We’ve made a lot of headboards over the years, and the method below is the simplest and most versatile DIY headboard we’ve used. It requires no sewing, buttons, or advanced upholstery skills. It’s so straightforward we built two for this room. We made a wraparound, daybed-style headboard for our son’s bed to turn a basic … Read more

Every year we publicly state a few resolutions in the hope they’ll motivate us to actually follow through. So here they are—no further ado (except for this gratuitous Clara picture). Resolution #1. Be bolder with decorating and renovating choices. We want to embrace color, contrast, and playful decisions without worrying about making mistakes. We’ve learned … Read more

As much as we love our new built-in shelves in the laundry room, they interfered with our previous ironing board storage system — the one that clanged every time the washer spun. Clearly the ironing board needed a new home. We briefly considered building a cubby inside the built-ins, but wanted to keep maximum space … Read more

We were recently filmed for an upcoming episode of Rate My Space. Congratulations to Shaina, Layers of Meaning, Abbie in Co, Elizabeth, and Heather for correctly guessing after our earlier hint. Unfortunately, we can’t share many details about the taping yet because we promised the crew we wouldn’t reveal anything before the episode airs. What … Read more

We’re a little behind schedule since we didn’t have internet at home until late yesterday, but here’s a look at how things stood on Tuesday — our first full day in the house — with boxes piled in every room. Goodbye to the clean, blank slate. Hello chaos. Nothing is permanently placed yet; we just … Read more

Paint has been one of our biggest learning curves at Casa Petersik. We’ve tried nearly every approach: painting trim with flat paint right after moving in (not recommended—use semi-gloss), and assigning a different color to every room (not great for a small house). Over almost four years our walls have evolved as we learned what … Read more

Can you believe it’s been nearly five months since we last shared a house tour? I grabbed the Flip cam and wandered through the house to show how each room looks on a typical day. This is raw and real—no tidying beforehand (evidence includes my embarrassing bra draped over a bedroom chair, so let’s all … Read more

You might as well call us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik—we recently slipped away for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary in Puerto Rico. Puerto-Retersik does roll right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise. As we mentioned on last week’s podcast, we wanted to share pictures and details from our … Read more

It’s amazing how placing a table and chairs at one end of an underused living room and adding a centered light fixture instantly created a dining area that feels like it has always belonged there. When we first moved in, we had no idea what to do with the long, narrow space and no budget … Read more

Before we get to the Reader Redesign content, a quick Burger story. Yesterday was a terrifying day for us. Burger was sitting on Sherry’s lap when Clara and I came home. He got excited, jumped off her lap as he’s done countless times, but this time he lost his footing, flipped in the air, and … Read more