about how you saved money with Clara (what items you skipped out on or decided to go back and buy) and how you saved money with your wedding. I am getting married next June and it would be super helpful to hear what things my fiance and I should register for (and what we shouldn’t). You guys are my favorite!

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How To Paint An Old Egg Chair

I have officially hatched my evil egg chair plan (mwah-hah-hah). Sorry, couldn’t resist an ovum-related pun. Anyway the $30 thrift store can’t-believe-it’s-mine egg chair that I mentioned late last week got cleaned up, first with a nice liquid deglosser wipe down, and then with some spray primer + spray paint. About ten minutes after I snapped this grody before photo with the old cushion on it in our sunroom… … I had him out in the yard ready for a little somethin-somethin. Although the orangey-wood tone above doesn’t actually look bad in the picture, in person he just looked dated and a bit dilapidated (thanks to the caning that was missing on both sides of

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A Green & Gray Living Room

It all started when I was going back through old posts looking for a link to something when I came across this old forgot-about-it mood board of yore. It was made about a month before we moved into our second house (back in 2010) and featured this board with the words “we have no idea what our future living room will actually look like, but today this is what I’m loving.” I thought it was pretty funny that 20 months later, after completely forgetting about making it, we have lots of gray and green going on, and even specifically have a big gray sectional, a green rug, and the exact same zebra pillows (scored about

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Buying A Thrift Store Egg Chair

I have been obsessed with egg chairs for at least a decade since seeing this hanging one in Domino magazine back in college and this guy from Marie Claire Maison (their French house-related magazine) who has also been in my desktop inspiration folder for at least five years. So as you can imagine, every time I’m in a thrift store I’m on the eternal egg chair hunt. I dream of hanging one in our sunroom next to the daybed for Clara (or me) to swing around in without killing ourselves. Not sure if we can handle it, but the universe has taken some safety measures and insured that every time I look I have no

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Window Shopping: Beachy Shops & Thrift Stores

Last week I promised a post about all the window shopping slash actual shopping that we did during our week at the beach with the fam. And that includes the two items we actually purchased: the whale sign for Clara’s room (made from wood, a five year anniversary material)… … and the thrift store basket that I’d love to turn into a hanging pendant somewhere in our house (more on those items here). But I owe you guys the rest of the eye candy that we perused, so here we go. As we mentioned, we stopped at the Ole Sale Barn in Maryland where we found the L-turned-7 in our office last Labor Day. And that’s

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Painting The Bedroom Rockport Gray

The deed is done! Rockport Gray is all up in this hizzy. We love how much more things like the extra thick crown molding and the trim around the doors and windows pops now that the color is deeper and more… sleepy? Can you describe a bedroom color that way? In love. It’s such a mutating color. Sometimes it looks lighter and grayer. And sometimes it looks moodier and more mocha. We think it looks especially good with our cheap-o Ikea curtains (Vivan panels for $9 a pop) and other crisp white things, like this old side table from our first house’s den and the white lamp shade on our floor lamp. So yeah, we

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Finding The Perfect Medium Gray Wall Color

Yup, we went for it. We slapped up two paint colors that we love (and already had on hand) in our bedroom to see if darker walls (which is something John that has been campaigning for over the last few months) is the way to go. Remember when we poorly photoshopped it a while back? Except picture it more brown-gray, like a putty color (instead of blue-gray), since there are plenty of colors in the rug and the bedding already. We tried one of our favorite smoky gray colors (Gray Horse by Benjamin Moore) which is under the chair rail in the office and also tried the darker and moodier color that’s more of a

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How To Decorate A Dining Room Buffet

Yes, that’s an SNL reference. But before I go any further I have to say thanks and I love you to you guys. Your kind words from this morning have literally lifted me up on a day that has been soggy and sad. You guys rock. Hard. Now onto a very important post that many of you have requested. Photos of what I put on our new craigslist buffet. I tried to pick a variety of items that are functional and special to us (hence the title of this post). So this is what the entryway looks like now: And just for fun, this is what it looked like when we laid eyes on our

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