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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How To Make 30 All Natural & Eco Friendly Cleaners

And now we’ll continue the cleaning chit-chat with this handy little homemade cleaner breakdown. When we talked about getting even greener and experimenting with homemade cleaners in year three of YHL, an expert in that very area offered up a few of her favorite formulas. And we jumped at the chance to learn how all natural and totally eco-friendly cleaning materials are easy and effective- and sometimes way cheaper than paying for the more toxic stuff that can hurt pets, kids, people in general and the planet at large. Here’s what Evan the all-knowing homemade cleaner girl passed along: This has become an obsession for me. If you think of your home as a sanctuary

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Ditching Swiffer Dusters For Microfiber Cloths

We did it. After a few months of passively wishing that we were using reusable microfiber cloths to dust our house (instead of disposable Swiffer duster pads) we finally made the switch. We’re use-up-what-you-have-before-getting-something-new people, so we were counting down those last few Swiffer pads until the box was finally empty (here it is in our recycling bin)… …and we could replace them with a five pack of white microfiber cloths (snagged for just $5 at TJ Maxx). Why is this big news for us? Well since we were going through a few Swiffer duster pads a week (remember our detailed cleaning rundown right here?) we realized that if microfiber cloths are just as good

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How To Organize Home Inspiration Images

Q: I am wondering how you keep all your decorating ideas and images organized. Do you keep all the magazines and catalogs with good design ideas (if so how do you organize them?). Do you cut out images? Do you keep everything electronic or scan in images? Just wondering because I always want to keep lots of inspiring decorating ideas but then never know how to organize them or find them again without allowing the clutter to get overwhelming. Love the blog! -Lindsay A: Good question! Of course I used to have piles and piles of torn out pages from glossy shelter magazines sitting around waiting to be filed or flipped through. But a few years ago I

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15 Ways To Save Energy (& Money)

It’s October 15th and that means we’re back to share some earth friendly info courtesy of Almost-Doctor Dan for Blog Action Day 2009 (click here for more details on the big event). Since we consistently cover ways to live greener and give back to the planet (we have an entire section devoted to Eco Living on our How To page) this little online event seemed to fit right in, but we really wanted to go beyond ever-present eco encouragement like “use CFLs!” and “don’t forget to recycle!” (which are both great suggestions, they’re just a bit tried and true). So we looked no further than my brainy scientist brother to see what sorts of things

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An Amazing Exterior Update

When Casey sent us these almost unbelievable photos of his home’s exterior makeover we couldn’t wait to share the goods. Here’s his letter: I’m a huge fan of your website and your remodeling. It’s simply awesome. I just bought my first house, and it was built in 1925. It’s in Dallas, Texas, and was completely remodeled in 2006. While I can’t take credit for everything that was done, I wanted to share the exterior before and after pictures. They’re pretty cool, I think. Urban Strong is the name of the company that did the renovations. They are based out of Dallas, TX. I’m just the lucky beneficiary of their fine work. Best regards and many

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The Floor Plan Of Our Ranch Home

We had so much fun showing you the ins and outs of our house’s exterior layout back in June, that we’re back to share Casa Petersik’s actual interior floor plan. We know it’s pretty hard to picture how rooms flow into one another when you’re looking at a series of photos (like the before & afters on our House Tour page), so here’s hoping this makes some sense out of the three bedroom, one and a half bathroom brick ranch that we call home… Of course the house didn’t start out as a three bedroom (remember we moved our dining area into the living room and converted the formal dining room into a third bedroom

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How To Make Paper Bats For Lamp Shades

Last week’s Halloween fun didn’t end with that post. In fact we had a few more easy (and cheap!) ideas up our sleeves so we’re back to share the goods. First we took another little Martha Stewart trick and added black bat silhouettes to the insides of our living room lamps: And it was really easy. Here’s how we did it in under ten minutes using stuff we already had around the house (total cost: $0.00). First I sketched out bat shapes (inspired by a quick google search) on small white pieces of paper (tip: it helps to cut the paper into rectangles that are about the size that you want your finished bats to

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We Smell Some New DIY Projects…

We’re super psyched to announce that True Value has put together a little DIY blog squad and we actually made the cut! Yes that weird flesh squeezing sound accompanied by a soft whimper is us pinching ourselves. We’re among some pretty amazing fellow bloggers so we’ve both got jazz hands over being in such good company (one hand is pinching while the other one is jazzing). Check out our fellow squad members: Our girl Katie over at All Bower Power Layla & Kevin from The Lettered Cottage Josh over at Bungalow 23 Brian & Paul with The Handyguys Podcast Quite a bevy of brilliant bloggers, no? In fact we’re sort of spinning our wheels when

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Why Antibacterial Soap Is Harmful

Every once in a great while we’re given the opportunity to share something that could actually help the planet even if just one in ten people who read our blog put it into practice (like toting reusable shopping bags or collecting rainwater in a barrel). And this, my friends, is one of those times. Please feel free to pass this info on to your friends and family members! And who do we have to thank for this wealth of information that just might change the world as we know it (or at least change your impact on the planet from this day forward)? Why none other than my über intelligent little brother Dan (also affectionately

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