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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Wedding Ideas: Favors, Decor, Table Settings, & Photostrips

And now for the juicy wedding week DIY decor that you’ve all been waiting for. From the moment people arrived, we wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and warmly welcomed. So we created a handy dandy little wooden welcome sign with a hand painted message for our guests. And thanks to the sandwich-board construction (two pieces of wood secured with simple hinges at the top), we were also able to paint a cute departure message which said “Thanks for sharing our special day, please grab a glowstick to light your way to the car” along with a galvanized bucket of white glow sticks to help people navigate our semi-dark street safely. And we made

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YHL Wedding Week

Today marks the one year anniversary of our swanky DIY backyard wedding… so we thought a wedding week was in order. That’s right, we’re dedicating this week to sharing all of our crafty and creative ideas for not only a swoonworthy backyard wedding, but a fun and festive gathering of any kind. So don’t tune out if you’ve already tied the knot, we’re gonna bring you tons of affordable, personal, and unique decorating and entertaining ideas fit for any par-tay on your own turf (even if it’s just a romantic evening for you and the hubby). So sit back, relax, and don’t worry about having to catch the bouquet. First the basics. We got married

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Painting A Mustard Yellow Attic A Soft Blue Color

I don’t think you’d be able to stomach any such mustard after one peep at this Reader Redisign sent in by Annastazia. But before we get to the stomach churning before, here’s her letter: Hi John and Sherry- I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and am so envious of both your talent and your ranch home! Stairs and second levels are overrated if you ask me. I thought you should know that your bedroom design totally inspired me when I was stuck about what to do with our own bedroom. With low angled ceilings that slope as low as four feet from the ground and very small rooms, furniture placement and design

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Touring A Modern New Construction Home In Richmond VA

John’s sister Emily has been a busy girl since our last post about helping her move into her fabulous new home (that she and her husband Todd designed themselves). Yes, only a month later, she’s managed to furnish, fluff and feather nearly every room and has graciously allowed us to invade her space once more to bring you some fresh & fabulous after photos. Let the house crashing begin… Here’s a shot of the swanky modern exterior with Emily and Olivia hanging out on their front deck. The house’s theme was clean lines, modern touches and windows galore. When you buy a corner lot with nothing but green in three directions it’s easy to see

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How To Use Paint Swatches To Make Art

When Meghan Carter came to interview us, we tried to pull out all the stops to make our house look its absolute best. We were sure to have a tasty assortment of apples in our clam-shell-turned-fruit-bowl in the kitchen and fresh towels in each of the bathrooms. Heck, we even Fabrezed a bit for good measure. But we opted against bringing in bushels of fresh flowers after deciding that lush leafy greenery looks just as fresh with our simple neutral palette (and conveniently grows in abundance just steps away in our backyard. So we were sure to snip some fresh ferns for a few bud vases in our bathrooms: And to bring in some heavier

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Some Fresh Greens For Our Floating Vases

Last week’s post about our floating CB2 vases elicited a reader request for some other vase options beyond the grasses that we had on display. So without further ado, we bring you a greener, more contemporary option: Some simple cuttings from a tree out back (definitely more believable than any faux greenery we’ve seen) added a fresh dose of green and some clean organic shapes. And even though backyard clippings may need to be replaced on a weekly basis, they’re as easy on the wallet as they are on the eyes (read: free). Still craving a few other floating vase ideas? A layer of sand with a tiny seashell or two on top would be

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Our 15 Minutes of Fame

You could have knocked us over with a feather back in December when we won the Remodel, Blog & Win contest. And not only did we score a few clams (5000 of them to be exact), we also won a coveted interview with none other than AskTheDecorator.com’s Meghan Carter. And since Meghan is such a jet setter, we weren’t at all surprised that her schedule was packed until this June (which happily meant that we had six months to whip our house into prime shape just in time for its close up). And then this past Saturday, the fateful interview day finally arrived. We realize now that we could have taken more exciting photos if

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Making DIY Vacation Jars For Your Travel Keepsakes

Inspiration can come from the strangest places, so I wasn’t even surprised when I saw some cool old canning jars in a recent Pottery Barn catalog and needed to take a closer look. Upon closer inspection I realized they were antique bell jars filled with shells, sand, and even just ocean water with fancy labels that said things like “Mikonos” and “Fiji”. Adorable. So I looked around and realized I had at least one or two keepsakes from each and every vacay that John and I have spent together. Why not put them on display instead of in a box in the closet? So after a trip to Michael’s to pick up 6 canning jars

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Five Moving Tips To Make Things Easier

This weekend we helped John’s sister and brother-in-law move into their fabulous new home (that they just happened to design themselves) and along with some obligatory back pain we took away some pretty fail-safe moving advice. And now that we’re in the know, we figured we’d share the wealth. After a picture of their breathtaking new kitchen of course: Moving Tip #1: Clean top to bottom. When you’re cleaning something in your new home (like the kitchen cabinets before you load in all your dishes, or a closet before you add the linens), it only makes sense to start from the top. This way any spare dirt or dust that doesn’t stick to your rag

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A Little Anniversary Love

Dear house, We remember moving in exactly two years ago like it was yesterday. And boy were we head over heels for you from the start. God knows why when we look back at the first exterior picture that we took… But you had us at hello. Even when you greeted us with that crazy shelf divider in the living room complete with a stained glass square and a faux stone linoleum landing. And who wouldn’t have been charmed by that dated dining room wallpaper and the ancient kitchen cabinetry that shouted “Paul Bunyan wuz here”? Sure the master bedroom was kinda nondescript, but we were positively over the moon about our first pale blue-gray

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