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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Buying Rugs For Our House

It feels like the last few months have been The Age Of Rugs. We got this one from a local outlet for our bedroom… … this one from Urban Outfitters for our kitchen… … and just got this one from Joss & Main for our office…   It was actually kind of hard to find an 100% jute rug that was 6 x 6, so when this guy came up for $89 (down from $150) we finally pulled the trigger.  Especially since Pottery Barn sells a nearly identical one for $129 down from $149 and Overstock has something similar for $115. We had always wanted something round to soften all the angles in the room

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Outdoor Updates And A Landscaping Tour

It’s yard tour time, baby! Every year we try to take a few video tours of the inside of our house, just to look back on how it has evolved (you can check those out here). And we even made a little outdoor tour post last year, complete with a full video of John bush-wacking his way around our yard. So we thought it would be fun to make that an annual tradition. Just so we can see how the exterior of our house is evolving as we tackle projects big (like the patio and the deck) and small (like all of the transplanting/seeding/weeding that we do – more on that here). The funny thing

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Cutting The Posts Off Our Canopy Bed

Yup, we finally gave Ed a little haircut. For over a year and a half we tried to work with the posts on Ed the bed, but the realization that we didn’t have a lofted ceiling or a floor plan that made sense of those big dramatic posts slowly worked its way into our conscious and we finally decided that just because Ed was born with long hair posts doesn’t mean that a little haircut is cruel and unusual bed punishment. So here he is before… … during… … and after… This whole bed-trimming project was free, took about an hour of work, and we totally dig the more open look. It was just too

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Finding The Right Spot For The Bed In A Bedroom

First lets rewind to this post where I said “As for if the bed can move, the floor plan of this room is a definite challenge thanks to “things” on each wall (two very off-centered windows, a nook across from the door, and a nook with the sink tucked into it on another wall – and a chandelier in the exact center that looks off if the bed isn’t in the right place). So we’ve tried the bed in a bunch of spots, but the place that works best for us is where it lives now (it’s the only long flat wall in our entire room).” Well, after seeing a few inspiring glossy mag photos,

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Our Anniversary Photo Tradition

Deck progress drags on, so we’ll be back with more details for you on Monday (wish we had more full days to devote to it, but it’ll probably be a weekly update situation like our first house’s bathroom reno and our kitchen redo since it’s such a big undertaking). But I just couldn’t resist sharing this in-progress picture of John and his dad telling the auger who’s boss: Oh but the time it’s taking us to build this deck isn’t what I meant by the title of “half a decade” (at least we hope it won’t take us five years to get ‘er done). That has to do with our five year wedding anniversary, which

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House Crashing Update: Kelly’s Outdoor Escape

We had tons of fun House Crashing Kelly Moore last May (you can see the whole shebang here)… … so when she told us she had made some outdoor updates, we couldn’t wait to check out this little haven that she created out on her deck. Complete with outdoor drapes, a hanging egg chair (from Ikea), some colorful seating (from CB2) , and lots and lots of potted plants  – it definitely has serious come-hither charm. We especially loved the leaning pallet planter that she DIYed with hose clamps from the home improvement store. Some pallets have chemicals in them while others are more naturally sealed (with heat) so they’re less questionable for outdoor crafts

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Window Shopping At World Market

We’re doing our best to keep our word to those who have requested more window shopping posts, so we decided to keep the fun going by hitting up World Market (and taking you with us). For those who remember these things, we just stroll around a store (we’ve done big chains, small local shops, and even random little stores that we find while road-tripping) and take photos of all of the things we love. Not for compensation or anything – these sprees are just for fun. So let’s all go skipping through World Market together, shall we? First there were the pretty drinking glasses that were the reason for our visit (we got a few

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How To Remove An Old Shower Tile Border

We no strangers to removing unsightly trees. In fact, taking care of the dead/dying/dangerous trees that we were warned might fall on our first house during our home inspection was a big part of the transformation of the front yard. But taking out these particular trees was a new challenge… because they were in the form of tile in our bathroom: We’ve never been crazy about the beige-on-beige color scheme going on when it comes to the tile in that bathroom, but at least most of it is neutral enough to not call that much attention to itself. Except for that tree-tacular border. Every time we walk in the opening chant from The Lion King

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Adding Bright Red Adirondack Chairs To Our Side Patio

Enough about our colorful stools… …and on to our newest set of colorful chairs. Oh yes, we’re officially on a bold-colored seating kick. Remember we already have these $35 thrift store guys that we gussied up with green paint and fresh upholstery in the office? And this zero dolla (holla!) hand-me-down highchair for Clara that we happied up with some sunny yellow paint? Apparently it’s nothing but the best brightest for our buns. And this might be kind of shocker, but this time… we’ve gone red! A pretty tomato red, to be exact. And it looks pretty darn tasty with the blue hydrangeas around the paver patio that we DIYed last May. When we shared

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How To Spray Paint Metal Stools

Well, after reading every last one of the 750+ suggestions you guys left on this post (no doubt about it – there are definitely a million ways we could have gone with these guys!) and putting lots of thought into pretty much every possibility under the sun, we ended up going with our very first instinct. A chipper turquoise-y-teal tone. So here’s the rundown of how we transformed these basic $32 stools from an online supply store. The funny thing is that there were probably the most votes for blue from you guys too (closely followed by yellow). Although there were definitely suggestions for a ton of other options (four different colors, tones like orange/coral/purple/pink, upholstered

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A Rug For The Kitchen

Our new kitchen rug has arrived! Yes, it was actually something we ordered online, which is somewhat nerve-wracking since finding a rug for this spot has proven difficult so far (although we have had success with online rug orders before). But based on what we learned from our little rug fashion show, we were pretty confident that we’d figured out the winning formula. At least we were hopeful… The “winning” rug was actually from Urban Outfitters. The color, pattern, and price were all great – so we thought we’d give it a shot. With a spring discount code they were running, it came to just $69 with shipping – which is obviously a lot cheaper

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Picking A Color For Our Metal Stools

Me + a picture of our kitchen + photoshop = this post. Back in December when we bought our kitchen stools (from a school supply store for $32 a pop) we mentioned we were entertaining a number of ways to tweak them down the line (painting them, upholstering/staining the seat, etc) but just couldn’t shake the feeling that we should live with them a while first – just to make sure we weren’t doing anything rash in the middle of a kitchen remodel. We basically wanted the room to come together, live with them a little, and then make the call. It was actually really nice how they tied into the stainless appliances, felt kind

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