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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Making A Waterproof Vinyl Changing Pad Cover

When we last left off in the nursery, we had painted the closet door green, but still had a few lingering functional things that we needed (like a changing pad cover, a hamper, and a bin for dirty diapers) as well as a plan for the wall behind the crib that we had been debating. Update #1. You probably remember when we were considering this fun arrow wallpaper for that spot (among others) but thought it might be a little busy on that side with all the built-ins, so imagine our surprise to find a changing pad cover in the same pattern on Etsy. Teddy loves it. So much, in fact, that he has already

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Less Is More (Unless You’re Talking About Oreos)

Life has been busier than ever for us – and there’s nothing like having a baby to confirm your true priorities. We’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately: what exactly are our goals? What are we working towards? Hoping to gain? The answer, we realized, was definitely not more blog hits or traffic or approval. Honestly we both feel unsettled by the idea of our blog growing any larger, and we look fondly back on the earlier days when we worked less, slept more, and spent more quality time with our family and friends. This little website of ours has already surpassed every expectation we ever could have had for it. So what are

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Listy VonListerstein

I’m not going to lie. These days this is pretty much all I want to do (add Burger, Clara, and John in there and I’m even more mooney-eyed and kissy-faced). But to everyone who requested an updated Listy post, I finally got ‘er done. We last shared our to-do list in November, so this check-in is well overdue – and I figured it could make us feel somewhat accomplished just to look at all the stuff we’ve crossed off since then. Picture me making Zoro-esque slicing sound effects with every slash (Teddy thought it was hilarious). These posts were born when people asked how we organize all the stuff on our to-do list and I

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He’s here!

We’re thrilled to introduce the newest member of our family, baby Teddy! On Wednesday, April 16th at 8:51 am, Theodore Freeman Petersik was born wielding a tiny drill weighing in at 8 lbs on the dot and measuring 19.5 inches long. We’re crazy in love with him, including Clara who just can’t stop kissing and snuggling “her baby.” Especially when he whimpers or coos, it becomes her personal mission to soothe him. Teddy was named after my dad’s dad Theodore (who went by Teddy his entire life) and his middle name honors John’s maternal grandfather (Freeman is John’s middle name too). Teddy is already proving to be a little spitfire like his sister, although he

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How To Paint A Room

The office ceiling and walls are officially painted, which is good news because we’re at T-minus 48 hours until this baby’s scheduled delivery. Note: the trim is pure white in here (the same color as the desk in the middle of the room). No idea why it’s looking a little cream – maybe just the time of day/lighting? It’s still looking really stark in here (holy cow, who watched Game Of Thrones last night?), so we can’t wait to add: But even though we’re only around 10% done, it has come a long way since its former days of blue-trim. And there’s nothing like some final-hour pre-baby hustling to get your blood pumping. In the

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Fab Freebie: Worth The Wait

“Life should be lived beautifully every single day” is the mantra that drives the founder of Waiting on Martha, the virtual boutique where one of you will be getting $300 to spend this week. From home decor and entertaining to jewelry and kids, Mandy has collected a wide variety of beautiful things, with plenty of pretty, shiny, and quirky goods in the mix. Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (it might take a second to load, but it should eventually pop up below this paragraph). You can also get 15% off with code YHL15 through April 15th. This giveaway is available to anyone anywhere! Click To View Rafflecopter Widget

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Painting The Nursery Closet Door Bright Green

At two weeks from my due date we’re checking off a few more lingering nursery updates, like painting the closet door a bright happy color, organizing the clutter within… … making/hanging some more art, and changing our minds in the curtain arena (you know we love a good final-hour switcheroo). The green closet door was heavily influenced by Clara, who kept saying “my baby will like a colored door like mine but not pink” – and since a bold green door was originally in our plan back in January (which we mentioned to Clara, hence her obsession) we decided to stop hemming and hawing and just go for it. After hanging our apple-green curtains and

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The Girls Bedroom In The Showhouse

We spent the weekend checking off a bunch of hands-on projects for the girls room in the showhouse. It’s definitely still looking sparse, and is far from done, so I’m sure it’ll keep evolving right up until our deadline. The bed needs to be raised and we have a colorful throw to add Linens need to be ironed and we have a custom bolster that we’ll layer in there too Colorful fabric window treatments will be hung as soon as they’re in We might switch out the end table – not sure yet… We have a soft blue lamp and a bunch of other accessories to add to tie things together But we did manage

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House Crashing: Joyful & Happy Go Lucky

Can you believe it has been a month since our last house crashing adventure? And while February’s house tour was from across the pond, this one was local, so we got to stop by and soak up all of the details in person. Meet Becky and Brian (and their dog Fergie). They live just outside of Richmond with their two daughters and this charming red door. It’s Heritage Red by Benjamin Moore – and she got that charming “Hello” decal here. When you walk inside, there’s a room to your right that they call the music room. Let’s just say that the yellow piano, which Becky painted herself, had my heart immediately. It was Brian’s

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How To Make A Magnet Board

Let me tell you a tale of a girl who used to be organized, oh…. about four years ago. Since Clara came along, well, it has been a slippery slope. I’ve kept notes to myself in various notebooks, on my phone, on post its, and have scribbled in every square inch of my day planner. I’m almost never sure what I need to do next since there are so many active lists competing for my attention these days. So when John and I were asking ourselves what our home office needs to make it as functional as possible, it was about two seconds before I was pulling a Mary Katherine Gallagher and jumping around and

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Urban Pregnancy Legends: True Or False

I thought it would be funny to see if any of those pregnancy myths or predictors like “you’re having a girl if you crave sweets” were true for you guys. So far, I don’t think they hold much truth for me… Rumor #1: If you crave sugary foods it’s a girl, and if you crave salty/savory foods, it’s a boy. FALSE FOR ME (I craved salty foods both with Clara and the bun – baked potatoes 4 eva, y’all). Rumor #2: If the heartbeat of the baby is over 140, it’s a girl. FALSE FOR ME (both the bean and the bun have had high heart rates – in fact the bun’s was higher than

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How To Change The Color Of Your Dishwasher

Happy Friday guys! Since the first three days of this week were full of bigger updates (like this craziness, our desk haul & overhaul, and a bunch of showhouse progress) it felt nice to switch gears and knock out a few smaller updates at the end. It’s always refreshing to bounce from broad planning stuff – like office layout debates and showhouse furniture arrangements – to focusing on a few quick tasks (like yesterday’s mirror switch). And thankfully this update couldn’t have been easier. Remember our lovely almond dishwasher? As you know, we’re planning to replace our appliances during a full kitchen renovation down the line, but I heard an almost-sounds-too-good-to-be-true tip from a few of

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