Home Design

by Sherry Petersik on September 10, 2019 at 10:59 pm

I’ve been so excited to show you Teresa and Andrew’s kitchen makeover. They’re some of our closest friends who live right around the corner from us, and ever since we filmed this bookcase styling time-lapse video in their living room, I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for their new appliances to arrive so we could share a big ol’ virtual kitchen tour with you guys. Not only do they have amazing style, they also made SO MANY budget-friendly choices in this kitchen and I really hope they help to demonstrate that you can often work with a lot more than you might think (you don’t always have to scrap everything and start over!). And you can save a bunch of money doing that! Plus I get to share my trick for refreshing old wood cabinet doors so they look like new for just a few bucks – and I even caught the magic on video – so that’s in this post for you too. Continue reading A Big Kitchen Makeover Created From Little Changes at Young House Love.

by John Petersik on September 4, 2019 at 5:49 pm

This all started because we wanted one of those cool “Historic District” plaques on our beach house. Spoiler, we got it…and one for the duplex too! But the process turned us into amateur sleuths, history-buffs-in-training, and (more predictably) people who paint their front door a new color while they’re at it. So here’s the story, along with a mini porch update, and some concrete tips & advice for uncovering the history of your home too. Ever since we bought our beach house three years ago (yes, three!) we’ve been jealous of admired the official “Cape Charles Historic District” plaque on our neighbor’s house (the blue one between the duplex and the pink house in the photo below). We originally presumed that it was a designation that was only awarded to certain homes that met strict historic restoration qualifications (like having all of the original wood windows – which neither of our houses came with when we bought them). Continue reading Hunting Down The Real History Of The Pink House (There’s A Twist!) at Young House Love.

by John Petersik on August 28, 2019 at 5:12 pm

Many moons ago we promised to share the DIY play by play for this wall treatment, because it’s ridiculously easy and GLORIOUSLY BUDGET CONSCIOUS. As in, it cost less than two boxes of my favorite light bulbs. Or dinner at Chipotle. Yes, those are my units of measure. I mentioned in our backsplash post a while back that we opted for a different treatment on the stove wall in each of the duplex kitchens because it felt too chaotic to continue our patterned tile on two walls, so we chose something subtle yet wipeable AND easy to maintain (you can see the both duplex kitchen reveals here). Also cheap & easy to do. Because at this point in the duplex reno we were TIRED (did I mention we had tiled 8 rooms at that point along with installing 2 Ikea kitchens and hanging 2 wall murals? Continue reading Installing A $31 Paneled Wall Treatment (Beginners Can Do This!) at Young House Love.

by John Petersik on August 21, 2019 at 5:32 pm

Earlier this summer we shared how we made over our beach house backyard in one giant post that covered the entire year-long process of taking it from a gnarly jungle to compact-yet-relaxing little oasis. It’s a very small space, so we worked really hard to squeeze lots of function out of it – more on that here – and back when we shared that post, many of you asked for photos of the inside of our pink shed along with details about what we store there. So today all of your shed-poking-around dreams are about to come true. When we shared that backyard before & after fest, I confessed that the inside of the shed was a “disaster pile” – but we were able to turn that around about a week later in under 5 hours, without purchasing anything beyond some basic lumber and a few hooks. Continue reading How We Organized Our Beach House Shed (& Two Tips That Helped A Ton) at Young House Love.

by Sherry Petersik on August 14, 2019 at 10:04 pm

We had a totally different post planned for today, but then a super fun/random project fell into our laps on Monday night. We weren’t sure how things would turn out (we were kinda making up a DIY technique as we went along), but to say that we’re pleasantly surprised is a giant understatement. This might be my favorite under $10 project in the history of my life. And it could easily be repeated with any window you find at a thrift store, architectural salvage shop, or even at your local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. SAVE ALL THE GORGEOUS OLD WINDOWS, GUYS! Or you could just wander the streets hoping to be in the right place at the right time – because that is actually how my tale of inheriting this window begins. If you follow me on Instagram Stories, you may have heard me gleefully tell The Fateful Tale Of The Old Diamond Window, wherein I randomly took a longer route on my evening walk and it resulted in me coming down our street about 10 minutes later than I usually do, and at that exact moment I bumped into our neighbors as they were loading an old diamond-paned window into their truck to take it to the dump. Continue reading Our DIY “Stained Glass” Window (That Hangs On The Wall) at Young House Love.

by Sherry Petersik on August 7, 2019 at 7:25 pm

Since you guys have been asking how this large scale (but also, small scale – ha!) renovation has been going, I thought I’d share our second dollhouse progress. And if you missed our first tiny house makeover, you can check it out here. Yes, this dollhouse totally reminds all of us of our own house, which has been especially fun. And our nine-year-old daughter has been acting as the general contractor, the interior designer, and the architect, which has also been a blast. From helping with painting and art to choosing colors, arranging the furniture and brainstorming future project ideas – she has been at the helm… WHICH HAS BEEN SO ENJOYABLE FOR MY HOUSE-LOVING HEART TO SEE (I’m also very happy to play the role of the dutiful assistant / budget realist – ha!). This house will probably be in progress for the next few years as we add more furniture, and lights that really work, and maybe even a spiral staircase that leads up to the attic (squeeee!). Continue reading Our Second Tiny House Makeover (Aka, Dollhouse Number Two) at Young House Love.

by Sherry Petersik on July 30, 2019 at 5:27 pm

Earlier this month we took the whole family (dog included!) up to Brooklyn for a few days to put together the space we’ve be designing for this year’s Real Simple Idea House over the past five or so months. I realize there’s a lot to unpack in that sentence (especially if you missed our podcast episode or Instagram stories about it) so we’ll catch you up right here and show you the *almost* finished space. And explain what’s still left to be done before their big photoshoot for the magazine and tell you about how some last-minute curveballs actually made the room better. And tell you what they do with everything in the house once the idea home is all said & done. That’s a lot of ands, so buckle up because we have a lot to tell ya. side table | daybed | wallpaper | art | lamp | pillows | quilt | rug | octopus This is the second year that Real Simple magazine has taken over a home in Brooklyn, assigned each room to a different “designer” (there’s typically a mix of certified interior designers & bloggers & design TV personalities, etc) and then they photograph the finished spaces for their magazine (this one will featured be in their October issue). Continue reading Our Room For Real Simple’s Idea House at Young House Love.

by Sherry Petersik on July 24, 2019 at 4:43 pm

Many moons ago John shared the beach house before & after photos from downstairs (tons of never before seen angles!) right here in this post. And it has taken us a while (how has it been eight months?!) to get the upstairs before & afters all together so you can see all of those comparisons, and browse the entire second floor of our project, which we are thrilled came together (it was looking ROUGH at the start). So let’s pop upstairs & look around, shall we? Because the transformations were just as big up there… UPSTAIRS HALL & OFFICE Here’s the upstairs hall as you face the front room that we converted into a mini storage room & office. There was tons of water damage, mold, and termite damage throughout the entire top floor. This is the same angle now, with smooth walls and a non cracking ceiling! Continue reading Before & Afters Of Our Beach House: Upstairs at Young House Love.