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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Christmas Card Ideas You Can Photograph Yourself

Every year we like to drop in before everyone abandons their keyboards for Christmas (or have you already?) to share our Christmas card along with some gushy words of appreciation. So thar she blows: We had a few other ideas planned for our card this year (Clara gift-wrapping Burger, Clara riding her bike with a tiny Christmas tree on the back as Burger ran next to her, etc) but a combination of book deadlines, hospital decorating, showhouse meetings, and bad weather tied us up. Thank goodness for this shot that we miraculously got on the day that we told Clara she was going to have a little brother (I’ve filed it under “Christmas miracles”). And

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Another “What Kind Of Accent Do You Have” Quiz…

Since hundreds of you guys got in on the fun with this American accent quiz, we couldn’t help but share the latest in online linguistic diagnostics – especially since this one seems to be pretty darn accurate. Which you’d hope, considering this quiz comes from the New York Times (and is adapted from some data from Harvard). Like the last one, it asks how you pronounce certain words… …but it also asks about what terms you use (firefly or lightning bug? semi-truck or tractor trailer? yard sale or garage sale?) to help pin down what area of the country your dialect is from. It generates a dialect “heat map” of the United States, and pinpoints

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Our Free Annual Calendar Download

This time of year we tend to feel behind on just about everything: projects, emails, present wrapping, cleaning, proper hygiene… but by some miracle, we’re actually ahead in one department: making our homemade family calendar. As many of you know, for the last five years we’ve whipped up a simple-yet-colorful calendar in Photoshop. A few of you (like Lauren and Alexandra) have even asked if we had this year’s ready yet (since we like to share the customizable template, in case you need a last minute gift). So I’m relieved to exclaim “the deed is done!” It doesn’t usually serve as our note-riddled family calendar (that’s what Sherry’s desktop planner is for) but it’s more

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Switching A Hanging Microwave To A Range Hood

Hood, there it is. Well actually, for the last couple of weeks it has been more of a “hood… there it isn’t” situation in our kitchen. You may remember that we removed our over-the-range microwave before painting the kitchen and were thinking to get a 30 inch gas cooktop. Microwave’s the only appliance we’ve planned to replace as part of our Phase 1 kitchen makeover, since it was so front & center in the room, it crowded our stove, and we always seem to prefer range hoods over microwaves with vents when it comes to performance. So we replaced it with a stainless countertop microwave (more on that here) which we’ll eventually get “installed” into

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Fab Freebie: Tool Blizzard

If your current tool collection could be described as “little to no accumulation” prepare yourself for the virtual snowstorm of power tools that may be coming your way. The good people of Ryobi are forecasting over $600 worth of tools this week. There’s a 10″ Sliding Compound Miter Saw. A Cordless Brad Nailer. And, best of all, a Ryobi ONE+ Ultimate Combo Kit that’s stocked with six tools (including 3 more saws!) that all work from the included 18V lithium ion battery. And if that doesn’t get your head spinning with ideas, there are plenty to get inspired by in the Ryobi Nation community – where you can enter to win even more tools. Please

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Our Holiday Makeover At The Children’s Hospital

Well, you can stick a candy cane in it, because one of our favorite seasonal projects ever is officially done! To recap, we were invited to help with a very special project: decorating a family waiting room at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. They contacted us in the hopes that we could volunteer our time to warm up the room so it’s more cozy and homey year-round, as well as to add some festive touches for the holiday season. Not only did it sound like a fun project, it had such a deserving purpose that we couldn’t wait to get started. Here’s what it looked like when we first visited. We set our

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Fab Freebie: Warm Wishes

Well, the weather outside can be frightful this time of year, so staying curled up in a warm bed sounds pretty darn delightful (and it can be your everyday reality if you’re Burger). This week Crane & Canopy is making that temptation even harder to resist with a $250 gift card. They’ve got luxurious designer bedding – duvet covers, sheet sets, pillows, throws, etc – without the designer prices. So this gift card is an invitation to transform your bed with your pick of some colorful patterns, cozy textures, and even some intricate embroideries. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up

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Baby Petersik is a….

… HE! We haven’t done one of these posts since 2010, so it feels kind of strange and exciting to be sharing this kind of news with you guys again. We found out on Wednesday, and then scurried to tell our families over the last 48 hours. Of course, the most important person to tell first was Clara. We didn’t want her to learn the news from an ultrasound technician, so we scheduled a playdate for her with my dad during this particular appointment. Then when we were back together, we surprised her with a baby boy doll (which are surprisingly hard to find, we learned). It was a cute little “OK, look in the

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Four DIY Holiday Decorating Craft Projects

Two weeks ago, we shared our Children’s Hospital makeover project with you guys, and this week we got to start actually installing the room. Holy holly jolly, Batman! We’d share wider room shots except we’re still waiting on around 40% of the stuff to get delivered loaded in. In the meantime, we thought we’d share the details on four easy and affordable DIY holiday projects we completed for the space! A faux fireplace with real branches An interactive paper bulb garland A Gilded cardboard letters A gradient painted Menorah 1. A Faux Fireplace With Real Branches The first one’s our little faux fireplace that could be used to turn any spot into a kitschy, temporary

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Fab Freebie: Art For Two

Finding one-of-a-kind art that you love isn’t always easy, so we’re psyched about this week’s giveaway from ArtTwo50. They’ve got a virtual gallery full of tons of original art from over 500 artists ranging from abstracts and portraits to landscapes and beyond – all priced at $250 including shipping. While you can browse their art on their Pinterest page, the real fun starts when you download their free iPad app, which allows you to take a picture of your empty wall and virtually “try on” different pieces before making your selection. You can even post on social media to get feedback from your friends first. And speaking of friends, ArtTwo50 is giving away a $500

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A Soft Blue-Gray Paint Color For The Kitchen

Another Monday, another leap forward for our kitchen. Here’s where we were last week, after priming and painting the trim, doors, crown molding, and paneling white. And here we are today, with the walls freshly coated with a little Nelson Blue (the light blue color that we’ve planned on from the start). Shall we all let out a communal sigh of relief that the walls aren’t covered in wallpaper anymore and there are no more spackle holes and raw drywall from under those cabinets that we removed? Together now. Ahhhhh. Update: There have been a few questions about the intercom and why we didn’t remove it yet, but we’re not sure if we’re going to

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Painting The Ceiling A Little Darker (And Glossier)

We’re doing Children’s Hospital stuff today, but a bunch of you noticed a foyer ceiling update in the background of yesterday’s post, so we owe you those details. We actually knocked it out before the big kitchen paint-fest, but that post cut the line because it was too exciting to save for later and we have the patience of toddlers (not to be confused with having the body of a baby). We usually hate painting ceilings (big rooms = sore backs) but the foyer’s a relatively small swatch of space, so I ended up just rolling the whole thing while Sherry knocked out some simple cutting in around the edges. If you wanna see some

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