The following images make me wish I could carry a professional photographer around in my pocket at all times. But since I can’t, at least we had the pleasure of having one over for the afternoon. Local-ish photographer Andrea Hubbell (she’s from nearby Charlottesville, VA) is doing a series of “living spaces” photo shoots and asked if we wanted to participate for fun. Since we’re (a) not too camera shy – at least when it comes to our house and (b) always excited to see our home through someone else’s eyes (especially someone a lot better with a camera), we gave an enthusiastic yes.
And boy are we glad we did. Not only was Andrea super nice (and very stealthy too – we almost forgot she was here a couple of times) but her photos are beautiful:
Of course we loved seeing the wider-angled full room shots, but what was most amusing for us was seeing all the little details that Andrea picked up along the way. You know, the things we hardly notice and never think to shoot and share. So we thought you guys might get a kick out of that too. What’s a trip to the Petersiks without a shot of Sherry’s pile o’ paint chips after all?
Be sure to hit up Andrea’s blog to see the rest of her photos of our house (barely half of them are shown here). They were taken about three weeks ago, which is why some rooms (ahem, bedroom and living room) are already looking semi-out-of-date and others (this means you laundry room) aren’t shown (since our little built-in shelves were just getting started when she arrived). Oh and here we are with Andrea. Most surprising thing ever? Sherry’s not wearing a black shirt. Crazy, right? I hardly recognized her.
But wait – there’s more. Andrea wasn’t the only person to capture our house recently. We got a very sweet email the other day from a 16-year-old reader from the Netherlands named Karlijn. She’s an avid fan of the video game The Sims, and thought it would be funny to use her Sims-ing skills to virtually recreate our house. And considering the limitations of the game (she said she would have added a Burger if she could have), we’re pretty darn impressed by how close she got!
First we have our guest room with the teal walls, green headboard, and two slipper chairs that look almost exactly like the ones we have:
We chuckled at the accuracy of the “alley” on the left side of this screen capture of our living room (complete with a big gray sectional, a green rug, the bedroom door, and a giant paned window just like our house):
And how true-to-life it is that our windowless kitchen is pretty dark with the lights off? Maybe you don’t know that so I’ll answer for you: very true.
Our favorite is probably the Sims-ified space that is Clara’s room (although the highway that leads into her window kind of cracked us up, since the view is a little different in real life- but we’re sure Karlijn didn’t have much control over that):
And perhaps Karlijn was dropping us some decorating “hints” along the way too. Like maybe we should add a zebra rug in the bedroom? Ooh la la.
Or some outdoor lighting to the patio? (Totally agree with her on this one, btw – we’re thinking about big bulb string lights).
Maybe some Sims players out there can find Karlijn’s place in that giant Sims universe to virtually drop in on on our house. Is that how it works? I’m so video game dumb it’s not even funny. Last time I played The Sims it was called Sim City and I think I gave up after a tornado and a monster attack simultaneously took out all of my skyscrapers. Anyway, we’re sending out a big thanks to both Andrea and Karlijn for taking the time to capture our home using their respective talents. It’s always fun to see a familiar place through someone else’s eyes. Have you guys ever tried to recreate your house in a video game or with online room-planning software or anything? Or seen photos that someone else took of your house that make you take notice of little things that you’d never really “see” on your own?
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Love the professional photos! The kitchen color looks completely different (I imagine this is more what you guys see) and it is really nice!
Andrea’s photos are fantastic. I can see how it would be interesting to see how someone would view your details. Speaking of details, could you share more about that subway style art next to the map and wedding photo? Please?
That was from the artist’s shop that we hired for this post: https://www.younghouselove.com/a-big-move-deserves-a-tiny-painting/
Hope she still has them!
xo,
s
Thanks so much! I just found it. :) Now I’m wondering, where did you find that oddly sized frame?
We actually owned that (it used to hang horizontally over our stove in our first house) but it was originally from Target I think.
xo,
s
Was wondering that too! Glad to find her site, her stuff is awesome!
NERD ALERT! I am totally green with envy that someone took the time to recreate your home in the Sims. Used to love that game but haven’t played it in years.
I totally agree on that one! :) I still like it though. It’s great to enjoy once in a while. The last time I played was a few weeks ago. I only get to play on occasion because of…you know…real life! haha.
Sherry! You’re gorgeous! I love that shirt… where did you find it? Also, Andrea did an amazing job with the photographs. Very cool. And, I like The Sims version of your house. I actually play that game myself and Karlijn did a great job!
That’s from Old Navy about a month ago (with a coupon of course). Haha.
xo,
s
I’m pretty sure I had on the same shirt in a different color yesterday :)
Haha! I have that shirt too. Love it, so cute. :)
Wow – the professional shots turned out great. Where are those hanging flower balls located? I feel like I missed some super cute post along the way.
AND Someone made your house on Sims? Talk about celebs ;) I always joke that if I see you guys around our little city, I would feel like a stalker since I’d probably jump up and down clapping my hands while yelling your names.
That’s a mobile I made for Clara a while back. Here’s that post for ya: https://www.younghouselove.com/nursery-progress-makin-a-mobile/
xo,
s
Fun post, you guys. The photo of the dining room made me wonder: Are you using that space much, eating at the table when people are over? And are you as pleased with the chair covers as you hoped to be? I confess I still envision a pot of green leather.
Yup we use that room whenever we’re more than four people and love the brown covers (so easy, hides stains, doesnt compete with the painted built-ins or curtains, etc).
xo,
s
Wow! I’m so blown away by your Sims-ified house! I’m so impressed! It’s really scary how accurate it is! She did a great job. :)
Wow!? I mean, I thought your kitchen looked great after you painted it, but this photo is amazing! I am sure it is a lot more true to life and completely stunning. Loveeeee it.
Haha I just posted my floorplanner version of my family room last night. I’m a moron so I made it a flat room or something instead of a floorplan I could add windows to. I realized this after I added every detail of the room. I suppose I’m video game dumb too :)
I LOVE the Sims! hahaha Haven’t played in a long time, but that is SO cool that she recreated your house. Also, love the other photos!
Beautiful pictures! I wish I had a wide angle lens :-)
OMG that virtual recreation of your house really creeps me out! I mean, I know we all love having a little look into your lives, but this takes it to a-whole-nother level.
Love the pro shots, by the way. But wow, I don’t think I’d like to know that people are THAT interested in my house. I suppose if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then you should be really flattered though!
She’s a 16 year old girl from the Netherlands! We think it’s totally fun and awesome of her to do/share!
xo,
s
I love it, but then my fiance is currently recreating the House of Battiatis (or the House of Mattiatis – his name’s Matt) from Spartacus in Minecraft.
What’s creepy is when your next door neighbour can tell you exactly what time you go to bed at night! It’s nice to know he keeps an eye out for any dodgy behaviour for us, but still it was a slight shock to realise how predictable we are!
I like the idea of big bulbs string lights. Target had some great ones that were solar powered – how easy would that be!
Sherry – you look really thin in that picture! Just thought you’d like to know : )
Really? Thanks! Kinda feel swollen in al this heat. Haha.
xo,
s
“all this heat”…ah, Virginians are adorable. Over the last five or six weeks, Austin has only had a couple of days that didn’t reach a hundred (and those days were 99). Today’s high is 107.
LOVE the pictures! Especially the dining room. I’m in love with your cabinets. Really. I would leave my husband and marry them if I could. (No I wouldn’t. But still.)
Haha- you guys are hardcore! I think I’d melt!
xo,
s
Your heat comment made me chuckle. We have only had one day under 100 in weeks and haven’t been under 95 in over a month. We were going to go to the drive in Saturday night but the index is supposed to be 105 at midnight. Pass!
Unlike Texas we Missourians aren’t used to this nonsense. A week here and there like this but not continuous. I have been so swollen sometimes I think I will pop!
Oh man! I feel for all you ladies out in the real heat!
xo,
s
Carrie,
I am from STL and the heat and humidity are crazy every summmer! It is seriously hard to breath sometimes! It’s 85 degrees today and it feels amazing compared to the 100 degree weather for the past month!
Are you guys still loving the brown slipcovers on the dining room chairs? I love that room but am finding myself wishing they were white or green….
Yeah they’re great in brown for food stains and all that (white might be hard to hide stains and we worried green would take away from the painted built-ins and the curtains).
xo,
s
Those photos are amazing! I also said in my head, hey Sherry isn’t in black! I also own that shirt, too – it’s in my regular rotation and is easily one of my favorite shirts now! :)
Wow, the colors in the photographs are so rich! And I’ve been addicted to Sims at various phases in my life. ;)
I love these pictures! I especially love the vignette-style! It’s funny how we all spend so much time on our homes and I don’t know about you, but I always see the “oh I need to do this, I need to do that” kind of stuff…very rarely do I see the big picture through some else’s eyes or even the small picture. The vignettes are an example of “wow that looks great” since I’m sure she didn’t even need to do any styling! It was probably click and go! :-)
isn’t it fun to see your house from someone elses perspective. I was looking at the US map on your wall an noticed you’ve never been to Nevada, or maybe you have…you should visit, Tahoe is awesome!
Never been! But would love to!
xo,
s
I’m mesmerized by these photos…can’t believe how clear and beautiful the colors look – especially the dining rm curtains, and kitchen walls! Great post!
I completely forgot about the kitchen being so completely transformed so that picture blew me away! Love it.
Love the pictures, especially the one with Clara’s shoes. And great shirt Sherry-I have the same one from ON. It’s great (and cool for this blazing hot summer)
If Karlijin is reading this, I am so impressed. I love how she created an overhead perspective of the back patio, which is something that I don’t think you guys have taken a snapshot of before.
Didn’t she do an awesome job?!
xo,
s
Love the shots — it’s amazing how a great photographer can transform an already wonderful space!
A few quick questions on some of your art. First, what do the different colored pins represent on your US map? And what is the giraffe print in Clara’s room (our daughter’s unofficial animal is the giraffe). And out of curiosity, what is the very wordy print on your gallery wall (between the “7” and the three skeleton keys)? Thanks for indulging!
P.S. I used to love The Sims, too. As well as Sim City. But then I got a job and got married and bought a house and was able to live those things in real life!
I think the giraffes are from Etsy (Grace Hester Designs) and I linked to where the word print is from in a comment a few back and the black pins on the map are places John and I have been together and the yellow ones are places we’ve been with Clara.
xo,
s
Thanks for the info! I meant a different wordy print, though — the “scripty” one; it looks like it’s on gray or silver paper with black font?
Oh yeah! That one is a poem called Desiderata (I think) that was given to us by a handyman (he did some inspection things for our first house when we were selling and on our current house when we bought it). Such a nice guy- with awesome calligraphy skills!
xo,
s
Thanks!
The pictures are great! Can I also say your hair looks so good shorter! I love it down.
I’m from Brazil and stop here every day to inspire myself and have some laughs with the way you tell things! I love you guys, love your house, your baby girl, your dog! Why are the books in the dining room bookshelf with the titles turned back??? That intrigued me so much!
Aw thanks. As for those books, they were all different colors so it looked crazy. I just turned them backwards so it’s not as busy (but still easy to find stuff since the bookcases are so shallow that we can only put a few books up there anyway).
xo,
s
Lilian Garcia,
olá, eu sou portuguesa e também adoro o site Young House Love.
Beijo
( hello, i’m portuguese and i also love the website Yoing House Love. Kiss)
Monica
Thanks for having me over you guys! It was such fun to meet you, and your house is a dream to photograph. :)
xo,
A
Aw thanks Andrea! Your pics are amazing!
xo,
s
The pictures are fabulous. Oh to be able to use my camera like that. I love the colors in your home.
Wow, those pictures are gorgeous! I am totally stealing your map idea (I’m assuming that the dots are places that you’ve been)!
Also, I agree with the others that you look great Sherry! I also have that top from Old Navy and I love it. It’s so comfy!
Aw thanks! Yup the black pins are places J and I have been and the yellow ones are where we’ve gone with Clara.
xo,
s
Wow! I especially love the shot of your kitchen. Simply stunning! It looks so light and refreshing! What is in the frame on the left side of the far wall? Have you mentioned it before?
That’s an old poster from allposters.com (of kitchen stuff on white shelves).
xo,
s
ah! I was actually wanting to ask the same question… looks really good! As a matter of fact,all your spaces look just amazing!! :)
Wow! Both versions of your house are so great and creative! :) The last time I played the Sims(?) it was also called Sim City…loved that game ;) On a totally unrelated note, I also loved Oregon Trail (on those old square Mac computers) lol
Oregon Trail is one of our favorite references. I always hated it when my ox couldn’t ford the river. Haha.
xo,
s
I love the picture of the kitchen…it seems there is some light reflection in the same place as your soon to be doorway.
Haha- it’s meant to be!
xo,
s
What a fabulous photographer, I love all the details she captured. I wonder how she feels about pinning some of her work on pintrest…
Hi, and thank you! I don’t mind, if you’ll please credit Andrea Hubbell for the imagery. Thanks! :)
Will do thank you!
Yu can carry me in your back pocket, I wouldn’t mind. Very darling shirt! You’re a knock out!
I saw these last week when Andrea tweeted them… I have loved bella eats for a few years now and when I saw two of my fav bloggers unite… i about died!
Anyways, I like these pictures because they show your house as a whole, and especially show how much progress you guys have made in a few short months! I have a suggestion for a post. You guys are so great about posting how much you spend on each project, but I think it would be interesting if you totaled how much you’ve spend on the house so far. Just the thought of compiling that seems over whelming, but I thought it would be a good judge for the rest of us DIYers. (I don’t even own yet, and the thought of how much it can cost to home improve seems like a lot) Your house has that “expensive” feel of the house in Forest Hill, too.
Best
Sarah
That’s a fun idea! Maybe we can try to tally things up!
xo,
s
I totally agree. My husband and I don’t blog (I wish I had time!) about the DIY projects we’ve compiled on our home that we bought in March (our first one!) but to add up all of the hours that we’ve done as a whole would make for a great post! Go for it John & Sherry!
That SIMS house is INSANE!! How cool that she could do that with a video game!!!
I love Andrea’s images of the house, she captured it’s spirit!
The pictures look great! Congrats.
Delicious post!
Wow! Maybe I should give up on Google Sketchup and grab my kids Sims and start using that! The rendering looks built in to the program (unlike SU).
The interior shots are amazing. There are a lot of talented photographers here in Cville.
After seeing all of Andrea’s great pics and noticing how there’s never a speck of dust anywhere in your house, I was curious if you could share what you guys use to dust? It’s probably the task I dread the most, so any suggestions for products that work well and save time would be greatly appreciated :)
I’m a fan of a slightly moist microfiber cloth. And dusting as we go (as opposed to a big block of time each weekend). I probably do one or two rooms every few days or so. But we definitely don’t always have a perfect dust free house. The pics are just desceptively flattering. Haha.
xo,
s
Waaaaaaaaait… “The Sims” is the great great grandchild of the “Sim City” games that everyone started playing when I was in elementary school?
I never was any good at any of the Sim Cities, but I did love Theme Park/Roller Coaster Tycoon (when you build theme parks; and which I still play sometimes).
ahh! i miss rollar coaster tycoon! how fun!
I love that you get to see the color of the kitchen walls in this shot in a different light — it looks so much more yellow than in some of the others that you’ve shown. Is it more true to life in this shot above?
It actually looks different at different times of the day. Sometimes it’s warmer and yellow like the pics, and other times it looks a lot more green.
xo,
s
You know what they say.. imitation is the best form of flattery ;)
The photographs are stunning, and that Sims house.. so so cool
~Tammy
http://www.bayparkdream.blogspot.com
Haha, I loooved this post!!
First of all, your house looks awesome and makes mine seem woefully inadequate. But it also gives me motivation to tackle some projects this weekend. ;-)
Second, I never got into playing the Sims, but I am amazed at how well Karlijn managed to recreate your house! I almost want to get it now just so I can play with the interior design aspects of it! :-P
Did anyone watch the new show “High-Low Project” last week on HGTV? It was after Design Star. I swear they were using your exact dining room fabric!
Oh man I missed it. Did anyone see it?
xo,
s
Saw it, and loved it!! They use the same fabric. It seems to be very popular right now in the different colors. http://www.thenester.com/window-mistreatments/no-sew-roman-shades?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NestingPlace-WindowMistreatments+%28Window+Mistreatments%29&utm_content=FeedBurner
So pretty!
xo,
s
Fun!
I especially liked the pic on Andrea’s site of the hanging art/photo collage in Clara’s room that included baby pics of you & John. (I assume… they looked like older Olan-Mills-style portraits…)
We have something similar goin’ on in Sonia’s room: When we found out we were pregnant, Dan’s mom & mine each made a framed collage using our baby pics. Now that Sonia’s almost 4, we’re gonna make a bigger one using her baby pics to hang in between them.
It’s cool to see the little similarities… kinda like Mom + Dad = Me.
Yes those are me and John as kids. Clara loves looking at Mommy Baby and Daddy Baby. Haha.
xo,
s
Is the 3rd picture the actual dining room? I feel like I’ve never seen that room in pictures! I might be losing it though. They all came out great. And Karlijn did an amazing job at recreating your house, that’s impressive!
That’s the other side of our kitchen- the dining area with the fireplace (we painted the paneling and it looks so different now!).
xo,
s
Dude… I’m a total Sims fan… Could you find out her link to your house? Lol. Or did she share it on the Sims site at all? I must know! Love it!
Maybe she’ll drop by and share it! She just sent us screen grabs.
xo,
s
I also LOVE the Sims. Here’s hoping she’ll drop by with the link!
Oh, I laughed out loud at the Sims stuff! I have the Sims 3, but only really played for a few weeks after I bought it.
However, after our offer on our new house was accepted last year, I was so excited that I made a rough draft of it in the sims to try and place all of our furniture. It was a good way to channel my excited energy and surprisingly helpful, even though it was a very, very rough draft (the Sims can’t do split-level).
Wow the picture looks great!
~Blair
I remember you two designed a nursery for John’s sister and you featured Sherry’s mom’s house in NJ. Have you done any decorating/designing in John’s parents’ new house?
We should house crash them for sure! They’re still getting settled but their place is so charming!
xo,
s