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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Wedding Week III: It’s Baaaaaack

Yup, our third annual Wedding Week is upon us thanks to our upcoming anniversary this Wednesday. And it’s hard to believe that yet another year has flown by, especially since our DIY backyard wedding (held right here at Casa Petersik on 7.7.07) still feels like it was yesterday. Of course most of you have already read all about our wedding by clicking that tab under our blog header, and we’ve used Wedding Week I and Wedding Week II to describe things like our courtship, our engagement, and our honeymoon in detail. We even divulged home related DIY projects, like how I dyed my wedding dress… …and how we commemorated our nuptials with a shadow box

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Squeezing In Playroom Into Our Office

As if our 10′ x 10.5′ home office / guest bedroom didn’t have enough requirements (must accommodate two bloggers 50+ hours a week and sleep two people comfortably every now and then all while keeping our paper clutter tucked out of sight) we ambitiously decided to force yet another function on the space: playroom. We wish we could dedicate an entire room to that playroom title, but with three small bedrooms – one serving as the master, another as the nursery, and the third one being this room – we had to face the music and make it work a la Tim Gunn. So we decided that along with making a lot of rug space

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Picking The Right Paint Finish

Picking the perfect paint finish is all about learning the pros and cons of each one and then exercising your right to choose. In other words, it’s one part knowledge and one part personal preference. Here’s a little rundown of paint finish possibilities along with a few facts about each one to help you hone in on the one that’s right for you. Flat paint: This is a great choice for hiding imperfections in your walls and it’s by far the easiest to touch up. The cons are that many people say that it shows more wear than its more wipe-able counterparts (like eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, and gloss) but we have found that with a

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How To Warm Up A White Kitchen

After our big kitchen renovation we were left with a nice polished looking room, but the space still felt so bare and devoid of warmth and personality… and we just didn’t know where to start. Slowly we amassed some great items that gave our new kitchen a lot more character and charm. Whew. So we’re here to share a few simple (and cheap) ways to up the ante in your kitch with eye-pleasing and functional additions that will look good while providing convenience and usability to boot. 1. Jars for cereal. We got ours for $6.97 each at Walmart last October and we love that we can easily pour our cheerios or granola (which they

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How To Clean Your House Faster

We’ve already shared a slew of homemade cleaning recipes, and chatted about our own housekeeping habits, but we’re back with an error proof roundup of fast and easy fixes to leave you with a sparkly clean casa in no time. And perhaps best of all, these are all 100% free solutions, assuming you have some basics on hand, and each suggestion has three steps or less to keep things oh so doable. But enough chit chat. Let the cleaning frenzy begin! Oh and just to demonstrate how easy and speedy they really are, we’re including a handy little timetable, so you can pick a cleaning time span (either 7 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or

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Using Wall Panels To Make A Headboard

When Jennae sent over her bedroom before and after photos we had to share her DIY headboard project. Here’s her letter: My husband and I live in a rental, we’re on a budget, and we love all things green (as indicated by my blog) – so decorating the bedroom wasn’t the easiest task. Our biggest challenge was what to do for a headboard. We searched the web for headboard ideas & tutorials (including yours) and then I finally remembered a product I’d featured on my blog a while back: Wall Flats from Inhabit Living. Wall flats are essentially paintable 3-dimensional wallpaper, although it feels more like stiff lightweight cardboard. They’re made of bamboo pulp and

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Our House In Pasadena?

Ok, so this is right up there with the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen in our past almost-three-years as bloggers. Recently a reader (thanks Sara!) wrote alerting us that she had seen photos of our living room and guest bedroom on a vacation rental site called Airbnb. And apparently the “landlord” was claiming that they were photos of their house in Pasadena- and charging $48 a night with priority to anyone who booked it for one or two weeks straight (to the tune of $336 to $672) since they “received so much interest.” Isn’t that weird???? What happens when people get there and it doesn’t look like that? Or maybe it doesn’t get that far

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A Sunny Bouquet

As most of you know, every month we like to enjoy one inexpensive- and sometimes free- bouquet to keep things feeling fresh around here (the idea actually stemmed from a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs a while back). And this month John actually came home with a bouquet thanks to the fact that for the first time ever, he went grocery shopping without me. We always run errands like that together, but since Clara was just two and half weeks old at the time, us girls opted to stay behind and send daddy out for food on his own. Guess what? He survived without us (the nerve). And of course it was a

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Space Planning 101: Five Ways To Plan A Room Layout

Q: I need help with space planning! Just your tip in the comment section of Ania’s design dilemma to “let the room breathe” made me realize that I’m so guilty of filling ever available inch of wall space. I need to edit some rooms! I’d love to get a post on space planning and room flow somewhere down the line! – Threadbndr A: This is such a good question, and a topic that we’ve been meaning to tackle for ages. First we’ll include the comment that Threadbndr is referring to in her question above. Someone asked what we thought Ania should stick in the bottom right corner of the room (between the desk, #10, and

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Making A Silver Wall Stencil That Looks Like Wallpaper

When one of our favorite paint prodigies sent over photos of her recent transformation we couldn’t wait to share them. Here’s her letter: Hi guys! I just wanted to send you this recent project I did because I thought the colors and style screamed “Young House Love.” I came up with the pattern and design on my own- then I made a custom stencil to achieve the pattern. I was really happy with the end result (which looks like wallpaper, but with WAY less hassle!). Hope you like it! – Kristen Here’s the room before Kristen worked her magic: And here’s the room after Kristen’s amazing paint project: Didn’t she do a fantastic job? We

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Making An Ikea Bookcase Look Built In

We mentioned a few times that we wanted to get a bookcase for the office/guest room/playroom since they’re so great for storing things, displaying things, and adding some architecture and height. We thought a bit about placement and quickly realized that the area to the left of the uncentered window on the far wall of the room would be the best place for a bookcase, so we headed off to Ikea with the measurements of that wall on a little scrap of paper in my purse. And in a few short hours we found ourselves assembling our $69 Billy bookcase: We actually checked out a few other Ikea options (like the Expedit and the Lack

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12 Ways To Protect Your Home And Make It Safer

What’s the use of DIYing yourself silly and upgrading every inch of your house if you’re not going to protect it from bad guys and natural disasters? And there are so many simple ways that you can do just that. So here’s how we do our best to protect our precious home sweet home. 1. Opt for a safe deposit box. Ever since I was a young child and we got robbed (the bad guys stole all my Christmas money and a necklace that was handed down to me from my grandma) my mom has ingrained in me that you’ll never be sorry that you have a safe deposit box. It’s just a small fee

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