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 | | 111 Comments

How To Hang Our Bikes On The Wall Of Our Basement

We’re back with our weekly basement update (here’s where we left off) and this time we conquered the bare-bulb ceiling fixture (by dressing it up with a polished linen shade). We also snagged a vertical balancing bike rack (on sale!) since our cinder block walls make hanging weight-baring hooks and stands close to impossible) and got the ultimate surprise from Flor in the form of an awesome 5 x 8 rug thanks to their amazing carpet squares. Sure we still have to add privacy to the windows, paint the built-in cabinet near the bikes, build a screen to hide our eyesore of a water heater, and more… but here’s what the room looks like these days with the

[ Read More ]

| By | | 36 Comments

How To Paint & Reupholster A Wood Chair

When Angie sent over her simple and inspiring chair makeover we loved the outcome so much we had to share it. Here’s her letter: I love your style and your blog. I just got into blogs a few months ago and yours is a must read every day! I’m so excited to share my before and after chair makeover. I purchased it at the Ann Arbor ReUse Center for $5.00. After I removed the seat cushion and a ridiculous number of staples, I patched, sanded and primed the chair. I bought some new foam for the seat on sale at Joann’s and painted the chair with some white trim paint I had on hand from other paint jobs in our house. To cover

[ Read More ]

| By | | 98 Comments

How To Add Basement Storage

Well, thanks to the generous and wonderful folks at True Value, we now have a totally dry and completely functional basement to use for storage galore (read about how we prepped and waterproofed the former bug graveyard here and here). And thanks to a little road trip to Ikea this weekend, we came home armed with pretty much every item that we planned to snag in this basic mood board of sorts that we shared last week: Expedit shelf (included in the total Expedit Workstation) -$120 Torsby table (already owned, so it’s free!) A woven basket or two – $17 each Two Aneboda wardrobes – $100 a pop A few white storage boxes – $12

[ Read More ]

| By | | 152 Comments

Natural Pest Remedies & Getting Rid Of Roaches

When Rebekah emailed us with a doozie of a question we were pretty much left scratching our heads. Here’s it is: Q: I’ve become an addict of your blog – just ask my husband! I can’t help but check it multiple times a day. Your posts are always so informative and they keep me motivated to keep working on our 1960’s home. Anyway, my husband and I purchased the brick ranch with a lovely yard about four months ago. My only problem is that we’re starting to see more pests (i.e. roaches… ewww!) due to the weather getting colder here in Georgia. I can’t live in a house and accept that the pests will always be there. We woke up at 4am

[ Read More ]

| By | | 49 Comments

Beautiful Bathroom Reno With Vessel Sinks

When Totty sent us photos of her almost unbelievable bathroom makeover we just had to share the big transformation. Here’s her letter: My husband and I are fellow Richmonders and have been following your blog for quite a while. I wanted to share some pics from our newly renovated bathroom. This poor room has had 2 makeovers in 4 years. It hadn’t been updated since the 60’s so it was in dire need of one and we unfortunately chose a bad tile guy who did a HORRIBLE job, hence the 2nd makeover this summer (I posted the full story on my blog). We were definitely budget conscious when planning this redo, but knew that re-tiling

[ Read More ]

| By | | 76 Comments

Painting An Old Wood Dresser Bright Green

When Monica sent her amazing dresser makeover our way we couldn’t wait to share the goods. Here’s her letter: I just recently found your blog and let me tell you, like everyone else around here, I’m totally in LOVE with everything you guys do, plus your How To tips are super! My boyfriend and I just moved to a new home (rental) and like anything that is not yours, we’re tying to put our stamp on it. I inherited my boyfriends dresser and I wanted to incorporate it into my kitchen nook, thus a PROJECT was born. While I love wood and before I paint anything I really think about it, I knew that the

[ Read More ]

| By | | 82 Comments

Fun Friday Departure: Costume Chitchat

With Halloween finally upon us we’re wondering if you guys plan to host parties, attend them, attend them in costume or just answer the door and shove fistfulls of Butterfingers at the three-foot-tall ghosts and goblins ringing your bell. Something about Halloween is especially intriguing to us this year. Maybe because it’s sort of a before and after fest when it comes to your house (our porch and our living room had a little spooky makeover) and even when it comes to yourself (if you’re dressing up there’s a definite transformation that takes place). So tell us all about who or what you’ll be for the night (any Jon & Kate Plus 8s? Or how

[ Read More ]

| By | | 26 Comments

Our Home Made Canadian House & Home!

We’re super excited to share that our humble abode made Canadian House & Home’s amazing website! They approached us a while back to see if they could feature our before and after pics in an online gallery (alongside some pretty amazing designers and fellow bloggers like Grace Bonney of Design Sponge and Courtney Barnes of Style Court). Of course we jumped at the chance. Ok maybe we screamed and convulsed at the chance. And imagine our surprise when a photo of our living room actually made their home page (!) last week (by the way, thanks for all the facebook and twitter messages directing us there so we could see it for ourselves- we gaped

[ Read More ]

| By | | 74 Comments

Our Favorite Classic Home Decor Elements

Sometimes it’s fun for us to scroll through the photos on our House Tour page and try to pick out decorating similarities or patterns that we’ve never noticed before. Obviously there are blatant themes that we knowingly gravitate towards, like a light and airy look, neutral colors with some hits of soft blue and grass green, white curtains, dark wood furnishings mixed with white painted pieces and white ceramic animals (which I admit I like a little too much). But it’s also interesting to notice that we seem to have subliminal attractions that even we’re not privy to until waaay after the fact when we’re looking at the photos as a whole. For example, in

[ Read More ]

| By | | 77 Comments

DIYig A Mudroom Wall With Hanging Storage & Shoe Storage

When Jen and Erik sent their toddler-friendly entryway makeover our way we had to share their genius transformation. Here’s their letter: I just wanted to let you guys know how much we love your site. It’s funny because in a lot of ways you remind us of ourselves. People think we’re nuts doing all we do around the house. We thought once we had a baby we’d be done- but nope, our son just inspires us more, as is the case with our new mudroom. The space was once green, which wasn’t bad but looked crazy with all the colorful art we were trying to bring in. So we decided to lighten it up with

[ Read More ]

| By | | 140 Comments

Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Us

1. A few months before starting this blog we had never painted brick, ripped up a carpet, upholstered a chair, made a headboard, caulked anything, changed out hardware or done pretty much any of the other tutorials we’ve since figured out and shared on our How To page (we’re true believers in learning as you go). 2. Our license plate says “Burgrr” (custom plates are only $10 here so we couldn’t resist). 3. John’s middle name is Freeman in honor of his grandfather (his first name honors his other grandfather named John). 4. My first name is actually not Sherry, it’s Sherry-Beth (my mom thinks it flows like Elizabeth, but it doesn’t- in fact it

[ Read More ]