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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Messy House Tour 2014

Since you guys have enjoyed the past messy house tour videos that we’ve shared (like this one from our last house in 2011), we seized the opportunity to remind everyone that we’re not all carefully folded towels and meticulously placed pillows 24/7 (not even close). With our attention focused mostly on the showhouse & some last minute nursery updates, many of our other house projects have been put on hold (some are literally halfway done) and a handful of rooms have quickly devolved into chaos. And when your house is a mess, why not video tape it for the whole internet to see? A few notes: There is no rapping in this video. I am

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And Now For A Household Crafting Challenge

The other night Sherry and I came up with the idea to challenge each other to craft something using objects around our house – the catch being that the OTHER person gets to choose the objects. It wasn’t necessarily a competition, but we still came up with some ground rules: You can use anything to make the craft, but the three chosen items must be incorporated in some way. The “challengee” may choose one of the items before seeing the other two chosen by the “challenger.” No money can be spent. The project will be shared on the blog, no matter how awful it turns out. We rock-paper-scissored and I lost, so I was up

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Furnishing The Showhouse

At first I had typed the original “I like to move it, move it” lyrics but then I realized that I don’t really enjoy the moving process at all, so it was sort of an unpleasant deja vu moment when we started unloading furniture into the Homearama showhouse on Monday. But my glass half-full version of the situation is: we’re finally getting to the furnish the showhouse! Note: for anyone wondering what the heck this showhouse is, and how it benefits Habitat for Humanity, click here and here for more info. With almost everything done construction-wise in the house, we greeted a truck from Green Front Furniture (the local place loaning pieces to many of

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How To Hang New Lights In The Hallway

From moment one of seeing this house, something about the view of a series of three lights all in a row(ish) in the upstairs hallway made us inexplicably excited. Just call it “the tri-light zone” effect. We just knew that arrangement had serious potential. You know, once we looked past the old carpeting and the blue trim. The existing lights were a little undersized for us (pictures don’t do it justice, but this is a 33 foot long hallway!), so although we considered spray painting them another color (oil-rubbed bronze? red? navy?), I worried it’d make them look a bit more gothic cathedral than we wanted. Plus, all three of them were crooked, one of

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Fab Freebie: Stealing Home

The thrill of the hunt is one thing, but what about the thrill of the steal? Decor Steals serves ’em up daily in the form of sales events that promise vintage-inspired and industrial chic home accessories, lighting, and furniture at up to 80% off retail (you can be first in line thanks to their daily deal announcement). And this week someone will score $500 to spend there. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway is available to residents of the United States & Canada. Click To View Rafflecopter Widget

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How To DIY Ardex Concrete Counters

So we did it. We concrete’d our kitchen’s laminate counters. Sherry shared this quick peek at our first coat in Friday’s post, and we’re back with the final results, the details of how we got there, and an in-action video to hopefully help explain the process. We’re really happy with how they turned out. Pictures don’t do it justice, but the whole room feels a lot more updated and less laminate-y. It’s giving off kind of a stark/cold vibe in these photos, but after we add some colorful window treatments, stuff on the shelves/counters, and remedy that bad faux brick flooring (and that almond stove) we think it’ll feel like a whole new room.  I’m

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How To Update Bathroom Mirrors

The upstairs hall bathroom has pretty much been ignored for the past nine months, other than hanging a shower curtain after we moved in and occasionally cleaning the toilet. But these builder basic mirrors have been on our hit list from day one. It took us nearly two years to get around to updating the one in our last hall bathroom by framing it out, so we weren’t about to let these go as long. Sherry has been on the lookout for something with a more interesting shape (round? quatrefoil? Eminem’s face?) so framing these out wasn’t our plan this time. Instead, we glanced at whatever mirrors were around when we dropped in on thrift

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Picking Lighting and Tile For The Model Home

Things are moving at warp speed these days at the Homearama Showhouse, so we have tons of updates to share since last week (especially since more fixtures, cabinets, and counters are now officially installed). Let’s start on the front porch, where the centerpiece of our rustic, vaulted ceiling has been added. It’s from Restoration Hardware, so it was definitely a splurge (our team joined their trade program to save 20%) but we think it’s an awesome thing to see up there before stepping into the house for the first time. As we snapped these photos yesterday, they were just beginning to pull up the protective floor coverings, but the hardwoods were still really dusty (they’re

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Fab Freebie: Great Scott

A certain pregnant lady I know and love has a birthday this week, so we thought we’d mark it by giving the gift of one of Sherry’s favorite things to one of you: jewelry. Specifically, $500 to spend at Kendra Scott! Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). This giveaway is available to the United States (but we’ve got a border-busting prize coming up for you next week). Click to View Rafflecopter Widget

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Our Hardware Designs – In Target!

It’s been nearly three years in the making, so it’s hard to believe that the day is finally here that we can share our longest-stretching side-gig to date. We’ve been designing a collection of products… and a bunch of them are now being sold exclusively at Target (!!!). Cue the sound effect of a cat sprinting out of a bag. We designed three or four dozen pieces before the final mix was chosen – and those designs, which are an assortment of wall storage and hooks, are available right now at Target.com and will be on endcaps in most US stores starting March 31st. You’ll be able to find them in the Home Improvement section

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Picking The Paint, Light Fixtures, Doorknobs, & Vanities For The Showhouse

I’m thinking we should post pictures of blue ceilings more often on Instagram, at least judging by the reaction we got to this pic from the Homearama Showhouse on Monday. Then again, it may have just been thanks to Sherry’s dancing girl emojis. As those high-steppin’ cartoon ladies indicated, we’re pretty psyched about how things are shaping up over there. The bold “Skydive” color that we chose for the office ceiling (by Benjamin Moore) came out better than we imagined, and we even got to use one of our favorite lights that we designed last year. But although there has been TONS of progress since our last update two weeks ago, it’s unfortunately not the

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2 Free Floor Planning Apps

Let’s talk about Apps And Zerts, shall we? (Yes, that was a Tom Haverford reference, so you might want to grab your super water and sandoozles before we get into the nitty gritty) As I was trying out some new floor-planning apps to write last week’s post about our office floor plans, I took some screen shots and photos to share with you guys, and then that post felt full of enough graphics and words without them so I thought “eh, I’ll just skip that stuff.” Well, no less than a few dozen of you asked for more info on how our floor plans were made – and lo, this post was born. Like a phoenix

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