Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Posts by Sherry Petersik

Sherry Petersik is one half of the duo behind the award-winning home improvement and do-it-yourself design blog, Young House Love. Together, she and her husband John 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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A Custom Kids Portrait

Ok, so this post is WELLLL overdue. Every time someone asks about the art in our foyer whenever they catch a glimpse of it on Facebook or Instagram (like in this pic or this pic) I say something like “A good friend of mine made that portrait of our kids! I’ve been meaning to write a post about that – soon I hope!” Whelp, that day has finally come. Hold on tight, it’s gonna be a wild ride. I actually got the painting over a year ago! It’s a pastel drawing done by our friend and neighbor Robin Olivier and she is SUCH A TALENT! It’s based on one of my favorite photos of the kids ever taken. Just a casual iPhone

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A Vintage Rug In Our Bedroom

We mentioned some recent bedroom movin’ & shakin’ on this week’s podcast, so we thought a post full of photos was in order for anyone wondering how it’s looking these days. Pretty much everything in our bedroom was purchased while we were living in our second house, so after moving here in 2013 stuff just kinda landed where it landed and whoop, there it was. We painted. We hung frames. We made a few sporadic dresser swaps, and then we repainted. But the anchor pieces like the rug, the bed, the armchair, and most of the other furnishings pretty much remained the same. More recently we got a super on-sale chandelier and swapped beds with the guest room and it felt like the

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The Beach House Exterior Is Almost Done & The Inside’s Getting Good

Slowly but surely we’re making headway on the beach house. In fact, in the next few weeks we’re going to see BIG progress as the house gets all new electrical, plumbing, and a fully functioning HVAC system (just in time for those sweltering beach days). We’re so excited to be able to shout from the rooftops that there’s no more sketchy knob & tube wiring, the furnace will no longer be “accessorized” with cardboard and bedsheets (not sure what those were for), and there’s actually going to be running water in the house again, which hasn’t happened for who knows how long (the old sewer line got busted up by tree roots in the back, so we have to MAKE

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Stuff In Our House That’s On Sale Right Now

There were TONS of sales this weekend – in fact nearly everything in our house that’s still being sold was majorly marked down. And I thought “it’d be awesome if I could get my act together and alert anyone who’s been hankering for something in our house” – but we were getting back from spring break and Easter/family stuff was going on and I just couldn’t make it happen. But then, many of the sales mysteriously kept going (even though they all said they were ending on Sunday)… so here I am, writing this quickie post for all my sale loving compadres out there. Oh, and if you were wondering how something in our house has been

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DIY Easter Egg Tree

Easter isn’t typically one of those decorate-every-surface-of-the-house holidays for me. I own exactly one white ceramic bunny who stays outside year-round for “whimsy-factor” (read: I’m too lazy to move him). But last year I made my first Easter tree and I’ve been inordinately excited about breaking it out again ever since. I know what you’re thinking. But Easter is this weekend!!! I don’t have time. It’s too late. I might as well go eat 1,000 Peeps to drown my sorrows. Well, it’s not too late. You can whip this up in a few minutes, and it actually looks its best when it’s just enjoyed for a week or so anyway. So let’s get down to business. Here

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Neutral Living Room Makeover

I love a baller room makeover as much as the next person (Lisa Vanderpump’s closet? I could stare at it for HOURS), but scrapping all of your existing stuff and completely overhauling every nook and cranny of your room isn’t always realistic, especially if you don’t have a Housewives-sized budget. Sometimes using what you have and just getting a few new things to revive the entire room is the sweet spot (have I mentioned how much fun I had staging my friend’s house to sell a few weeks ago?!). So when my best friend asked for some help with her bare bones living room, I immediately started shouting out ideas and scribbling sketches like a lone weirdo playing solo

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How To Combine Light Fixtures

This week we dove into the struggle to find light fixtures that feel related without being too matchy-matchy or boring (the discussion kicks in around the 20-minute mark of this week’s podcast) and I promised to link to some lighting combinations that I liked in the show notes, but then I promptly fell into a mood board making wormhole. When I regained consciousness in this reality, I had way too many mood boards for the show notes, had inexplicably eaten two pop tarts, and this post was born. Whether you’re dealing with an open concept floor plan where you can see your kitchen pendants, dining room chandelier, and living room lights all from one vantage point –

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House Crashing: A Family-Friendly Whole House Renovation

We’ve shared this glorious back porch on Instagram twice (during the holidays, seen below, and last summer, seen here), which belongs to our good friends Carey & Jordan. And based on the reaction to just this view alone from you guys, we figured we should do a good old fashioned House Crash so we can show you guys more of their beautiful home. They’ve also got some really great tips about what wears well with kids and dogs (and what they wouldn’t do again), which was especially helpful since we’re currently mulling over some bathroom renos. But enough jabbering, let’s get on with the tour! similar storm door / similar black sconces / string lights Carey & Jordan used to live

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New Lighting Designs (And Photoshoot Secrets)

Back when we revealed our kitchen makeover, we mentioned that we worked with Shades of Light to design our pendant lights (below). But those were just one of a whole slew of new designs that we’ve added to our lighting collection over the last year-ish. So in addition to sharing some of our latest designs with you guys, we also wanted to take you behind the scenes and show you some of the tricks that catalogs and websites use when it comes to photographing stuff (including how we turned an armchair into a headboard, all in the name of getting the shot). After launching our initial collection back in 2013, we added a few new pieces over the years (like the geometric flush mount that

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The Best Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig I’ve Ever Seen

Just slipping through on this sunny Saturday with an urgent fake-plant related announcement. Target has some really good fake fiddle leaf figs right now by Threshold. Three things: They seem expensive ($99 for the big one and $55 for the small one) <– update, just heard they’re on sale In the store they look NEON green (like insanely bright and not-real looking at all) They’re in pots that are proportionally too small for them, and where the base of the plant meets the “dirt” looks super fake… but… … I bought a couple home to mess with them to see if I could get them to look more real for the beach house (since big real plants that

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Rug Shopping Tips

Lately we’ve received a ton of questions about our rugs. How we find them. What materials and designs we like best. How to clean and care for them so they last. Even what price points we aim for (and run away from). The truth is that rugs are complicated. And they can be expensive. And they’re definitely one of those easier-than-average things you can get “wrong.” And not only does that make you feel all crestfallen and dejected, then you’re even more scared to take the rug-buying leap again. And so begins the downward rug spiral. Oh, the drama! But fear not! As two people who have pretty much made all of the rug-buying mistakes that someone can make

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Beach House Style Inspiration

We’re nothing if not house optimists, so even as our our beach house comes apart (literally, we have mold and termite damage and bad wiring and no HVAC and a failing foundation and pretty much all of the other not-ideal things that necessitate carefully rebuilding a lot of it) we’ve learned that sometimes you just gotta focus on the fun exciting home-reno aspects to make it through the highly unglamorous and grimace-inducing ones. We’ll update you on our rebuilding progress soon (it’s pretty slow-going), but today we’re swinging open our brains and sharing the much-more-fun-to-think-about beach house style ideas that are bouncing around in there. Because even if there seem to be a million steps between now and the

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