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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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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Making DIY Ornaments With Kid Art

You know we like to make ornaments (there’s a nice collection of others that we’ve whipped up over the years at the end of this post) so we’re just dropping by to share the ones we made this year. You know, for any other jonesing-to-eat-all-the-cookies-and-make-all-the-ornaments folks out there. And these might go down as the easiest grandparent gifts ever (masterpieces by their favorite little ones + a sweet and personal ornament = grandparent gift jackpot). They’re so cute you’ll definitely want to make some for your own tree while you’re at it. Plus they only cost around a dollar or two (and take ten minutes or so) to make, which is definitely key when Christmas is less than a

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Making A Painted Christmas House Village

You guys know I like ceramic things. And miniature anything is 100% cuter than something that’s normal-sized (little sliders vs cheeseburgers for example). So it was only a matter of time before this happened. Let’s make a little Christmas village, shall we? It all started with some secondhand tea light holders that are meant to glow if you put little candles inside (some just have tiny holes for a string of lights to poke through instead). I’ve always stopped to stare at these things at thrift stores, because how much fun does it sound to repaint the old tired and chipped ones and bring them back to life in the form of a happy little Christmas town?! This past weekend I was trolling

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Holiday House Tour – Come In And See Our Christmas Tree

If we’re in the car driving around at night and we see a house or a yard all decorated with Christmas lights, there’s one guarantee, and that is that a tiny 2 year old voice will shout “It’s Christmastime!” from the back seat. Yup, it’s hilarious. And it can happen fifteen times within the course of a minute. And we still laugh and cheer every time. Christmas is in fact upon us. And as someone who resists the urge to drag the decorations out for a while and then finally gets the bug and CAN’T FREAKING WAIT, well, that happened yet again, and the house transitioned from “waiting to exhale be festive” to “so ridicccccculously festive” in

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House Stuff That’s Super On Sale Right Now

Ok, so this spur of the moment Friday post is all thanks to a gal named Kari on Instagram who messaged me and said “40% off capiz lamps at West Elm. Just saying’!” And, well, you know the rest. I lost my mind. And I bought a giant gorgeous chandelier that I can’t wait to lay in bed next to hang over our bed, and I almost bought a dozen other things (there were like 14 things in my cart at one point until John reined me in). And thus, this post full of deeply discounted house stuff was born. I didn’t make any fancy mood boards, just dumped a bunch of pics and links here. And as for what I

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2016 Holiday Gift Guide

We have a tradition around here when it comes to whipping up some holiday gift guides for the guys, gals, and kids in your life, so here are this year’s favorite finds. We rounded up around 35 items in each category – many of which are under $25 (there are even things under $5!). *There’s also a roundup of holiday coupon codes & discounts at the bottom of this post – you know we’re suckers for a sale, and some places have 50% off right now!*  1. These pretty little druzy earrings (20% off with code SALE20!) 2. Little scissors shaped like The Eiffel Tower are a cute gift for crafters/sewers 3. Pretty candles that smell

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Video House Tour 2016!

Now that our kitchen remodel is wrapped up, it felt like a good time for a (long overdue) video house tour. Our last one was nearly three years ago (you can watch it here) and there really wasn’t much progress to be seen, considering it was shot just seven months after we moved in (you can watch the “before” house tour here). But now that our first floor is looking almost unrecognizable from that “before” video, we figured it was time to break out the video camera and walk around the house using our tried & true method of John-films-while-I-chat-your-ear-off. Bonus points for anyone who can find the two frames proudly displaying a sideways stock photo of a stranger (we have

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Our Kitchen Remodel Is Done! Before & After Photos

Want a full tour of our newly renovated kitchen in 4,390 words or less? Well settle in and sip some LaCroix, because this is the post for you. Shall we begin with a few before and afters? You probably remember this view from our living room where you couldn’t actually see the kitchen. Well, now it looks like this: And here’s the old view from the other side, which is what you saw when you stepped in the door from the garage. These days it’s looking a little different. There’s obviously TONS of stuff to cover about this space, but today our main goal is to dish out lots of after photos and tell the story behind the major

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How To Turn One Duvet Cover Into Two

Yes, it is I, Sherry The Mediocre Seamstress, back with another post about sewing something while half wanting to fling the machine out the window, and then acting like a triumphant American Gladiator when I’m finished, parading around all sweaty and half clothed in full peacock mode. Behold, I have transformed one boy’s duvet cover into two. The issue was simple: my BFF had inherited her husband’s boyhood set of twin beds for their son’s bedroom. They had been using just one in their old house, but now had room to set up both in their new house (which is just a block away from mine! INSERT ALL THE EXCITED EMOJIS!). But alas, she had only one duvet cover

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