Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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Our Most Recent Project Is Gonna Knock Your You-Know-Whats Off!

The last year or so has felt a bit like a smorgasbord of side projects – a coloring book, a teacher’s lounge makeover, a podcast, new lighting designs, and a big ol’ beach house renovation. But behind the scenes, we Petersiks have had one more thing in the works for a while. And it definitely takes the proverbial “random project” cake. But we are so, so, SO excited to finally share it with you guys! We’re a shoes-off-at-the-door household, but there’s no denying that our feet felt a little chilly at times. Plus, just like you hang art or paint your walls to express your design personality – we though, shouldn’t your feet do the same thing? And thus the idea

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Easy Makeover: Taking A Neutral Living Room From Plain To Polished

I love a baller room makeover as much as the next person (Lisa Vanderpump’s closet? I could stare at it for HOURS), but scrapping all of your existing stuff and completely overhauling every nook and cranny of your room isn’t always realistic, especially if you don’t have a Housewives-sized budget. Sometimes using what you have and just getting a few new things to revive the entire room is the sweet spot (have I mentioned how much fun I had staging my friend’s house to sell a few weeks ago?!). So when my best friend asked for some help with her bare bones living room, I immediately started shouting out ideas and scribbling sketches like a lone weirdo playing solo

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Four Ways We Added Storage & Function To My Beloved Shed

Last summer we bought a shed to alleviate some of our garage storage woes/messes (more on that here). It was love at first sight, but alas – it remained empty for months as I sat paralyzed, unable to pinpoint the “perfect” way to organize it. I didn’t want to let my baby down by not letting her live up to her full potential. Listeners of our podcast have heard me mention it time and time again (me saying the word “shed” might as well be a drinking game at this point). But once I let go of the idea of getting it perfect and just steered myself towards solving my storage problems one-by-one, we were finally

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Light Fixtures That Work Together Without Being Boring

This week we dove into the struggle to find light fixtures that feel related without being too matchy-matchy or boring (the discussion kicks in around the 20-minute mark of this week’s podcast) and I promised to link to some lighting combinations that I liked in the show notes, but then I promptly fell into a mood board making wormhole. When I regained consciousness in this reality, I had way too many mood boards for the show notes, had inexplicably eaten two pop tarts, and this post was born. Whether you’re dealing with an open concept floor plan where you can see your kitchen pendants, dining room chandelier, and living room lights all from one vantage point –

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Two Bedroom Updates That Made A Surprisingly Big Difference

It seems like every room in our house undergoes a gradual (and often never-ending) evolution, but our bedrooms seem especially prone to this slow-burn decorating process. Exhibit A: this old “Evolution Of A Bedroom” post that chronicled the meandering path of our last home’s master bedroom. Exhibit B: this more recent one about the winding evolution of our daughter’s current bedroom. Well, if it pleases the court, I’d like to submit yet another bedroom into evidence: our current master bedroom. (I don’t know why I doubled-down on the legal metaphor guys. Consider your objection sustained). bench / rug / plant / similar floor lamp, chair, pillow / garden stool / chandelier / art (top, bottom) When we bought the house, the room looked like this. The walls,

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House Crashing: A Family-Friendly Whole House Renovation

We’ve shared this glorious back porch on Instagram twice (during the holidays, seen below, and last summer, seen here), which belongs to our good friends Carey & Jordan. And based on the reaction to just this view alone from you guys, we figured we should do a good old fashioned House Crash so we can show you guys more of their beautiful home. They’ve also got some really great tips about what wears well with kids and dogs (and what they wouldn’t do again), which was especially helpful since we’re currently mulling over some bathroom renos. But enough jabbering, let’s get on with the tour! similar storm door / similar black sconces / string lights Carey & Jordan used to live

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New Lighting Designs (And Photoshoot Secrets)

Back when we revealed our kitchen makeover, we mentioned that we worked with Shades of Light to design our pendant lights (below). But those were just one of a whole slew of new designs that we’ve added to our lighting collection over the last year-ish. So in addition to sharing some of our latest designs with you guys, we also wanted to take you behind the scenes and show you some of the tricks that catalogs and websites use when it comes to photographing stuff (including how we turned an armchair into a headboard, all in the name of getting the shot). After launching our initial collection back in 2013, we added a few new pieces over the years (like the geometric flush mount that we

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Beach House Progress: Walls Up, Walls Down, & New Floor Plans

We’ve shared some random details about our beach house progress here and there, but we’re waaaaay overdue for a giant picture-filled blog post about everything that has been going on over there, complete with our latest (and hopefully final) floor plans! Let’s just say that things are looking VERY different these days (you can check out the before pictures here and virtually walk through via this video tour). We definitely have the whole “sometimes it has to get uglier before it can get prettier” thing going on. As you can see from the photo above, we’ve demoed out all of the existing walls. The big “LEAVE” is not some horror-movie-style warning, just a note the contractor left for his crew so nobody

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The Best Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig I’ve Ever Seen

Just slipping through on this sunny Saturday with an urgent fake-plant related announcement. Target has some really good fake fiddle leaf figs right now by Threshold. Three things: They seem expensive ($99 for the big one and $55 for the small one) <– update, just heard they’re on sale In the store they look NEON green (like insanely bright and not-real looking at all) They’re in pots that are proportionally too small for them, and where the base of the plant meets the “dirt” looks super fake… but… … I bought a couple home to mess with them to see if I could get them to look more real for the beach house (since big real plants that

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How We Shop For Rugs: What To Look For, How To Save Money, & Mistakes To Avoid

Lately we’ve received a ton of questions about our rugs. How we find them. What materials and designs we like best. How to clean and care for them so they last. Even what price points we aim for (and run away from). The truth is that rugs are complicated. And they can be expensive. And they’re definitely one of those easier-than-average things you can get “wrong.” And not only does that make you feel all crestfallen and dejected, then you’re even more scared to take the rug-buying leap again. And so begins the downward rug spiral. Oh, the drama! But fear not! As two people who have pretty much made all of the rug-buying mistakes that someone can make

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Refinishing Your Hardwood Floors: What To Expect

The new floors in our kitchen are easy to forget amidst all of the other big changes (a completely new layout! a wide doorway to the living room! new cabinets! new counters!). But every now and then we’re reminded that the floors are a HUGE reason that space – and heck, the entire first floor – feels so fresh, updated, and open. So we thought it might be helpful to recap the entire process, including time & cost, for anyone else who’s debating a similar upgrade. This before picture does a good job of demonstrating just how much of a difference the new floors have made. Yes, the photo below was taken from the same exact spot as the after shot

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Why We Returned Our Mail-Order Foam Mattress

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet in the last couple of years, you’re probably well aware of a new generation of mail-order mattresses: Casper. Leesa. Tuft & Needle (just to name a few). They’re these affordable foam mattresses that ship straight to your door, magically unfurl on your bed, and promise an improved night’s sleep or your money back. Having been bombarded with that message for months (years?) we decided to jump on the bandwagon… but quickly second-guessed our decision. And so the “Is this The One?” mattress spiral was born. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been hesitant to write this post. We generally don’t like to spotlight products that don’t

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