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 | |

Our Airbnb’s Laundry Room / Mudroom Makeovers

Ok, two more duplex rooms are finished and photographed! And these two involved some sweat equity. We built in some nice tall storage cabinets next to the stacked washer/dryers, and also added two hook rails per room (you can never have enough hooks at the beach!). As a side note, the way that the kitchens connect and flow into each laundry room / mudroom is one of my favorite things in the entire house. From the bold statement tile backplashes and fun tiled mudroom floors to the painted pocket doors (we added those to make it possible to close off the sound of laundry if you’re cooking, dining, or watching TV) – it’s just an

[ Read More ]

| By | |

Our Living Rooms & Dining Room Makeovers At The Duplex!

We’re THRILLED TO PIECES to be finished with the entire front half of the entire duplex – which means we’re revealing the open living room & dining room on each side at this very moment. Right now. It’s ON. This is what you see when you walk into the left side of the duplex and pivot towards the living area. With the exception of still having to steam and hem the curtains, we are ready to stick a fork in this baby! One of our favorite secondhand rugs that I bought ages ago from New England Loom on Instagram found a home in the living area with our favorite Crate & Barrel sofa to add

[ Read More ]

| By | |

Read This Before You Paint Your Brick House

By now you know that we’re nothing short of OBSESSED with the results of painting our brick house white last fall. It has probably been one of our favorite makeovers in our 13 years of homeownership. So for anyone else who might be considering doing something similar, we wanted to share some advice and some exciting news! And also some spring pics of the house, because it’s the first time we’ve gotten to see her with the white flowering dogwoods out front and it makes my heart wanna burst. Wait but first I should passionately proclaim that we don’t think that all brick should be painted. We still very much love an unpainted brick home

[ Read More ]

| By | |

Our Airbnb Bedroom and Bathroom Makeovers

If you tuned in last week, you saw us very excitedly reveal the before & after photos of the first four rooms that we completed at the duplex. SO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS! There isn’t much rhyme or reason to the order of the things we’re sharing – we’re just rolling things out as we complete & photograph them… so today we have FOUR MORE SPACES THAT ARE DONE DONE DONE! Can you tell how thrilling that is for us to proclaim after over a year and a half of working to get this house put back together and ready for renters this summer?! (The listing will go live on Airbnb once we’re done with all

[ Read More ]

| By | |

Our Airbnb Makeover! Bedroom & Bathroom Before & Afters

We’re working overtime (so many trips to the beach these days!) to get all of the rooms in the duplex finished and photographed so we can get our rental listing up on Airbnb for weeklong summer bookings. Don’t worry, we’ll make a big announcement when that happens – you won’t miss it! So even though we still have a bunch of rooms that aren’t quite done yet (like 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 2 laundry rooms, and 2 more bedrooms and bathrooms), it feels extremely momentous to be 100% finished with the four rooms in this post. *Please imagine every single celebratory emoji here* So without further ado, I’ll show you around the two bedrooms

[ Read More ]

| By | |

Our Duplex Airbnb’s Backyard Makeover

Earlier this month we showed you the front porch makeover of the duplex, and today we’re taking you around back to show you how the backside has been transformed (hindquarters? rear? rump? let’s just stick with backside). And yes, you can finally see my beloved diamond doors in all of their glory! Along with the little metal awnings we added, our new back steps, and even those outdoor showers (covered by an extra long metal awning for privacy). Ok and also cute-factor because apparently I’m just really into awnings. There’s actually a lot of work being done to the back yard at the moment (sheds, patios, and fences are in progress as you read this!!!!)

[ Read More ]

| By | |

When You Shouldn’t Hang Curtains In A Room

Some spots just aren’t great for a curtain panel. If it can’t hang all the way to the ground, sometimes it can make a room feel awkward to hang a not-quite-full-length curtain panel. There are definitely exceptions where cafe curtains can look really sweet, but we generally just go whole-hog (full curtains from floor to almost-ceiling) or skip curtains entirely in that spot. So if you have a spot like that, and you’re wondering what we’d do instead of a curtain panel, this post is full of photos and info for you. Take our dining room, for example, which has two heat registers right where curtains would hang, as well as a window that’s super

[ Read More ]

| By | |

A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex!

It feels like a while since you’ve seen the front of the duplex (I blame winter) but that’s going to change today. And let me tell you… THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER! There’s no landscaping yet, the grass is patchy, and Sean the Contractor’s gigantic sign is still there… … but boy oh boy is she lookin’ fynnnnnnnneee when we compare her to where we started: All of the not original details came down – like the weird plastic wagon wheels and strange abacus trim that was added in the 70s, the plastic too-small shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, all those satellite dishes, and the duct tape along the roofline. And we maintained or

[ Read More ]

| By | |

The Easiest House Plants & The Best Faux Plants I’ve Found

This post is going to be full of photos, because I think they do most of the work in making a case for a house full of greenery. But like, easy greenery. That isn’t stressful and that doesn’t remind you of that emoji of dollar signs with wings. Because when things die repeatedly, it can GET YOU DOWN. Ask me how I know. The point is that I TRULY AND DEEPLY BELIEVE that nearly every single room in a home can benefit from greenery – it adds a splash of life and a gorgeous and vibrant texture. So if you’ve got some low light spots that just don’t allow anything real to live, and you’re

[ Read More ]

| By | |

A Light & Airy Living Room (That’s Still Livable!)

Just when you thought the duplex was getting all the action, we snuck in some beach house updates. The backyard is slowly starting to come together (shed! patio! fence! I CAN’T WAIT to show it to you once it gets a little further along!!) but today we’re diving into our lightener & brighter (and much beachier) living room. Now this place actually looks like it’s a few blocks from the beach! And the bonus is that everything is sand and popsicle friendly – which is a must for us (we pack this place with family and friends and all the kids). So our goal was never to make it too precious. In other words, we

[ Read More ]

| By | |

The Best Front Door Paint & Tips For Painting A Door

You know we painted our front door a new color back when we painted our brick house white in October, and I even mentioned back in that post that I used a new-ish specialty paint that’s made for front doors. It’s called Grand Entrance by Benjamin Moore and the paint color is Tranquility also by Benjamin Moore, and it can either be made in a satin base or a super hyper glossy mirror finish base. Based on all of those excited adjectives I used to describe the latter option, it should be of no surprise to you that I jumped at the chance to buy and try “high gloss” for the first time. Photos don’t

[ Read More ]