There’s something strangely addictive about peeking into someone else’s house. Not in a “binoculars and trench coat” way, but in a
“show me your pantry and tell me where that rug is from” way. That’s the magic of inspiring and stylish home tours, and it’s exactly
why Young House Love has built such a loyal following around real-life, lived-in spaces that still photograph like a dream.
If you love scrolling through home tours on Young House Love, Apartment Therapy, Better Homes & Gardens, and other design-filled corners
of the internet, this guide is for you. We’ll walk through what makes a Young House Love–style tour so appealing, the design lessons
you can steal, and how to create a tour-ready home of your own—even if you’re working with a tight budget, a small space, or
a couple of sticky-fingered kids.
Why We Can’t Get Enough of Home Tours
Home tours scratch a very specific itch. On one hand, they’re pure eye candy: pretty paint colors, layered rugs, cozy sofas, and
cleverly styled bookshelves. On the other hand, they’re practical. You get layout ideas for an awkward living room, storage
solutions for a tiny entry, and proof that yes, you can mix brass, black, and chrome in the same house and the design police will
not show up.
Popular home-tour sites across the United States reinforce the same message: there’s no single “right” way to decorate. Some
homes lean coastal and breezy, others are maximalist color explosions, and some are minimal but still warm. The best tours feel
personal. They tell you who lives there, what they care about, and how they actually use each room.
Young House Love stands out in that crowd because their tours combine inspiration with hardcore practicality: paint colors are
listed, sources are linked, and the “before” photos are often just as memorable as the “after.” You’re not just seeing the pretty
final shot—you’re watching the whole evolution.
Inside the World of Young House Love Home Tours
Young House Love is essentially one long, ongoing house tour spanning several homes. Over the years, John and Sherry Petersik
have walked their audience through a succession of renovations: multiple family homes, a coastal beach house, a historic duplex
turned vacation rental, and even a showhouse. Each project has its own vibe, but the common thread is approachable, DIY-friendly style.
From Fixer-Upper to Family-Friendly
In their main houses, the tours usually highlight the same three pillars:
- Comfort-first furniture: Deep sofas, durable fabrics, and plenty of seating for kids, friends, and random neighbors who wander in.
- Layered neutrals with pops of color: Walls and big pieces of furniture stay light and flexible, while color comes from pillows, art, rugs, and plants.
- Practical storage disguised as decor: Closed cabinets, baskets, and built-ins corral the mess while still looking intentional.
Their tours rarely show “museum” rooms. There are toys, pet supplies, and office corners. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s a
home that can handle real life and still look pulled together when you snap a quick photo.
Beach House & Duplex: Vacation-Rental Inspiration
When Young House Love turned their beach house and historic duplex into vacation rentals, their home tours shifted slightly.
Suddenly, they weren’t just designing for themselves; they were designing for guests. That meant:
- Clear, intuitive layouts: It should be obvious where to drop your bags, sleep, eat, and hang out.
- Hardwearing surfaces: Washable rugs, slipcovered sofas, durable flooring, and finishes that can survive sand, suitcases, and wet towels.
- Fun, memorable moments: Bunk beds, playful art, bold tile in a bathroom, or a statement light fixture that screams “you’re on vacation.”
These tours are a masterclass in how to create a cohesive look across multiple units (in the duplex) while letting each space have
its own personality. Color palettes repeat, but accents shift. Layout tricks from one home show up in another, proving that good
design ideas are very portable.
Showhouses, Downsize Stories, and Video Walkthroughs
Beyond still photos, Young House Love also leans heavily on video tours. A video walk-through feels more honest: you see how rooms
connect, how the light changes from one space to the next, and how the family actually moves through the house. Combine that with
their showhouse project and their later decision to downsize and move closer to the beach, and you get a full spectrum of design
stories: building big, editing down, and prioritizing lifestyle over square footage.
Design Lessons from Inspiring & Stylish Home Tours
You don’t need the exact same house, budget, or location to pick up some very useful design lessons from Young House Love and
other popular home-tour sites. Here are some of the themes that show up again and again.
1. Start with a Story, Not a Sofa
The most memorable homes seem to have a storyline:
- A couple who loves the beach and brings in sandy neutrals, woven textures, and ocean-inspired blues.
- A family of readers whose walls are lined with bookcases and cozy nooks.
- Plant lovers who treat their home like a leafy indoor garden.
Before you buy anything else, decide what your home’s story is. Maybe it’s “relaxed, kid-friendly modern farmhouse” or “tiny
apartment with big color.” When you know the story, it’s easier to decide if that new chair or lamp fits the plot.
2. Repeat Colors and Materials
One reason Young House Love tours feel cohesive is that they repeat colors and materials across multiple rooms. You’ll see the
same wood tone on a coffee table and dining chairs, or the same soft blue carried from a bedroom to a bathroom.
To copy the look, pick 2–3 main neutrals (for walls, large furniture, cabinets) and 2–3 accent colors (for textiles, art, and
accessories). Sprinkle them around the house instead of isolating them in one room. Your home will feel intentional instead of
random, even if everything was scooped up from different stores over several years.
3. Mix High, Low, Old, and New
Nearly every great home tour blends price points and eras. A budget-friendly IKEA cabinet might sit next to a vintage mirror and a
splurge-worthy pendant light. That contrast keeps a home from feeling flat or too “catalog-perfect.”
Young House Love is known for mixing DIY projects, upcycled furniture, and affordable retailers with the occasional investment
piece. The lesson: save on items that work hard and might get beat up (rugs, kids’ furniture, outdoor seating), and splurge on
the items that anchor the room—like a sofa you actually enjoy sitting on.
4. Design for Real Life, Then Style for Photos
Home tours can make us think people live like magazine spreads 24/7. They don’t. Most design bloggers, including Young House Love,
organize, clean, and style right before shooting a room. The everyday version usually contains backpacks, dog toys, and laundry
baskets.
Think in layers:
- Base layer: smart layout, comfortable seating, good lighting.
- Storage layer: cabinets, baskets, drawers, and closets that handle daily clutter.
- Style layer: pillows, throws, art, plants, and a few favorite objects.
When it’s time to photograph or host company, you mostly tidy up the style layer and hide the random stuff in the storage layer.
That’s how real homes look polished without feeling fake.
5. Use Small-Space Strategies Everywhere
Many home tours feature smaller rooms, apartments, or quirky floor plans, especially in older homes and city spaces. The tricks
they use work just as well in larger homes:
- Hang curtains high and wide to make windows feel bigger.
- Float furniture away from the walls to create cozy conversation zones.
- Use multi-purpose pieces like storage ottomans, sleeper sofas, and extendable tables.
- Stick to a tight color palette so your rooms flow into each other instead of feeling chopped up.
Whether you’re furnishing a studio apartment or a four-bedroom house, these small-space ideas keep everything feeling open,
airy, and intentional.
How to Create Your Own Young House Love–Inspired Home Tour
Ready to turn your place into the next inspiring and stylish home tour? You don’t have to start with a full renovation. Use these
steps to transform your existing space and capture it like the pros.
Step 1: Walk Your House Like a Guest
Stand outside your front door, take a breath, and walk in as if you’ve never seen the place before. What’s the first impression?
Is there a landing zone for shoes and bags? Does the living room feel cramped or inviting? This “fresh eyes” exercise reveals
simple fixes, like adding a bench near the entry or rearranging furniture to open up a walkway.
Step 2: Declutter in Zones
Home tours always feel calm, even when the style is bold. That’s because clutter is edited ruthlessly. Tackle one zone at a time:
coffee table, console, bookshelves, nightstands. Clear everything off, put back only what you love or truly use, and give those
items room to breathe.
A trick seen in many stylish homes: group objects into odd-numbered clusters (three or five items), mix heights, and combine at
least one “hard” element (ceramic, glass, metal) with one “soft” element (plant, fabric, woven basket).
Step 3: Focus on Paint, Lighting, and Rugs
These three elements do most of the heavy lifting in Young House Love–style makeovers:
- Paint: Choose a light, neutral base for most rooms, then add color through accent walls, doors, or furniture.
- Lighting: Layer overhead fixtures, floor lamps, table lamps, and sconces. Dimmer switches are your secret weapon.
- Rugs: Use rugs to define seating areas, soften hard floors, and tie together a room’s color palette.
If you only update these three categories, your home will already feel dramatically more pulled together.
Step 4: Style a Photo-Ready Moment in Each Room
You don’t need every square inch to be perfect. Instead, create one “hero” moment per room: a styled mantle, a cozy reading
corner, a well-dressed bed, or a tidy kitchen shelf. That’s where the camera will naturally linger, and it keeps your styling
workload realistic.
Step 5: Capture Your Own Tour
When it’s time to document your hard work:
- Shoot in natural daylight whenever possible.
- Turn off overhead lights to avoid yellow shadows; rely on windows and lamps.
- Take wide shots to show layout, then detail shots to highlight textures, DIY projects, and personal objects.
- Walk through the house in one direction so your photos tell a logical story from entry to bedrooms.
Whether you’re sharing your tour on a blog, social media, or just texting photos to your mom, these small tweaks will make your
space look its best.
Real-Life Experiences: What Home Tours Teach You Over Time
The more you study and create home tours, the more you realize they’re about people as much as paint colors. If you’ve ever tried
to “Young House Love” your own home, you’ve probably run into a few familiar experiences.
First, there’s the “I own too much stuff” moment. The second you start prepping for photos, you realize just how many
mugs, blankets, toys, and random chargers live in your house. Editing for a tour forces you to ask, “Do I actually like this, or
did I just get used to seeing it?” It’s a surprisingly powerful filter. Many people find that their homes feel lighter and more
relaxing after a good pre-tour purge, even if no one else ever sees the photos.
Then comes the layout epiphany. Trying to shoot a room reveals what’s working and what isn’t. Maybe the sofa blocks the
view of a beautiful window, or the dining table is crammed into a corner because that’s where it landed on move-in day. When you
walk through your home with a camera, you start seeing the space the way a guest would, and it becomes much easier to justify
sliding furniture around, swapping rugs between rooms, or finally hanging that light fixture you bought months ago.
There’s also a surprising emotional layer. Looking back at old home tours from Young House Love or other bloggers, you see not
just different design choices but different seasons of life. The nursery that later becomes a big-kid room. The formal dining
room that gets traded for a more practical office. The giant house that eventually gives way to a smaller, more manageable one in
a favorite town. When you create your own tours over time, you’re essentially keeping a visual diary of your priorities and
growth as a person or family.
Finally, the biggest lesson: your home doesn’t have to be “finished” to be worth sharing. Many Young House Love tours are
intentionally labeled “before,” “during,” or “progress” rather than “after.” That’s part of what makes them relatable. Your house
can have mismatched nightstands, a half-painted hallway, or a bathroom that’s next on the list, and it’s still worthy of
documenting. In fact, capturing your home mid-project might be even more inspiring, because it reminds you (and everyone watching)
that real homes evolve slowly. Style is built in layers, with a lot of trial, error, paint fumes, and happy accidents along the
way.
When you approach your home like an ongoing Young House Love–style tour, you start to enjoy the process instead of waiting for a
mythical “finished” day. You notice small wins—like finally getting the right size rug or figuring out that your plant
prefers the other corner—and you give yourself credit for creating a space that feels more and more like you. That’s the
real power of inspiring and stylish home tours: they don’t just show you pretty pictures. They invite you to see your own home as
a work in progress that’s already worth celebrating.
Conclusion
Inspiring and stylish home tours, especially from creators like Young House Love, prove that great design isn’t reserved for
giant budgets or perfectly staged houses. It’s about thoughtful choices, repeatable ideas, and spaces that support the way you
actually live. When you borrow their strategies—clear color stories, layered textures, smart storage, and a sense of humor
about imperfection—you can transform your own home into a place that feels both camera-ready and comfortable.
So go ahead: fluff the pillows, slide the toys into baskets, open the blinds, and take that first photo. Your home tour doesn’t
have to be perfect to be inspiring. It just has to look and feel like you.
