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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How We Painted Our Wood Paneling

About a week ago (after we painted our brick fireplace) our kitchen looked like this: Then we removed the desk and upper cabinet (that will be in the way of our big future doorway to the dining room) and after one coat of not-covering-at-all primer it looked like this: Then we finally got the primer thing right after dealing with maddening bleed-through issues thanks to two days of applying coat after coat and three different types of primer (more on that here): And now it looks like this, although it reads a bit more yellow in these photos than in person (it’s a smidge greener in real life). It’s definitely a warm golden green tone

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Priming Our Wood Paneling

And now, for the dang paneling update. Hold on to your hats ladies and gents. This post = wild ride. As you probably know, we’re no strangers to priming and painting paneling. Sure we could remove the paneling, but it would mean removing and rehanging all the cabinets since they’re hung in front of it – and revealing goodness knows how many scary issues behind it (they’re old plaster walls so that just felt like a big ol’ can o’ worms). And we could attempt to drywall over it (but it would mean drywalling around the existing cabinets and a lot more expense/trouble than just painting it). So we decided early on that we’d once

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Tips For Hosting A House Party

Paneling = oy. Update tomorrow. But while we’re here… Can you believe that Clara’s b-day bash was the largest party (weighing in at 25 attendees) that we’ve thrown since our backyard wedding almost four years ago? How lame of us. And I know, it’s been over a month – enough already about the party. But since a lot of our posts are actually just notes to self (how else would we remember what color we painted our old bedroom?) we figured we better record what we lizz-earned now (or forever hold our peace forget it all). 1. Keep the focus on a few carefully selected rooms (and don’t put stuff for guests to peruse in

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A Beautiful Office Full Of Inspiration

The bleeping paneling is taking a wee bit longer than we expected. Le sigh. Hopefully we’ll have an update for you soon. In the meantime… Every once in a while a shop or office inspires us so much that we decide to crash it (just like we did when it came to this fun kids consignment shop). And we weaseled our way into this office space for Towne & Reese (a jewelry company named after two Charlotte ladies’ kids) thanks to a house crashing adventure from a few years back. You have to remember this one, right? Here are a few shots to jog your memory: And here’s a pic of the cute couple with

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Junk Drawer Organization

Sometimes one big drawer of junk isn’t nearly as easy to navigate as two smaller drawers full of half the junk each. So in that vein I decided to transfer all of the stuff out of our double-wide junk drawer, which has gotten increasingly “rowdy.” Especially in comparison to the obedient glasses, mugs, and vases in the upper cabinet: We have some completely empty smaller drawers on the other side of the kitchen near the office which should do the trick. We’re blessed to have more storage than we know what to do with in this kitchen – and putting this stuff near the office is so much easier since we use 99% of it

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How To Use Weed Blocking Fabric

Yeah, we’re those neighbors. You know, the ones who are so busy working on the inside of the house (slash baby-wrangling) that our yard is looking a little worse for wear. Check out the weed convention taking place under our mailbox: And hark, who is that sweet little guy peering out of the overgrown insanity? Why it’s a sweet iron squirrel left by the previous owners. And yes, I do love him and occasionally pet him. His name is Norman. So the first step of the whole mailbox makeover was clearly to weed. For the first time in half a year. Yup, other than this mom-assisted weeding event, we haven’t done it at all since

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How To Make Ikea Curtains Look Good

That’s how many yards I knew I’d need to make eight living room curtains. It generally breaks down to five yards of fabric per window (or sliding door) for two floor-length curtains that I can hang high and wide over each one. So five yards times four windows/sliders = eight panels (two for the big back window, two for each of the two sliding doors to the right as you face the window, and two for the sliding door to the left (that leads out onto this balcony to nowhere). So that’s where the whole 20 yards thing came from. And yeah for those who can’t picture it, that’s a lot of fabric (60 feet

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A Neutral Living Room With Citrus Accents

It feels like years since I made my last mood board (you can see over 125 of them here). What the heck is up with that? So I’m breaking the dry spell with this just-for-fun creation that I tossed together with some cheerful and sunny summer color. I wanted to pick some fun accessories that anyone with a neutral toned sofa and neutral colored walls could use as a springboard for pulling together a room with a warm, happy, and inviting vibe: 1. The color palette for the room is full of warm tones like sunny orange and yellow along with some rich dark wood tones, some basic neutrals like mocha and tan, and glossy

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Patio Updates And Backyard Landscaping

Don’t get too excited. It’s not so much aesthetic progress, as it is functional progress. We got our old spray painted metal and glass coffee table from our first house‘s living room… … back from John’s parents (they used it when their house was on the market and then it accidentally got hidden away in storage). Then it dawned on us that although we didn’t have a spot for it inside, a ton of outdoor furniture is spray painted metal and glass (like the round table that the old owners left on our upper patio). So out to the patio it went. Is it perfect for the space? Nope. Is it great for resting my

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How To Paint A Brick Fireplace

We’re back with the fireplace update that we mentioned in yesterday’s post about removing our old not-baby-safe wood stove. This next step is definitely just the beginning of our fireplace makeover (as in step two of probably fifteen). We figure we’ll tackle this baby in stages (just like we do pretty much everything else around here) so the first step was to spend as little as possible to get it looking better for the short-term (since it might be a while until Phase Two kicks in). So here’s what it looked like yesterday morning: And here’s what it looked like yesterday evening: I know, I know – the orange paneling makes it look craZy with

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How We Transplanted Our Red Maple Tree

We were sneaky. Before we put our first house on the market we dug up a Japanese maple that we had planted in the back. We planted it right around the time we got married and it was an offshoot plant from a gorgeous maple that grew in John’s parents’ house (the only house he lived in for his entire childhood which has since been sold). So it was kind of double-meaningful with the whole “wedding tree” and “John’s childhood house” connection. That’s why before we sold the house we figured we should dig it up and put it in a bucket and move that bucket right along with us. But since we moved in

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A Beautiful House Tour In North Carolina

We’re back with another house crashing adventure from our recent road trip through Charlotte, North Carolina. You already caught a sneak peek of the amazing kitchen, so we’re back to fill in the blanks. And oh man, this family couldn’t have been sweeter if they were made of sugar. Seriously. And their completely transformed 60’s ranch couldn’t have been more charming. Even the outside had us at hello (you know we love a brick ranch). Since they tackled such an amazing makeover, we decided to toss in some before pictures to show you just how far Kristen, Stan, and their one year old son Davis have taken it (well, Davis was in the belly most

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