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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Finding A Restoration Hardware Table For Cheap

(You’ll get the meaning of that post title in a minute) Exciting news, guys – we finally found something to take the spot of our too-small pedestal table in the eat-in part of our kitchen. And we’re happy to report that it’s a lot more proportionate – and functional! – for the space. Now we can seat six or even eight people in a pinch, which has already proven to be useful with our big families (and my spread-out-all-the-tear-sheets propensities). Of course we’re still on the hunt for dining chairs so these are just for the meantime, but man, it’s such an upgrade to have room for adult sized plates again. Just try not to

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How To Stencil A Pillowcase

This is a heartwarming story featuring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow about getting crafty with a pillowcase, some fabric paint, and a metal grate, hence that pun-tastic title. I don’t know about you, but I always seem to have one or two extra pillowcases around. We only have one set of sheets per bed, but I think since I buy two extra pillows for every bed (and therefore need extra pillowcases) I must see them on sale and grab them without making sure I really need them (hence the over-abundance). Really, it’s sort of a mystery to me since I’m the girl who won’t buy tomato sauce or toothpaste unless I’m sure I’m out, but

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The 411 On Baby #2

Holy cow, I think you guys had even more questions than the last time we did this after announcing that Clara was on the way! But it was fun to dive in and answer as many things as we could before hitting 4,500 words (because honestly that’s pushing it, even for us). So here are a whole lot of answers for you sweet folks who had us beaming all day on Wednesday after our little bun announcement. We have so much to be thankful for, and you guys are definitely on the list. Will you find out the sex of the baby? Are you taking a blood test to find out early, like Maternity21? Do

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How To Make A Fall Wreath

I don’t know if it’s the crisp autumn breeze or the explosion of all things pumpkin on Pinterest, but a few days ago I woke up jonesing to make a fall wreath. Yes, some people have chocolate cravings, but I have craft cravings. Come to think about it, I also have chocolate cravings. Is there a correlation? Someone needs to study this. Some of you have even been requesting more small crafty projects (like these) which have always been in the mix, but lately we’ve been so busy painting, stripping wallpaper, & renovating the sunroom that little homemade updates seem to have fallen by the wayside. But not anymore. The truth is we’ve missed them

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Blogiversary 6: Rugs Under The Rug

We’ve shared a few behind the scenes posts about how we take on side gigs, like this one about how our lighting collection came together, and this one and this one about our experiences with writing a book. So we thought it would be interesting to share a side gig that didn’t work out, despite putting lots of behind-the-scenes hours into it. You know we like to share the good, the bad, and the ugly – so why hide something that ended up being a big ol’ bust when we can tell you guys about it? Without naming names, a very nice company that makes wool/cotton rugs approached us and said “Let’s do a Young

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Blogiversary 6: You Asked, We Answered

Get ready to cringe! It’s time for our annual (and always amazingly awkward) Q&A video. Just like in past blogiversary weeks, we invited you guys to ask us some personal (i.e. non-decorating) questions over on our Facebook page last week. And after over 150 questions came rolling in, we sat down and answered as many as we could while Clara napped one afternoon – and then culled it down into this 20 minute video. Among all of our mind-blowing, no-holds-barred revelations (note the sensationalism) you’ll learn: So now that you’re most likely on the edge of your seat (… or not) here goes nothing: So there you have it, another year of us blathering on

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A Day In The Life Of A Blogger

Holy cats, have we really been blogging for six years?! It feels like Blogiversary 5 just happened, and that it was mere months ago that it was 2007 and we were posting tiny pictures and writing a few sentences each night about whatever was going on under our roof. All of the years of this adventure have been exciting, but the last 12 months in particular have brought things we never could’ve expected when we started this site: a book that somehow landed on the best-seller list, a lighting collection that we designed right here in Richmond with a local company, a short film on Oprah (what?!), and probably the most exciting thing of all

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How To Paint Your Stair Balusters White

At least that’s how I feel about them. I know some people hate stairs, but after seeing about a million gorgeous staircases on Pinterest and a whole bunch of awesome DIY stair upgrades, I was all “I waaaant stairs.” A la that girl in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory who sings about wanting a bean feast (?!). And then, as luck would have it, after seven years of owning one-level houses we fell in love with a house that has stairs. Half of me feared I’d live to regret the change, and half of me couldn’t wait to go on a blind spree, pinning ten million staircases per minute. I was like Ariel singing about

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One Opportunity Missed, One Opportunity Seized

And now for some “never thought we’d type that in our entire lives” news before we dive into today’s post. Remember when we Instagrammed this (well, I guess technically we Regrammed it) back in May? It was from our day of shooting a little segment with the OWN crew (as in Oprah’s crew). #ahhhhhh #more screaming Well, that “short film” is airing this Sunday! It’ll be on towards the end of their Super Soul Sunday season premiere (info here) and we’re practically ready to faint at the possibility of Oprah saying our names out loud. Seriously, somebody get me a fan, a ruffled dress, and a chaise lounge so I can dramatically swoon. But now

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Money Saving Reno Tips With Michelle of 4 Men, 1 Lady

Something we love about the home-slash-DIY blogosphere is that no matter someone’s renovation budget, there almost always seems to be some great story of money saving. Whether it’s salvaging existing materials, shopping for steals, negotiating a deal, or simply doing it yourself, there are some great stories of frugality and ingenuity out there. So in that spirit we thought we’d periodically share some cash-monay saving tips from some of our favorite bloggers. And maybe we’ll sneak in some eye candy along the way. Sound good? First up is Michelle from the blog 4 Men, 1 Lady, who has always wowed us with her jaw-dropping transformations. But I should let Michelle take over so you can

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How To Make A Fabric Bed Canopy

*Thanks so much for all of the kind words and the love that you guys shared after yesterday’s post. It was so touching to read all of your stories and memories.  A few weeks ago when Clara saw a canopy hanging over her friend’s bed, she was immediately in LOVE. As in, she put in a request for “daddy and mommy to build a canopy with a hammer and some blankets” for her right that second. Not surprisingly, we were in. Just not for the whole hammering blankets thing… We love that it’s something she requested and that it adds more playful personality to her room, Heck, it just might get her excited enough to

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Never Forget

Thanks for the encouragement from this morning’s post to choke out my rambling September 11th story guys. As hard as it is to tell, I feel like it’s something I’ll want to look back on – especially when Clara’s older and I’m trying to explain the enormity of that day. It was a terrible day, but such a life-changing one too, and it definitely shaped who I am. And as much as I love having thousands of DIY posts in our archives, sometimes it’s those rare personal posts (like this one or this one or this one) that make me the happiest that I dumped all the jumbled words out of my head and onto

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