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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Money Saving Reno Tips With Michelle of 4 Men, 1 Lady

Something we love about the home-slash-DIY blogosphere is that no matter someone’s renovation budget, there almost always seems to be some great story of money saving. Whether it’s salvaging existing materials, shopping for steals, negotiating a deal, or simply doing it yourself, there are some great stories of frugality and ingenuity out there. So in that spirit we thought we’d periodically share some cash-monay saving tips from some of our favorite bloggers. And maybe we’ll sneak in some eye candy along the way. Sound good? First up is Michelle from the blog 4 Men, 1 Lady, who has always wowed us with her jaw-dropping transformations. But I should let Michelle take over so you can

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How To Make A Fabric Bed Canopy

*Thanks so much for all of the kind words and the love that you guys shared after yesterday’s post. It was so touching to read all of your stories and memories.  A few weeks ago when Clara saw a canopy hanging over her friend’s bed, she was immediately in LOVE. As in, she put in a request for “daddy and mommy to build a canopy with a hammer and some blankets” for her right that second. Not surprisingly, we were in. Just not for the whole hammering blankets thing… We love that it’s something she requested and that it adds more playful personality to her room, Heck, it just might get her excited enough to

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Never Forget

Thanks for the encouragement from this morning’s post to choke out my rambling September 11th story guys. As hard as it is to tell, I feel like it’s something I’ll want to look back on – especially when Clara’s older and I’m trying to explain the enormity of that day. It was a terrible day, but such a life-changing one too, and it definitely shaped who I am. And as much as I love having thousands of DIY posts in our archives, sometimes it’s those rare personal posts (like this one or this one or this one) that make me the happiest that I dumped all the jumbled words out of my head and onto

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Window Shopping At The Art Of Simple In Seaside

I’m currently hanging and shooting the canopy that I made for over Clara’s bed (ahh! it just might be cute!) so I’ll be back with those photos and the whole rundown for you tomorrow. I was actually thinking about writing about September 11th today. I lived in NYC at the time, and it was one of the most life-changing days that I’ve ever experienced, but for some reason, even 12 years later, I just can’t put words together about it. So I’m sending out lots of NYC pride and love to everyone affected by such a horrible day and trying to drum up the courage to talk about it (I’m reminding myself how healing it

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Painting The Ceiling Pink In Our Daughter’s Room

We did it! We can put three big ol’ check marks next to “paint the walls” and “paint the closet” and “paint the ceiling” in Clara’s room. It was definitely a bit of a painting marathon, but how sweet is the soft pink up there on the ceiling? It’s Pink Cadillac by Benjamin Moore in their eggshell finish. In some of these photos it’s pretty subtle, but in person it’s soft-but-noticeable – so while it’s not the entire room’s focal point, it’s a fun layered detail in the room. We thought clean white walls would complement the fun ceiling color without fighting too much with all of the color and pattern in things like the

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Three Months In

Dude, we’ve been here over three months! On one hand it feels like we’ve lived here forever, and on the other hand it feels like we just moved in last week (wasn’t it last week?!). We’re definitely surprised by how much we’ve knocked out since moving in (new flooring upstairs, a bunch of exterior upgrades, a half bathroom and a foyer facelift, some fresh paint in the bedroom, and a freshly lofted sunroom) yet some of the completely untouched rooms have us itching to bounce around to them soon. But enough chatter, let’s get to the photos. Here’s a time capsule of how our house looks three months in: – The Front – We’ve had

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Painting Our Bedroom A Rich Blue Paint Color

Nope, we’re not cooking in the bedroom, that’s the name of our new paint color… You’ve actually seen it already in this post about the color palette that we’re leaning towards for this house and we’re so dang happy with it. It was between Sparrow, Knoxville Gray, Sea Star, and Black Pepper for our master, and when we held up the swatches it took the lead for having depth along with a cool faded feeling. It feels fresh, yet also could be one of those “historical colors” which we think is the sweet spot for our house. Since it’s a large room full of light furnishings and crisp white trim and doors, we thought it

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Craigslisting & Selling Old Home Items & Furniture

After a few “settling in” months we’re going through that phase I like to affectionately call the What We Really Need (And Don’t) Phase. Essentially, like most folks before a move, we tend to do our best to craigslist or donate or yard sale the things we know we no longer need or use (so we don’t waste time/energy moving it only to store it and never use it again in the new house). But we do end up moving all of the stuff that we loved and used in our last house, even if we’re unsure where it’ll go in the new house. Then after a few months of actually being in the space

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How To Decorate More Confidently

Happy hump-day afternoon, y’all! I made you guys a little something. I realized that while many of our posts are tutorials or projects or planning or shopping related (how we built this, what fill-in-the-blank we found on craigslist, how we painted that, etc) only around 2% of them have touched on the heart of the whole DIY thing: just doing you and having the faith/courage/conviction/confidence to go for it when it comes to creating a home that you love. So if you’re feeling stuck or second guessing yourself (goodness knows we do that!) these simple words from people far wiser than ourselves might be all that you need to pull the cord and go for

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House Crashing: Perky & Personal

When Julia invited us to crash her house, which she describes as a typical cookie cutter Pennsylvania house on the outside (she’s not allowed to change much, even the color of the front door), we fell in love the moment she virtually let us inside. Here’s Julia now. She lives here with her husband Jarrid, her 10 year old son, her six year old daughter, and her three kitties. Their house definitely feels like a nice mix of quirky and fun with elegant and classic choices. Soft neutral walls with white molding are mixed with a cardboard deer head and a pretty crystal chandelier. You can see her living room peeking out down the hallway

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Hanging A Moravian Star Light In The Foyer

Dude, things just got real in the foyer. We found this light at the local lighting outlet here in Richmond called The Decorating Outlet for $135 (down from $455 at Shades of Light, just because it had been returned). I had always pictured something big and architectural in there – most likely in an oil-rubbed bronze finish because there are a bunch of ORB doorknobs going on in the foyer and I thought it would look nice. Thankfully John was game too since the guy’s down with geometry and shapes and stuff. UPDATE: Here’s an incredibly similar moravian star pendant on Amazon since the Shades of Light version is currently out of stock.  Boom. The foyer

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Easy DIY Bouquets

Happy Friday, y’all! What is it about sunroom ceiling demo that gets me all hyper and clammy? Yes, that’s continuing today (we’re still opening things up and waiting on some expert advice) but I promise we’ll have an official update for you guys on Monday! And now, just for good measure, more exclamation points!!!! In the meantime, I figured after a big week of sunroom demo, whitewashing, sunroom rebuilding, and more sunroom demo, it was high time for a budget blooms post. We used to do these every month, and then I fell off last year. And then I got back on the wagon and fell off again later last year. But I’m baaaaaaack! Not

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