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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Buying A Thrift Store Egg Chair

I have been obsessed with egg chairs for at least a decade since seeing this hanging one in Domino magazine back in college and this guy from Marie Claire Maison (their French house-related magazine) who has also been in my desktop inspiration folder for at least five years. So as you can imagine, every time I’m in a thrift store I’m on the eternal egg chair hunt. I dream of hanging one in our sunroom next to the daybed for Clara (or me) to swing around in without killing ourselves. Not sure if we can handle it, but the universe has taken some safety measures and insured that every time I look I have no

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Window Shopping: Beachy Shops & Thrift Stores

Last week I promised a post about all the window shopping slash actual shopping that we did during our week at the beach with the fam. And that includes the two items we actually purchased: the whale sign for Clara’s room (made from wood, a five year anniversary material)… … and the thrift store basket that I’d love to turn into a hanging pendant somewhere in our house (more on those items here). But I owe you guys the rest of the eye candy that we perused, so here we go. As we mentioned, we stopped at the Ole Sale Barn in Maryland where we found the L-turned-7 in our office last Labor Day. And that’s

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Painting The Bedroom Rockport Gray

The deed is done! Rockport Gray is all up in this hizzy. We love how much more things like the extra thick crown molding and the trim around the doors and windows pops now that the color is deeper and more… sleepy? Can you describe a bedroom color that way? In love. It’s such a mutating color. Sometimes it looks lighter and grayer. And sometimes it looks moodier and more mocha. We think it looks especially good with our cheap-o Ikea curtains (Vivan panels for $9 a pop) and other crisp white things, like this old side table from our first house’s den and the white lamp shade on our floor lamp. So yeah, we

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Finding The Perfect Medium Gray Wall Color

Yup, we went for it. We slapped up two paint colors that we love (and already had on hand) in our bedroom to see if darker walls (which is something John that has been campaigning for over the last few months) is the way to go. Remember when we poorly photoshopped it a while back? Except picture it more brown-gray, like a putty color (instead of blue-gray), since there are plenty of colors in the rug and the bedding already. We tried one of our favorite smoky gray colors (Gray Horse by Benjamin Moore) which is under the chair rail in the office and also tried the darker and moodier color that’s more of a

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How To Decorate A Dining Room Buffet

Yes, that’s an SNL reference. But before I go any further I have to say thanks and I love you to you guys. Your kind words from this morning have literally lifted me up on a day that has been soggy and sad. You guys rock. Hard. Now onto a very important post that many of you have requested. Photos of what I put on our new craigslist buffet. I tried to pick a variety of items that are functional and special to us (hence the title of this post). So this is what the entryway looks like now: And just for fun, this is what it looked like when we laid eyes on our

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Love & A Few Tears

Over the years of jabbering on about house stuff I occasionally get questions about my family. How many siblings I have, how I grew up, etc. I always say it was a somewhat un-traditional childhood… in the best possible way. I was raised by my mom and dad, who split up when I was very young (a few years after my younger brother Daniel was born) so we just had two houses and bounced happily between them. I remember when a kid at school once teased me for having divorced parents and I put the “I have two houses and you only have one and I get double the holiday presents” spin on it. Looking

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Our $230 Bathroom Makeover

The ceiling hole is patched (see more on how I get that done here, complete with a ridiculous video of the process) – although admittedly the paint is probably still drying. But we’re ready to call this turkey done. For now. This is one of those makeovers that wasn’t a total gut job, but was a series of smaller tweaks that added up to something pretty darn noticeable. In fact going into this we thought this just might be a “for now” fix that we’ll eventually redo completely (all that beige tile was hard to get behind) but now that we’ve made these upgrades we’re surprised how much we like the room – especially since

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Window Shopping: PB Outlet & Mary Jo’s

Woot, I finally got through the 200+ photos I took at two of my favorite on-the-road-to-Atlanta-and-back shopping stops: The Pottery Barn Outlet (in Gaffney, SC) and Mary Jo’s Cloth Shop (right outside of Charlotte, NC). So here are all the things I loved the most (and yes, I actually got something, which I’ll call out at the end of this post). So fasten your window shopping seat belts, we have a lot of ground to cover. First let’s start at the PB Outlet. Does the building beckon you in too, or is it just me? Since we had Clara and Burger with us for the Haven trip, John very selflessly offered to stay outside and

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House Crashing: Breezy & Bright

Who’s ready for another house crashing adventure? This is a house in Roswell, Georgia that we dropped in on – and it’s a beaut. Julie, the owner, is also one of the ladies behind Milk & Honey Home, and it’s so inspiring to see how she pairs colors and patterns in her own home (while squeezing in some great budget-friendly ideas). We’re so thankful that she let us snoop around and share the pics! So without further ado… let’s barge in and make ourselves at home. The foyer just beyond the front door was spectacular. I mean, isn’t this like living in a magical jewelry box or something? I was immediately smitten. She got the

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Making Acrylic Art

It’s Tuesday the 10th… so it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing). Cue the choir of glue-gun-wielding angels! I actually tried my hand at painting, just because I thought it would be fun to get back into. Other than this painting that I did a while back, I haven’t painted much beyond walls, accessories, and furniture for the last decade or so. Are my Pinterest challenge paintings going to land me an art opening anytime soon? Not on your life. Haha. But it was so much fun and I found spots for

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Add Something Old To Every Room

You know how a bunch of designers have been saying things like “every room should have something old in it”? Or have I been the only one noticing that lately? Sort of like how they say “every room should have something black in it” (but other than oil rubbed bronze curtain rods or dark mocha wood, virtually nothing in any of our rooms is black – although 95% of my shirts are black, so maybe that counts?). Either way, it’s official. I’m on the “something old” train. It all happened when I was browsing craigslist (searching the words “dresser” and “sideboard” and “buffet” every week or so, if you’re wondering about my craigslist technique) since

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A Wood Truck That Holds Crayons

Here’s the story of the little two dollar Goodwill truck that I got Clara in Georgia (mentioned in this video yesterday). This is what it looked like when I snatched it up: Perfectly charming and vintage-ish, but a little less “Clara” than it could have been. So I thought it would be fun to get Clara involved in a little makeover. Yes, Clara would be the ultimate truck graffiti artist, but first I applied one coat of blue paint, just to set the stage for her scribbles (the entire project was free thanks to using a little test pot of paint leftover from this old art project last year). The color is Embellished Blue by

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