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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A Beautiful Light Blue & Red Nursery

When Brieanne sent over her amazing nursery before and after pics we couldn’t wait to share the major transformation. Here’s her letter: Last year my sister asked me (her younger sister with the architecture degree) to help her with her nursery for my future (and now completely adorable) niece Claire. Because my sister and brother-in-law could possibly have more than one child in their current space, they wanted a decently gender neutral nursery. Beginning with some bedding by Skip Hop my sister loved, we started a “mood board.” The criteria: gender neutral, simple, non-cluttered and CHEAP. Jen (my sister) wanted something fresh and relaxing for herself, knowing the nursery would be mostly for her enjoyment.

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Turning A Third Bedroom Into A Nursery

Now that we’re done with the big bathroom makeover it’s nursery time, baby. Pun intended. The sad thing is that we love our third bedroom, so the idea that it has to somehow disappear to make way for the bean is a tad bittersweet. Of course we’re over the moon to meet our little girl in May and can’t wait to start whipping up the perfect nursery to welcome her to Casa Petersik. We’re just use-what-you-have kind of people, so the idea of suddenly having a daybed, table, chair, rug and ottoman without a happy home had us stumped for a good half hour or so. Then we channeled Tim Gunn (picture us putting on

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Budget Blooms: Take Two

Remember I shared my first of the year flowers a little while back (a sweet monthly gift from the hubs)? You may recall that they had a bit of New Year’s sparkle thanks to a cake stand full of gleaming silver ornaments… … but I mentioned that in a week or so I’d retire those and fill the pedestal with something a bit less holiday-focused. In all honestly I figured it would be something naughty (cupcakes, cookies, brownies?) but somehow we resisted that tooth-rotting stuff (maybe it’s the whole we-regret-our-holiday-gluttony syndrome that hits each January) and filled our clam shell fruit bowl nearby to the brim with apples, oranges, pears, avocados and other healthy fare.

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How To Make Vintage Looking Wall Signs With Wood & Paper

As promised, we’re back to detail the simple steps that anyone can follow to DIY some chic and cheap vintage-looking wood signs. We first unveiled these guys in our big bathroom reveal post yesterday morning, but now we’ll divulge the step-by-step process so you can follow along at home. Just remember to sing “I saw the sign” by Ace of Base the whole time you’re making them like we did. Good times. John actually came up with the idea of creating vintage-looking wood signs (isn’t he quite the artisté?) after I lamented that square frames next to the rounded mirror might look a bit chaotic. We wanted something simpler (nothing with reflective glass or a

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Frosting The Glass Doors Of A Media Cabinet

When Courtney sent over her awesome entertainment center transformation we just had to share the goods. Here’s her letter: YHL always inspires me because you find ways to tweak or repurpose the resources that you have rather than blow the budget on something expensive. I’m not a fan of clutter and have tried multiple ways to hide the shame that is the DVD collection in my entertainment center (I’ve covered the glass doors with wrapping paper, but this required opening the doors to use the remotes for the cable box and DVD players). Then I came across these cut-outs at Michael’s that are used for scrap-booking and thought they would make great stencils. Down came

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Our Bathroom Makeover – A Full Reno For Under 2K!

Oh happy day. We’re here to share all of our bathroom after pictures complete with a full timeline and a budget breakdown to detail every step of this month-long weekend and evening project of ours. First we should remind everyone what the room looked like at the bleakest moment of the makeover. When it comes to most major renovations like installing a wet wall board, rooms usually have to get uglier before they turn the corner and start looking good, so let’s take a moment to appreciate just how un-aesthetically-pleasing our bathroom was when it was all stripped down after John demo’d the entire thing by himself over the course of about 24 hours spent

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Our Go To List Of Go To Sources

This post has been a long time coming. For years people have been asking us where we like to look for rugs and where we find cheap but chic lamps. And thanks to whipping up over 120 mood boards (see them all en masse right here) as well is transforming our entire house, we’re pretty well versed in hunting down many an item from many a store. Now we’re letting it all hang out in one mondo post full of our favorite places to shop for house stuff. Hold on to your hats folks, this could get crazy. We did our best to include stores that should be pretty universally available in the US (and

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How To Make A Mini Office In A Closet

When Mary sent us her amazing closet-to-office makeover we just had to share it. Here’s her letter: I wanted to write to you to tell you how much I absolutely love your blog! You two have provided me with so much inspiration since I stumbled upon your site a few months back. Keep doing what you do! On another note, I wanted to share some before and after pictures of a little project I tackled at my house. We recently bought our first home and had to downsize a bit. We came from a 2,000 sq. foot rental home and moved into a 1,080 sq. foot home that is all ours. The only thing this

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You Know You’re Obsessed With DIY When…

1. You have a painting belt. Yes John has a belt that is specifically designated for painting. We learned early on that you can lose many an outfit to permanent paint drips so we each have one “summer painting outfit” (which consists of one pair of shorts and a tee shirt) and one “winter painting outfit” (which consists of one pair of jeans and a sweatshirt) to keep us from ruining everyday clothes all the time (and from having to dedicate an entire drawer to painting clothes). However, John did get paint on one of his belts pretty early on, so it has become an important part of both his summer and winter painting ensembles.

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Budget Blooms: Starting The Year Off Right

Thump. That’s the sound of us falling off the fresh flower bandwagon last October. From the first of 2009 through September we were enjoying one inexpensive (and even free) bouquet for each month of the year (a super sweet Christmas present from the hubs). But somehow the end-of-the-year madness (toss in a few holidays, a growing family, a bathroom gut-job, and an impending nursery makeover) sadly derailed our year of budget blooms. Well, John was determined to kick this year off right with a happy and cheerful January bouquet for me (actually purchased on 1/1/10- what a nice “fresh start” to the year). This month’s arrangement hails from the grocery store and only ran us

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How To Turn A Thrifted Frame Into A Chalkboard

When Bethany sent over her simple yet oh so chic message board project we had to share the goods. Anyone can do this in an afternoon to add function and beauty to a kitchen, office, mudroom, or more. Here’s her letter: Thank you so much for your upbeat positive attitudes and for all that you do to inspire creativity! I wanted to share a project that I completed a while back that was extremely simple, cheap and totally DIY. I think it’s a good fit for anyone who wants to feel more organized but doesn’t want to sacrifice style. I spray painted a garage sale picture frame and used leftover chalkboard paint to paint the

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Romantic Traditions: Displaying Keepsakes Like Chopsticks!

We love sharing little household traditions with you guys. There are just so many cheap and easy ways to commemorate special dates and display unique items in your home that can make it feel more personal and meaningful.  For example, we whipped up these vacation jars a while back… … and also explained that we love sending a postcard to ourselves to help remember all the details of every vacation that we spend together (they look great tossed in a large glass vase): We also shared how we framed old keys to commemorate all the places we lived before moving into this “forever home” of ours (as seen to the left of the postcards in

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