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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30 Non-Material Gift Ideas

I recently read that Ina Garten likes to give “disappearing gifts.” By this, she means consumable gifts that don’t take up room in the recipient’s home (maybe just some room in their stomachs). She noted that material gifts often come with an unintentional burden on the recipient to find space to use, store, or display an item. The easiest way avoid that? Give someone something that isn’t a thing at all! So here are 30 ideas for gifts that won’t take up any space at all – from experiences and edible delights, to subscriptions or meaningful charitable donations.

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Our Favorite Things of 2025

You asked and we answered! Yes, due to popular demand, we have put on our Oprah hats (are they berets? fedoras? what would Oprah wear?), and made a list of our favorite home/life/everything purchases from the past year. These are all items we bought with our own money and loved in 2025… so much so that when we took a look back, they stood out as some of our best buys and favorite additions to our life. So you’re still searching for holiday gifts (or struggling to tell someone what you want), this post might help.

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After Five Years Of Living Here – We’re Renovating!!

Cue the demo dust! After 5+ years of living in this house, we’re embarking on a renovation! Of course over the holidays (because we are nothing if not consistent). We’ve tackled some sizable projects over the last five years here, like adding a pool in 2021, gutting & rebuilding our kitchen in 2022, and replacing all of our windows & doors with hurricane grade ones two years ago… but this is the first time since we moved in that we’re removing walls and changing rooms. The chaos you see above is from early 2020, but actually some of those walls being open is a preview of the new view we’ll gain from our kitchen and living area downstairs! We are VERY EXCITED.

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2025 Holiday Gift Guides – For Adults, Kids, Teens, and Ideas Under $15!

They’re here, all in one post for you: our 2025 Holiday Gift Guides! They include everything from the things that we’re getting our own family & friends this year (from small businesses and Black-owned shops to big box stores) as well as things that we already own and love. Nothing has been gifted, nothing is sponsored, and they don’t know us from Adam – these are all just things we genuinely like. We arranged all of our gift ideas into the following three categories for you: Gift Ideas for Grown-Ups, Gift Ideas for Kids, and Gift Ideas that are $15 & Under.

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How I Packed Light For My Trip to Italy

Every time I go to Europe for a week with just one carry on (and a purse as my personal item) I get asked for a detailed rundown of how that’s possible. (There have been two times. That made it sound like I go every month.) But I’ve definitely worked out a packing method that allows me to travel lightly and have lots of outfit options that I love wearing.

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Making Pour Over Coffee At Home

We get a surprising number of questions about how we make our pour over coffee (and even requests for a video tutorial). We aren’t baristas by any means, but we love an easy, affordable, and delicious cup every day. So we’re sharing how our system checks all of those boxes – without ever tasting bitter or burned. Pour over is known to make better tasting coffee with less equipment & waste than electric coffee makers, but the process can sound intimidating – especially for beginners! Honestly, pour over is only as complicated as you want it to be. So we’ll show you just how easy it us for us to make. I do it every morning in just a few minutes. And I truly think it tastes better than many fancy coffee shops – so it saves me money!

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How To Get Rid Of Cat Allergies: What Worked For Me

Anyone who knows me is typically shocked when they learn that I now have – and sleep next to! – an actual real-life cat. Even I can’t believe it most days. But if you follow me on Instagram, you know my cat obsession is currently cranked to 11 and my cat possession currently stands at 1. So today I’ll share my personal experience about managing and essentially eliminating my cat allergy – including the products that have (and haven’t) helped.

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Boy Cat Names: 200 Names + Naming Tips

Based on the DM pet naming requests I’ve been fielding lately, many of you seem to be just as obsessed with pet names as we are. So today we’re rounding out our series with the last remaining category. We’ve shared posts full of ideas for girl dog names, girl cats names, and boy dog names – so last up we get to cover boy cats names! We’ve never owned a male cat together, but John has had two in his lifetime. His childhood cat Casper (named for his white coat) and his sister’s cat Monty (named for Montague Street in Brooklyn, where she lived at the time). So this list was a fun thought experiment, and who knows… with the way the universal cat distribution system works, we might end up with a male cat someday.

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Boy Dog Names: 200 Names + Naming Tips

Naming our first dog “Hamburger” (aka “Burger,” seen below as a new puppy) back in 2006 officially kicked off our obsession with unique pet names. So much so that we actually pitched a pet naming book concept to several literay agents before starting this blog (unsurprisingly, it was rejected). But we recently returned to our first love with posts rounding up 200 Girl Dog Names and 200 Girl Cat Names. So naturally, we are back today to continue with 200 name ideas for a boy dog. We’ve got everything from popular human names to quirky food names and more…

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Girl Cat Names: 200 Ideas + Naming Tips

We’re just as surprised as anyone that we officially own a cat. And to maintain balance in the universe (since we did a dog naming post) here is the cat version for all the cat people out there – INCLUDING US NOW! WILD! We’ve pulled together 200 ideas for naming a female cat or kitten, along with tips for picking the perfect name… or should I say purr-fect.

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Girl Dog Names: 200 Ideas + Naming Tips

Before we started this website, we actually pitched a dog naming book to a bunch of publishers. This is a completely true story. We had so much fun naming our first dog, Hamburger (aka Burger), it inspired us to write a book with more dog naming ideas. Sadly (but unsurprisingly), our proposal went nowhere… but our love of fun pet names persists. So whether you’re looking for something creative & unique, or just cute & meaningful, here are 200 girl dog names along with tips to keep in mind when naming your fur baby.

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Our Small Kitchen With Attached Living Area

I know a house always evolves to work with a family’s changing needs, but I’d say this kitchen and attached sitting area are as close to absolutely done as ever. In fact over the last two years they’ve held pretty steady – we did update the kitchen light to my dream chandelier that looks like bubbles at a beach sunset. And before that we finally settled on the right seating that fit perfectly into the seating area. But yeah, since then… settled! So it felt like it was finally time to share how it all turned out.

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