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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Planting Leyland Cypress Trees For Added Privacy

Have we mentioned that our house has something lacking in the privacy department in certain areas? If not, consider this the first of several mentions. It’s nothing crazy, but coming from a home where we could practically strut around naked in the backyard (not that we did) to one where we can hardly go birthday suiting inside (not that we do) – let’s just say that we feel a bit exposed sometimes. Case in point – our lovely “alley” (first mentioned here) which is a straight shot to our neighbor’s back deck (see their umbrella in the distance?). The pic above is a bit old (from this post) and as you can see from the

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A Custom House Portrait And A New Stroller

Ah yes, the much awaited Father’s Day post. First off, thanks to all of those who wished me a Happy Father’s Day on Sunday. Here’s a belated one back to all my fellow man-parents out there. I had a wonderful weekend with my girls and my main man Burger. I learned from my own dad to think of celebrating these holidays not with things, but by doing things… together (like the trail run I took him on Sunday morning). That’s what fatherhood is all about, right? And this year Clara was old enough to participate in the weekend’s activities a bit more, which made it even more enjoyable. Not that she wasn’t fun to be

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“That’s Richmond For Ya”

Upon moving to Richmond 5 years ago, we quickly learned that “Oh, that’s Richmond for ya” is the appropriate reaction when one of those small world coincidences takes place. It’s meant to reference that despite being a fairly legit city, Richmond has a small town vibe where everyone seems to know everyone else through no more than a degree or two of Kevin Bacon friends and acquaintances. So when, for example, you find out that the girl at your favorite lighting outlet rents an apartment in the backyard of a house that you’ve crashed (and where your sister got married) you say “That’s Richmond for ya.” True story, by the way. Well, we’ve got a

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Planting An Herb Garden In A Metal Tub

Our (continued) indecision about where our vegetable and herb garden should permanently go at our new place means we missed the boat on planting anything this spring (check out our edible gardens of years past here and here). But in an attempt to grow something this year, we’ve come up with a temporary solution. And it involves this galvanized tub: We figured we’d just do a potted herb garden this year, with only a few “edible essentials” for our kitchen. Which is why we picked up a foursome of local and organically grown herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, and mint) at the farmer’s market this weekend for $12. Speaking of which, you can read more about

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Fab Freebie: Tek For Dads

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** According to random.org, the winner this week is… Kat (who celebrated Father’s Day with cards, dinner for her husband and a called to her dad). Congrats! In honor of Father’s Day (yes, I realize it was yesterday, but why not keep the celebration alive?) we’re giving away – you guessed it – TOOLS. But these particular tools are Ryobi TEK4 tools, a series of ten cordless gadgets that look pretty darn sleek, are crazy durable, and run on a long-lasting 4V rechargeable battery. And come to think of it, ladies would look just as good slinging these guys (so they’re not just for

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Removing An Old Woodstove Fireplace Insert

As of today we’ve lived in our house for six whole months. And in all that time we’ve never formally introduced you to Bart. How rude of us. Bart, aka Black Bart the woodstove insert, is hard to miss in our kitchen. We know the previous owners got a lot of use out of him (although they did warn us that he made the house pretty smoky and coated a lot of nearby surfaces with fine black dust). We’d always planned to replace him down the road when we hopefully convert our fireplace into a double fireplace (that can be enjoyed from the living room as well as the kitchen). But Clara spurred us into action

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Fab Freebie: Guiding Site

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Thanks to random.org, our winner is… Kari (who gets lost even with the help of GPS). Congrats Kari! It goes without saying that we’re big fans of decorating and design help through the magic of the internet. So of course we’re psyched that one of you is gonna score some customized assistance from My Design Guide. They tap into a network of real interior designers to help you out with everything from quick fix mini-consults (which come free just by completing their StyleFinder quiz) to full blown 3-D renderings with paint color picks, furniture selections, and a shopping list (see a sample here).

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Fab Freebie: Here’s Looking At You, Mate

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Good news: everyone can get 10% off their MirrorMate order with code VIRAL. And if they get 1000 new Facebook followers or new email subscribers, that code doubles to 20% for everyone. But here’s the better news (at least for one of you): random.org has chosen our winner as… Jessica (who says she’s usually checking the mirror to “make sure nothing is obviously out of place or gross”). Congrats! So maybe I fudged that line from Casablanca a little. Thanks for letting it slide. It’s turning out to be a mirror-tastic day today, so if you’re stuck with a basic builder mirror that’s

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Gift Idea: A Custom Wooden House Replica

As of last week, my parents officially live in Richmond. This rocks for several reasons (free babysitting) so we’re excited to have them (as free babysitters) just about 15 minutes down the road (close enough to easily babysit for free). Plus, you’ll probably get some peeks at their new digs as they settle in (between babysitting jobs) and as we help them tackle some projects around their house (perhaps in exchange for all of the free babysitting). And if you follow us on Flickr, you’ve noticed that we wasted no time breaking in their community pool as soon as the moving truck was returned: Three days after closing on their new house, my parents also

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How To Make A Wood Plaque With A Number Or Letter On It

I like to consider our hallway frame wall a constant “work in progress” since the art in the frames can be swapped out at anytime. But there was at least one element that was less a “work in progress” and more an “um, you’re not going to leave it that way, are you?” Can you spot it? Yep, it’s the placeholder photostrip in the center. We didn’t have a frame to fit that slot at the time, so we figured down the line we’d cut a piece of wood, paint it white and mount the strip on something more officially looking than, well, a piece of office paper held up with painter’s tape (oh the

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Aren’t Mother-In-Laws The Best?

When Sherry’s mom was here a couple of weekends ago for Clara’s birthday party she clocked more than her fair share of hours helping us clean the house in preparation. Perhaps her most miraculous accomplish was in the future playroom / second kids bedroom (aka: current junkroom) which looked like this when she arrived (no kidding): Since our junk basically screamed “I Will Topple Over On Your Baby!” we were just planning to close and lock the door during the party to keep all of the littler guests away from certain death. That plan went to pot when we realized that we couldn’t physically close the door anymore (mainly due to the poorly timed delivery

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The Perfect Light Gray Paint Color: Moonshine By Benjamin Moore

It was January when we painted three test swatches of gray on our dining room walls. It took us just days to pick the color but apparently took us, yeah, um, FOUR MONTHS to finally paint the room. I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing – our painting laziness or my rockin’ farmer’s tan. Anyway, I searched my brain for some sort of an excuse for the dining room paint delay. Maybe we were too tired at the end of the day in January that we spent painting the living room and hallway the same color? Or we were too distracted by completing the guest room for Sherry’s mom’s February visit? Or we were too consumed

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