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 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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A Little Saturday Night Update

In the breaking news department (that’s an overstatement if I’ve ever made one), although it’s the weekend I thought I’d stop in to share this super quick probably-interesting-to-no-one-but-me dining room update. Remember a few days back when I made our new curtains? And the table looked like this? Well, now it looks like this: Can you already tell the difference? Here, I’ll get a little closer. Yeah, the branches died. Probably because I didn’t even put water in the vase. Oops. How quickly the dream dies. Well, at least when the dream is lush leafy green branches that survive on love alone. And not water. So in mini keeping-it-real news, our table is substantially less

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Thrift Store Shopping

Ok, I keep mentioning that Katie B and I had some fun stared into each other’s eyes for 48 hours straight and she posted about the whole shebang right here (update: Katie’s blog is giving her issues, so maybe try clicking over later or tomorrow instead of right now). And by whole shebang I mean the part where Will went to the bathroom in the tub (numero dos) while bathing with Clara. And how Jeremy and John accidentally wore the same exact beverage themed shirt on Sunday… She also touched on our pedicure adventures… … and mountaintop enjoyment… It’s all here (update: just remember to click over later or tomorrow since her blog is giving

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How To Sew Curtain Panels

Our recent road trip to see Katie and her amazing house gave us that tickle to get down to business when we got back home. You know how your DIY momentum is up and you’re moving right along ticking things off your to-do list and then the dust clears and you’re just spent and need a little break? Like, mehaps, a road trip? That seems to be the way it goes with us. When it comes to house progress, we tend to work in fits and starts. But then something sparks that get-back-to-business excitement and suddenly we’re done with our four-ish day Hammer And Paint Brush Hiatus and are refreshed and ready to go. Yeah,

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A Chic House Tour In North Carolina

We do our best to crash a variety of homes, both old and new, big and small, traditional and modern, expensivo and super cheap, etc. This one falls into the glamorous high-end realm, but its cup runneth over with adaptable ideas – even if you’re on a tight budget. So we’re happy to bask in the inspirational eye candy (and pass it along to you guys of course). As we mentioned in yesterdays post, this gorgeous home is located in Charlotte, NC. So on with the tour. Here’s the charming exterior: And here are Jennifer and her sweet six week old daughter Eleanor to let us in: Here’s the gorgeous view that greets you when

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Buying Fabric At Mary Jo’s Near Charlotte

Earlier this morning we mentioned that we slipped through Mary Jo’s fabric store outside of Charlotte, NC again (read about our first trip here) where they have bolts of discount fabric stacked higher than my 5’2″ self. We thought it would be fun to share what caught our eye along with what we actually bought since some of you guys might be on a fabric pilgrimage of your own. And the good news is that a lot of this fabric should be sold by multiple places (although MJ’s prices are hard to beat) so if you see something you love, I’ve tried to include as many details as possible so you can sleuth it out

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Sneaky Little Petersiks

S’prise. We’ve been on the road for the past five days and just got home last night at 7pm after a nine hour drive. Did we unpack or snuggle up to Karl the Sectional after our home sweet home arrival? Nah, we threw this post together. Just your typical case of “unpacking procrastination” at its finest. Actually I’m just dying to fill you guys in on our adventures, and typical annoyingly energetic gal that I am, I’m too excited to relax. Anyway, we headed out early Thursday morning for Charlotte, NC and stayed there through Saturday morning. Then it was off to Loganville, GA where we remained until early Monday morning when we hit the

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Getting The Scale Right With Furniture

Nope, this isn’t a weight loss post. The scale that I’m talking is this too small had-it-so-we-used-it bookshelf that we shoved into the guest room (just days before my mom arrived) a few months back. Talk about teeny tiny: And somehow we forgot to update you guys about a little switcheroo that took place after we got our new (well, very old) dresser for the bedroom from John’s dad. So here’s a very belated dresser related news flash: we moved our old malm (from Ikea five years ago when we moved to Richmond from NYC) into the guest room. So it looked like this: The scale is definitely better. Someday we’d love to get a

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Shopping In Bethany Beach

We snuck off to the beach over Memorial Day weekend to spend some time with John’s family (at their amazing beach house near Bethany Beach, Delaware) so we thought we’d share our house-related adventures. A while back a reader (thanks Ann!) recommended checking out The Old Screen Door in Lewes (about 30 mins from Bethany), so we took a drive out there and it was the cutest little town (which boasts that it was the first town in the first state). Here’s the front of the shop: It’s not very big inside, but there’s a collection of really fun old stuff going on (mixed with some new stuff to keep things interesting). And Clara loves

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How To Dye Fabric Chair Slipcovers

Remember how we envisioned modern and cheerful green leather parsons chairs around a chunky wood table from pretty much the moment we moved in? And how we decided that dyed-green slipcovers were pretty much the same thing when we found chairs for $25 and slipcovers for $23? Well, we were wrong. I dyed two of the chairs green and they were just not “it” (even if we altered the shade of green, we just knew it was the wrong way to go for us as soon as we saw these babies): Especially considering that there would be seven or eight of them around the table at all times (and we have the bold built-ins going

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May Superlatives

Note: This is a retroactive post that I cobbled together in December of 2011 so I could make this page full of monthly recaps for the entire year (our first in our new house!). Yup, I’m just a bit type A. So here’s what we tackled throughout the month of May – high school yearbook style. Most Improved: Organizing The Insanely Cluttered “Playroom” (more like “disaster area”). Biggest Procrastinator: Painting The Dining Room (after living with swatches for five months) Most Repetitive: Mounting Prints On Canvases (Not Once But Twice) Most Outdoorsy: Sketched Up An Outdoor “Floor Plan” (not to scale though – oops – the house is way too big & our almost-acre lot

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