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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How To Hang Pictures Over The Bed

Do you remember these puppies that we picked up at a yard sale last year for $10 a pop? They’re old professionally framed prints of the berries and wildflowers of Alaska, which we thought were sweet since we honeymooned there. So we spray-painted the frames (and mats!) and hung them on either side of our bed. If that doesn’t jog your memory, perhaps this old pic from that post shall will. Well, recently they’ve – say it with me now – come together. Here’s how it all went down. Actually, speaking of going down – it kinda started when a certain ram went down during our book shoots. Since neither all the king’s horses nor

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An Eclectic Glam Tween Bedroom

Clara may be another year older, but she’s still a long ways off from her tweenage years. Which is why it was fun to live vicariously through Courtney’s makeover of her 11-year-old niece Emily’s room. Having virtually crashed Courtney’s own home last May, we knew there’d be some great eye candy, and we often hear from folks who’d love to see a tween room or two, so here ya go. Hi guys! I hope all is well in the Petersik house. I wanted to show you my 11 year old niece’s room that we helped her makeover. She would be so excited for her room to be featured! This was an accumulation of four very

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How To Build A Dollhouse

Update: You can check out Part 2 of this project right here. But let’s start at the beginning. When Sherry and I started talking about building a dollhouse for Clara, I was afraid. I know, I know – scared of a dollhouse? Get your laughs out. But that ominous word conjured up these elaborate images of perfectly crafted, to-scale replicas of Victorian mansions that seemed waaaaay beyond my skill / patience level. But once Sherry showed me some of her inspiration pictures on Pinterest (from Mousehouse, Natty Michelle and Under The Sycamore) my cold sweats dried up and I actually got a little excited. Yes, excited about a dollhouse. Now get those laughs out. More

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Replacing An Old Bathroom Light

We don’t talk much about our hall bathroom. In fact, in 17 months of living here, it’s been the subject of just two posts (knocking down a towel bar and fixing the toilet). And since we later used almost the same color as the inspiration room in our guest bedroom, we’re no longer planning to use that color in here, so we’re kind of back to square one. But we finally made a little lighting progress, as today’s title suggests. There was nothing especially offensive about the existing fixture – nor anything especially exciting about it. It felt sort of builder basic to us. And kind of “backstage make-up room” to us thanks to the

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Adding Pelmet Board Window Treatments

Vanessa sent us her kitchen makeover that clocked in at just over a hundred beans and it made us more than a little giddy. But we’ll let her take you through the story of how she got so much bang her buck. Here’s her letter: In 11 years of marriage, my husband and I have lived in seven cities and sometimes have moved multiple times in each city. Needless to say, I have become a pro at making each house a home. One thing I have always wanted to do, but have been too chicken to tackle it – is paint my kitchen cabinets. Now, in our seventh home, I finally decided to do it.

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A Flush Mounted Light Near The Fireplace

Even though we declared our kitchen project done over a month ago, there are still little dangling tasks hanging over our heads. Some, quite literally. See that shadeless stick of a pendant hanging down from the ceiling in the fireplace area? That old pendant has been broken forever (despite me fixing it once already) so that half of the room has been cloaked in darkness for months. Well, or least in comparison to the rest of the room which has been light and bright since our little lighting overhaul during the kitchen reno. Our temporary lighting solution has been this floor lamp tucked in the corner. But it too has woes of its own. One

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April Superlatives

For those asking where the April Superlatives went, here they are! Remember how last week was all about organizing? Well, we weren’t organized enough to share this post on time. Oops. So before May gets too far gone, here’s a look back at all the things we got checked off the ol’ to-do list in April (in yearbook style superlatives, of course). We even tossed in some never-before-seen stuff for kicks. You can check out all of our monthly superlatives dating back to January of 2011 right here (it’s over a years worth of projects crammed into just 15 posts). Oh, and we’re starting this round up with my latest obsession. You have been warned. Most

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Fab Freebie: Take A Seat

***This giveaway has reached our cap of 10,000 entries so it’s no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** After our quickest giveaway in YHL history (hitting the max number of entries in under 6 hours!), we’ve already turned to random.org to select our winner. And it is… Azar (whose favorite relaxing activity is a tie between reading and knitting). Congrats! Does the name La-Z-Boy immediately make you think of a big ol’ leather recliner? It did for me. So color us surprised when we learned they’ve actually got a pretty darn extensive line of furniture – including sofas, loveseats, ottomans and even accessories in modern patterns and fresh colors. The kicker? They’re giving

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Planning A New Deck Build

Ah, the “alley.” The affectionate name we gave that weird void of space created between the original part of our house (on the left) and the addition (to the right). We appreciate that they left that space (so we wouldn’t lose all those windows like we would have if they joined the structures instead of creating that alley), but it’s kind of awkward. It’s currently home to an extremely short (and extremely worn) balcony overlooking a bunch of liriope, our AC unit, our oil tank, and the neighbor’s house. It’s completely useless to us. Unless of course we like the thrill of wondering when / if the wood is going to disintegrate beneath our feet.

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Our Messy Basement Workshop

This week has been all about cleaning and organizing, so it’s only fair that I take this opportunity to own up to the most unclean, unorganized space in our house (perhaps ever in our whole lives). The horror lies behind this door, in my basement workshop: Just like our first house, we have a separate entry basement that you access from a door in the back yard. Except in this house, I’ve avoided showing this space the entire 16 months that we’ve lived here. Yes, it has been kept completely off camera and video – which is almost unheard of for over-sharers like us. Why? Because I’m embarrassed to my core about its state. I’ve

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A Kitchen With Wood Cabinets & Sage Green Tile

In honor of this week’s organization extravaganza, we thought this makeover was a great reminder that organizing and planning isn’t just about putting things in baskets or sorting your socks. An organized thoughtful approach to your home could help a dark and dated space become beautiful & functional with a little (or a lot) of planning, penny-pinching, perseverance, and perspiration. Morgan and her husband Kevin took their paneled den and turned it into a bright and modern kitchen. The transformation is, in a word, insane. And their planning tips are awesome, like scouring Craigslist every day in a nice wide radius to save serious loot – and rethinking the placement of a kitchen to make

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A Picture’s Worth… Well, You Know

Hi guys! I’ve been behind the scenes messing around with tech organization while the lady wife chats about feminine products and nail polish and whatever else she has been chatting about lately (justkiddinghoneyIloveyou) but since today is the day we said we’d get on some paper/tech org – specifically some blog streamlining (but you guys can tackle anything like digital photos, filing paperwork, or cleaning up your desktop) I’m here with the goods on that. With all the organization happening around our house this week it was bound to spill over to some blog organization eventually. And the portion of our site that was feeling the most out of control was our Projects page. You

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