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.

| By | | 291 Comments

Let’s All Walk Around The House Together…

We’re about to get video happy up in this hizzy. It’s once again time for a video house tour since it has been about six months since the last one and lots has changed since then. So here it is. Ten soul-stirring minutes of me and John walking around the house together while I blab and he films (John = steady hands, Sherry = the chatty one). We’re nothing if not high tech. So come on in and walk around with us… A few notes: I’ve listened to this five times trying to hear Natalie Portman or Mila Kunis (since you guys always say you hear it) and I just can’t. We filmed this with our

[ Read More ]

| By | | 569 Comments

Outdoors Chairs For An *Indoor* Dining Room

And now for a little chair-related riddle: What sucks more than buying eight chairs on craigslist only to realize that they’re really really not working after a year and a half of trying? A: Buying eight chairs on craigslist only to realize that they’re really really not working after a year and a half of trying while you blog about it to the world at large. Haha. But you know we like to keep it real, so here’s the unfortunate chair lesson that we had to learn through trial and error. And boy were there trials. And errors. But you win some and ya lose some when it comes to making your house a home.

[ Read More ]

| By | | 298 Comments

Keeping A Dried Dead Butterfly

Am I the only one who thinks of Will Ferell’s Robert Goulet impression from SNL whenever I hear the word nature? Yes? Anyway, sometimes a little toddler discovery turns into a ten second project (free & fast = my jam) and it makes me smile enough to want to share the goods, so here they are. We’ll call this a tiny Friday update in the name of some “all-natural” fun. As many of you know, much like ceramic animals, outdoorsy things make my heart go pitter-patter (I’m a sucker for a framed sea fan or a collection of nature-ish vacation finds in labeled jars from each trip we’ve taken). So when Clara and I were

[ Read More ]

| By | | 438 Comments

How To Make A Kids Train Board

All aboard! (Can I get a choo choo?) As promised via our little Instagram/Facebook sneak peek yesterday, here’s the story of how we made a little train board for Clara. Why a train board? Well, Clara is nothing short of obsessed with the one at Barnes & Noble (a nice big track is screwed into place on a little pedestal board and kids flock from all sides of the book store to play with it). In fact if we pull into the parking lot (which also leads to a ton of other stores) before we even turn off the car Clara is shouting “we’re getting to play with the trains!” So when John suggested that

[ Read More ]

| By | | 254 Comments

Evolution Of A Bedroom

Blerg. I either have food poisoning or a stomach bug today. But thanks for all the stool love this morning, guys (wait, that sounds kinda gross). And as for this afternoon, while I attempt to avoid breathing on anyone else in this house (who are all thankfully unscathed so far), I thought it might be fun to create a little “timeline” of how each room in our house has evolved, since it’s definitely never an overnight transformation around here. And given our copious bedroom updates, we thought it was a fine place to start. So without further ado, here’s how the room has evolved over the last twenty months since we moved in. It’s still

[ Read More ]

| By | | 458 Comments

Thrifting Vintage Wooden Stools For The Kitchen

Soooooo smething crazy happened. Here’s a little hint: It all started when John and I were lying in bed one night talking about what we’d love to do to make the sunroom more useful slash function slash awesome (it’s currently packed with secret book projects, but come fall we can finally clear it out for a charity auction – and hopefully start working on making it a room that we actually hang out in). We came up with the idea of a long chunky floating bar/counter made from rustic imperfect wood with a few stools pulled up to it along one currently unused wall. You know, sort of like this one or this one (but

[ Read More ]

| By | | 4,063 Comments

Fab Freebie: Pop-O-Matic

***This giveaway is now closed – see who won below!*** This week’s random winner is… Megan (who simply and politely just entered “Pop me, please”). Congrats Megan! Hope everyone’s having a great Labor Day! We thought we’d drop in with today’s giveaway and solve the little hint that we gave you in Friday’s post about this week’s prize. The three clues were: soda cans (aka: pop), a canvas, and the fact that the photo was taken in Instagram (hence the border and that signature square size). So, fellow Instagram addicts, this one’s for you. Well, I guess it’s for anyone who takes pictures or generally enjoys putting art on their walls. Canvaspop is the first company to specialize in

[ Read More ]

| By | | 609 Comments

How To Spray Paint A Plastic Basketball Hoop

Hoop, there it is. File this under my weirdest “Dude, Get On That Already” challenge to date. Much like many of our other DGOTA adventures, this mini update involves something that sat around bugging me way too long + a trusty ol’ can of spray paint. But this time it’s not an animal. I know. Total shocker. John actually laughed at me for this little tweak (and I’m fully expecting you guys to as well), but they say it’s the little things that make ya happy… and seeing a bright red and blue plastic hoop against the back wall of our carport every. single. time. we pulled into the driveway (it was so bright you

[ Read More ]

| By | | 561 Comments

How We Finished And Furnished Our Deck

Well, our goal was to get to enjoy our deck by Labor Day and we squeaked in with just a few days to spare. And in case you couldn’t tell, I’m jazz hands excited about it. Don’t ask me what this move is called. John just picked up the camera and aimed it at me and this happened. It’s a pose straight out of Kids Incorporated. We probably would have taken a rickety card table and some metal folding chairs, so we’re psyched to have found actual end-of-season discounted furniture to put out there for the long haul – but we definitely have more in mind for finishing things off (more on that in a

[ Read More ]

| By | | 261 Comments

How Do You Decide What To Post About?

Q: How do you decide what to post about every day? I’m new to blogging and feeling a lot of pressure. I worry what I write will be boring. Do you ever worry about that? Do you have a checklist that you go through to see if something is good to write about? Do you ever worry that people won’t like what you share? Do you ever skip a post if you think it will be poorly received? Do you try to pace things out in a strategic way? – Nina M. A: Aw, I’m sorry that you feel any pressure at all, Nina. Figuring out what to post about sounds like it could be

[ Read More ]

| By | | 190 Comments

How To Protect Outdoor Furniture With Varnish And Teak Oil

T-minus twenty for hours until we have furniture on the deck!!! Woah nellie, I’m excited about it. Hence the use of three exclamation points and the term woah nellie. Heck, I’m about to break out some coordinated and not at all bizarre dance moves. Watch out now. We still have to choose what stain or sealer to use on the deck (some require a waiting period for pressure treated wood to dry out/acclimate while others can be used sooner) but we decided (read: I prodded John until he agreed) that putting some furniture on the deck in the meantime just means that we can start enjoying this baby. It’ll only take about twenty minutes to

[ Read More ]

| By | | 311 Comments

Painting Words Over A Canvas For Customized Quote Art

Remember when I shared our possessed painting that jumped off the wall cheap painting that we got for $20 at a yard sale… … and mentioned that we: mostly liked the size of it and the chunky frame (which actually came with a little dent in it – a total sign that this guy was a trouble-maker) weren’t in love with the art itself (it just felt sort of generic and hotel-ish in person) Yes? Me too. And then remember when a bunch of you (seriously, like at least a dozen of you guys) recommended that we do some sort of letter stenciling over it like this genius creation by Emily Von Henderson or this

[ Read More ]