Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Posts By John Petersik

John Petersik is one half of the duo behind the award-winning home improvement and do-it-yourself design blog, Young House Love. Together, he and his wife Sherry 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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6 Fun & Easy Pumpkin Decorating Ideas For Kids

Our kids are very much into the traditional Jack-O-Lantern-style pumpkin carving, often trying to make a scarier, grosser, or goofier face than last Halloween. But we still remember a time when toddler-friendly (even baby-friendly!) pumpkin “carving” was the name of the game over here. So we wanted to highlight six simple, fun, but unconventional pumpkin decorating ideas for kids that we’ve used in the past. Including a “romantic” one we made pre-kids (yes, I’ll pause while you ponder what exactly can be romantic about a pumpkin…). We’ve included a brief description of each below, but you can also follow the link to the original posts for more photos and details about each pumpkin-carving project. “Baby’s

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What Is Keiki Paste? And How To Use It On Your Plants

We got lots of questions about the “miracle” cloning paste we showed on Instagram recently. What is it? What does it do? And why the heck is it called “keiki”? Short answer: keiki paste is an easy-to-apply growth hormone for your houseplants that can help fill out bare spots on pothos, orchids, and more. It’s a smart solution for any plant parent, but we’ll tell you why it may fall short of being truly miraculous.

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The 9 Best Greige Paint Colors (According To Experts)

“Greige” is that sweet spot between gray & beige, giving you a paint color that’s both trendy and timeless. In fact, we’ve been on the greige bandwagon for nearly 20 years – well before we’d even heard that term! But finding the perfect greige can be daunting. There are 100s of neutral paint colors that could be considered greige, so we’ve waded through dozens of expert round-ups to see what colors come up over and over again. Yes, I made a spreadsheet. And yes, I liked it. It’s no surprise that our favorite greige paint showed up on these lists. But the greige color that ranked #1 was a bit of a shock to us!

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Hosting An Outdoor Movie Night – All Of The Equipment You Need For Under $200

I’ve daydreamed about buying a backyard movie set-up (projector, screen, etc) for several summers now. But the logistics and potential expense always stopped me… until last month! And now I feel silly for waiting, because we pulled it off with just 3 pieces of equipment that cost less than $200 total! That’s cheaper than the cost of some projectors… or a few family trips to the theater! And now we can host unlimited movie gatherings with friends (we’ve already had two in the last two weeks!).

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The 12 Best White Paint Colors (According To Experts)

Want to know the most universally loved white paints? Well, we scoured 100+ white paint colors featured on more than a dozen “best white” lists to figure this out. I even made a spreadsheet! These are the 12 white paint colors that came up over & over again. They’re trusted by everyone from interior designers & architects to builders & bloggers alike. So let’s dive into why experts recommend them and how you can pick the right white paint color for your home. Why Designers Love White Paint White is a classic choice for trim, ceilings, and even cabinets. But white paint on your walls? That’s when the strong opinions come out! Critics write off

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5 Things We Loved On Our Family Vacation to Dallas, Texas

We’d never really thought of Dallas as a “vacation” destination, but there’s so much to do there that we barely scratched the surface on our recent trip! We ate lots of good food, explored fun neighborhoods, and found more kid-friendly activities than we had time for. So here’s a quick recap of some of our favorite Dallas destinations. Plus some things we want to come back and see next time!

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How To Remove Wallpaper

Wallpaper may be trending again, but many of us still deal with dingy, dated, or downright ugly old wallpaper we didn’t pick. Our old home has wallpaper in 5 different rooms, which gave us a chance to test several different wallpaper removal methods. Today we’ll share what worked, what didn’t, and what we recommend you try. Removing wallpaper doesn’t require special tools or lots of money, but it can take elbow grease and some patience. But here’s a before-and-after of our wallpapered bathroom to give you some motivation to stick with it! And if you’re looking to add wallpaper to your home, be sure to check out our tutorial for installing removable wallpaper. The good

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How To Use A Pressure Washer: A Beginner’s Guide

You may think pressure washers are complicated, expensive, or hard to control. But good news – they’re not! Pressure washing is an easy, affordable, and TOTALLY AWESOME way to keep your outdoor spaces looking clean and fresh. This is a comprehensive start-to-finish guide for anyone ready to get their pressure washing feet wet (maybe even literally). We’ll cover set-up, spraying tips, surfaces it works on, and more. Trust us, even we were intimidated the first time we tried pressure washing over 10 years ago. The cumbersome gas-powered machine we rented for a day was so big it didn’t even fit in our car! So I TOTALLY understand anyone with PWH (pressure washing hesitation). Our Favorite

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A Weekend In Serenbe, Georgia

Serenbe is a small “New Urban” community about 45 minutes south of Atlanta in a rural town called Chattahoochee Hills. It’s sort of a mix of an upscale-feeling suburban development and an eco-conscious resort in the countryside. We recently took a 3-night trip with our kids and had a great time exploring, eating, and spending time in nature!

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How To Make An Ikea Pax Wardrobe Look Built-In

Since our bedroom used to be a living space, it came with absolutely zero closet space. This was obviously a big downgrade from the fancy walk-in closet in our last house. BUT ALAS! Watch how we built in some floor-to-ceiling Ikea Pax wardrobes to create just as much storage as our last closet AND make them look like they’ve been there all along… For comparison, our last home’s walk-in closet was an 8′ x 6′ room. Each side had one 29″ wardrobe in the middle flanked by two 19″ wardrobes on each side. That’s 67″ of linear closet space along each wall, for a total of 134 inches. In this home, we used the exact

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How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies – Using Stuff You Already Own!

Got little bugs buzzing around your kitchen? Congratulations, you may have fruit flies! Don’t fret. These annoying pests are pretty common but luckily, it doesn’t take a lot of money, supplies, or effort to get rid of them. In fact, you can probably find everything you need in your cabinets! We recently had a fruit fly problem in our home (the first time in over four years here – we have no idea what brought them in). So I seized the opportunity to test 7 different methods of eliminating them. Yes, there were copious notes taken and even a spreadsheet. So today I’m sharing the best fruit fly traps and how to make them.

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How To Build Easy DIY Garage Shelving

When we needed some heavy-duty garage shelving for our new shed, we turned to this shelf tutorial from our friend Ana White. Shelves like these stand up to the weight of heavier items like power tools & paint cans and, most importantly, are also SUPER straightforward to build – even for beginngers! We ended up loving this technique so much, we’ve since repeated in the shed at our beach house (seen below) and the small shed at our current hosue. They’re such an easy DIY project and I find them FAR superior to most store-bought garage shelving units. Making these long shelves with generous spacing between them to creates flexible storage with easy access to

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