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 | | 45 Comments

Behind The Scenes: Our Friday Photo Shoot

We’re back to share the “backstage” details of our recent photo shoot with the crew from BHG for Do It Yourself magazine and Kitchen + Bath Makeovers (with our newly transformed nursery and our recently renovated bathroom playing the stars of the show). Let’s just say it was a day full of prepping, propping, shooting, eating, secretly high fiving when no one was looking (ok, that was just me and John), and standing around staring as the masters worked their magic (again, that was just me and John). And we had a lot to stare at. There were large panels of fabric to soften any outside light, big worth-more-than-our-house camera lenses, and computers hooked up

[ Read More ]

| By | | 100 Comments

A House Full Of DIY Projects

When Kara from Made 2 Create invited us to crash her Tulsa, Oklahoma house we decided that even though we couldn’t make the trek over there in person we needed to virtually cover her casa. Because it’s just that good. And to preface this amazing house tour we should mention that almost everything you’ll see in Kara’s gorgeous home came from a garage sale, Craigslist or she and her hubby Tim made it with their own four hands. Now let’s meet Kara the handy homeowner herself: And now that we have the formalities out of the way, let’s poke around inside. Kara built a faux fireplace to create a focal point and put her favorite

[ Read More ]

| By | | 52 Comments

A DIY Baby Mobile With Folded Moravian Stars

When Isabel and Thomas sent over some photos of their DIY mobile project (which was reminiscent of the one that we featured in this nursery makeover of yore) we had to share the eye candy. Here’s their letter: You’ve inspired yet another project, and since you’ve recently completed your nursery I thought this was timely. I learned how to make folded Moravian Stars from a tutorial online (in three different sizes, all in a variety of patterns I printed myself). I used this site and this site for reference, although the former is better. My husband invented the actual “hangers” for the mobile. He’s amazing! So with nothing more than paper, scissors, Mod Podge, a

[ Read More ]

| By | | 87 Comments

An Amazing Kitchen Reno For $8000

You guys have to remember Krystol thanks to the amazing porch makeover that she sent our way a while back. Well, she’s done it again. And her kitchen is nothing short of fantastic (not to mention budget friendly). Here’s her letter: Thank you so much for posting our porch reno on your blog. I was so amazed at the response and wanted to share our latest project: the kitchen reno. We ripped out everything right down to the studs and started over with new Ikea cabinets, new appliances, a new laminate counter and my favorite: a zinc topped work island which we made by “wrapping” the top half of an MDF sheet with zinc that

[ Read More ]

| By | | 91 Comments

Painting The Back Of A Glass Kitchen Cabinet

As many of you know, I recently snagged some affordable drinking glasses that we love so much, which spurred a full fledged glass-fronted cabinet makeover here at Casa Petersik. Here’s what our glass fronted corner cabinet looked like before my little spring update: We love that it was full of plates, glasses and bowls that we use all the time (we’re all about enjoying our servingware on a regular basis so nothing feels too precious or underused) so of course when I picked up those new glasses I made a promise to John that they wouldn’t be tucked away for “special occasions” and that we’d use them on the regular. And what better way to

[ Read More ]

| By | | 94 Comments

Two Magazine Photoshoots At Our House

It’s a crazy-but-we-wouldn’t-have-it-any-other-way day here at Casa Petersik. We actually have a photography crew from BHG here (!) to shoot our newly transformed nursery and our recently renovated bathroom for two different publications: Kitchen + Bath Makeovers and Do It Yourself magazine. Fun, right? We’re all geeked out about it. We’re super excited to watch the stylists work their propping magic (how do they make bottles of soap look so good?) and we actually know the photographer Erik Johnson since he shot the rest of our house a while back for a three-issue article in Do It Yourself (see them here, here, and here). In fact here we are with Erik and the crew from

[ Read More ]

| By | | 115 Comments

Finding Colorful Glass Cups On Sale

Many of you know that I have a giant binder full of clear plastic sleeves where I shove a ton of tear sheets from magazines, catalogs and other places that inspire me (read more about how I organize that magical binder right here). And one ripped corner of a magazine that has been in my binder pretty much since its inception has been an image from Elle Decor with gorgeous vintage looking glasses in green, yellow, blue and pink with recessed designs on them that create a light and almost sea-glass-ish effect. They’re credited as being from this super swanky store (which doesn’t happen to have a shot of them on their site- boo) and

[ Read More ]

| By | | 67 Comments

Painting A Wood China Cabinet White And Adding Fabric To The Back Wall

When Emily sent us her amazing china cabinet makeover we just had to share her before & after pics. Here’s her letter: I’ve been following your blog and have been inspired to move away from a house full of dark furniture and lighten things up a bit! We had some dark $10 clearance dining chairs that we purchased last summer but we decided to give them an airy overhaul (we found discount fabric and payed a professional to paint and upholster the chairs and they still came in under $100 a piece!). We also had been on the lookout for a china cabinet to store all of our servingware (which was sadly being stored in

[ Read More ]

| By | | 37 Comments

Making Graphic Art Prints With A Paint Pen

When Liz sent her DIY art project our way we couldn’t wait to share the outcome with you guys. Here’s her letter: I know that you guys are always whipping up fab DIY art, so I thought your readers might enjoy this little art project that I did. We’ve had a wall in our den that has been blank for over a year. Finally I decided to spend an evening making a fun and funky little art series that has added some much-needed interest to that wall. The best part is that it couldn’t have been easier. If you can wield a paint pen, you can definitely take on this project! In short: I painted

[ Read More ]

| By | | 170 Comments

Receipts Have BPA?!

When we recently heard that some receipts can release a lot more BPA than any plastic bottle on the market we had to know more. And while this subject might not be inherently DIY related, it can certainly factor into having a safe and happy home- especially on Earth Day. Plus we’re all about simplifying our lives (it was even my 2010 resolution) so the solution that we reached after reading up on this topic actually contributes to less daily clutter and chaos, which is always a good thing. Who doesn’t want to have a more organized wallet, purse, and home? Here’s the gist. Science News recently reported that some receipts are made with a

[ Read More ]

| By | | 62 Comments

A Budget-Friendly Home Office Makeover

When Jennifer sent over some pictures of her sitting nook turned office we just had to share the goods. Here’s her letter: Hey YHLers. I’m totally hooked on your blog and wanted to share my recent home office makeover. It went from a non-functional sitting room (it actually did function as a laundry dumping ground which was not very pleasing to the eyes, and really served no other purpose) to an extremely functional home office space. A lot of the major stuff was already owned, such as the chandelier and the desk (moved from another room in the house). We just dressed things up a bit by creating a homemade bulletin board, craft storage using

[ Read More ]

| By | | 522 Comments

A Green & Blue Nursery For Our Girl

Woo to the hoo. We finally finished the nursery! And at just four weeks before the beanette’s estimated arrival (although we’re sure she’s gonna be late) we’re beyond excited to have a cheerful and functional room waiting for her. It definitely has come a long way from the blank canvas that we started with: And that closet. Let’s just say it was one of our major challenges when it came to storage space, function, organization and all that good stuff: Luckily we were able to introduce a ton of stash space thanks to a crib with a large built-in drawer, a generously sized double dresser (snagged on Craigslist for just $20), an already owned storage

[ Read More ]