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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House Crashing Update: Kelly’s Outdoor Escape

We had tons of fun House Crashing Kelly Moore last May (you can see the whole shebang here)… … so when she told us she had made some outdoor updates, we couldn’t wait to check out this little haven that she created out on her deck. Complete with outdoor drapes, a hanging egg chair (from Ikea), some colorful seating (from CB2) , and lots and lots of potted plants  – it definitely has serious come-hither charm. We especially loved the leaning pallet planter that she DIYed with hose clamps from the home improvement store. Some pallets have chemicals in them while others are more naturally sealed (with heat) so they’re less questionable for outdoor crafts

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Window Shopping At World Market

We’re doing our best to keep our word to those who have requested more window shopping posts, so we decided to keep the fun going by hitting up World Market (and taking you with us). For those who remember these things, we just stroll around a store (we’ve done big chains, small local shops, and even random little stores that we find while road-tripping) and take photos of all of the things we love. Not for compensation or anything – these sprees are just for fun. So let’s all go skipping through World Market together, shall we? First there were the pretty drinking glasses that were the reason for our visit (we got a few

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How To Remove An Old Shower Tile Border

We no strangers to removing unsightly trees. In fact, taking care of the dead/dying/dangerous trees that we were warned might fall on our first house during our home inspection was a big part of the transformation of the front yard. But taking out these particular trees was a new challenge… because they were in the form of tile in our bathroom: We’ve never been crazy about the beige-on-beige color scheme going on when it comes to the tile in that bathroom, but at least most of it is neutral enough to not call that much attention to itself. Except for that tree-tacular border. Every time we walk in the opening chant from The Lion King

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Adding Bright Red Adirondack Chairs To Our Side Patio

Enough about our colorful stools… …and on to our newest set of colorful chairs. Oh yes, we’re officially on a bold-colored seating kick. Remember we already have these $35 thrift store guys that we gussied up with green paint and fresh upholstery in the office? And this zero dolla (holla!) hand-me-down highchair for Clara that we happied up with some sunny yellow paint? Apparently it’s nothing but the best brightest for our buns. And this might be kind of shocker, but this time… we’ve gone red! A pretty tomato red, to be exact. And it looks pretty darn tasty with the blue hydrangeas around the paver patio that we DIYed last May. When we shared

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How To Spray Paint Metal Stools

Well, after reading every last one of the 750+ suggestions you guys left on this post (no doubt about it – there are definitely a million ways we could have gone with these guys!) and putting lots of thought into pretty much every possibility under the sun, we ended up going with our very first instinct. A chipper turquoise-y-teal tone. So here’s the rundown of how we transformed these basic $32 stools from an online supply store. The funny thing is that there were probably the most votes for blue from you guys too (closely followed by yellow). Although there were definitely suggestions for a ton of other options (four different colors, tones like orange/coral/purple/pink, upholstered

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A Rug For The Kitchen

Our new kitchen rug has arrived! Yes, it was actually something we ordered online, which is somewhat nerve-wracking since finding a rug for this spot has proven difficult so far (although we have had success with online rug orders before). But based on what we learned from our little rug fashion show, we were pretty confident that we’d figured out the winning formula. At least we were hopeful… The “winning” rug was actually from Urban Outfitters. The color, pattern, and price were all great – so we thought we’d give it a shot. With a spring discount code they were running, it came to just $69 with shipping – which is obviously a lot cheaper

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Picking A Color For Our Metal Stools

Me + a picture of our kitchen + photoshop = this post. Back in December when we bought our kitchen stools (from a school supply store for $32 a pop) we mentioned we were entertaining a number of ways to tweak them down the line (painting them, upholstering/staining the seat, etc) but just couldn’t shake the feeling that we should live with them a while first – just to make sure we weren’t doing anything rash in the middle of a kitchen remodel. We basically wanted the room to come together, live with them a little, and then make the call. It was actually really nice how they tied into the stainless appliances, felt kind

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How To Organize Takeout Menus

Duuude, let’s go boarding. Clipboarding, that is. I’m not coordinated enough to tackle a surfboard, skateboard, or a snowboard, but this I can handle. And it can definitely be considered a Dude, Get On That Already project, because this old clipboard hails from the playroom, where I plopped it down among the ceramic animal chaos and said to myself: “I’ll do something cute with this later.” But soon I forgot all about it and fall turned into winter and now it’s late spring and completely time to get on it. It was a favor from a bridal shower I attended last fall (it was what we all used to play bride-quiz-games, and since the host

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Switching Out Bedroom Rugs & Accessories

We did a little more bedroom noodling. Noodling, not canoodling. *Blush* Anyway, we last left off after moving our Alaskan prints together over the bed and surprising ourselves by getting a new rug: And there were a few commonly asked bedroom questions in the 800+ comments on Monday’s post, which were: have you considered getting larger bedside tables? can the bed go on another wall? will you repaint? maybe in a darker color? what are your plans for the nook to the left of the bed? what about changing out the pillows/painting the bed & tables/getting a longer bench/switching the lamps, etc? The short answers to those are: yes but it’s complicated, no, we’re open

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Window Shopping At Target

“Would love to see another post about your favourite finds at Target. They’re coming to Canada and I’m so giddy I could piddle! Love your blog!” – Jaye It’s been way too long since our last window shopping adventure (10 months?!?!), so to everyone who has been requesting them (especially if you used the word piddle), we’re psyched to share the goods. For those who remember these things, we just stroll around a store (we’ve done big chains, small local shops, and even random little stores that we find while road tripping) and take photos of all of the things we love. Not for compensation or anything – these sprees are just for fun. So

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How To Get A Wool Rug For Cheap

As we mentioned here, the bedroom is “still looking rough and we’re not sure about a lot of things – just waiting for inspiration to strike – which might involve repainting and rearranging furniture along with refinishing the floors”). We even elaborated a bit in the comments when folks started asking what we meant by that or if we hated the current color by saying: “We love the paint color but something is off about the bedroom and we’re not sure we can rule anything out – including the paint color. Everything is a suspect until proven innocent. Haha. Something is limiting us, so we’re not opposed to changing that thing once we pin it

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Decorating A Dollhouse

Hold onto your miniature hats, it’s time for the fun part of painting and personalizing the dollhouse! Our last post was full of the building process, which you can see by (clicking here) – so let’s move on to how we finished everything off. After it was all assembled, it was time to schlep our 31″ x 31″ creation up into the sunroom for some priming and painting. Just like our office cabinets, kitchen cabinets, and the play kitchen we made for Clara, I used a coat of Zinsser Smart Prime (it’s no-VOC but amazingly good for blocking bleed through when you’re painting raw or stained wood) followed by two coats of Bejamin Moore’s low-VOC Advance paint (really

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