apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Whether it's an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the testimonial photos inside issues of fitness magazines, or Gordon Ramsey kicking the "arses" of failing restaurants into shape, I've always had a fondness of the theatrics of "before and after" transformations. There's something about the process of taking something once worn, bland or neglected and giving it a brand new life, whether it be a couch, a house, a car, or even our own bodies. And here on AT we've shown plenty of examples where readers and even our own writers have revived, renovated, and rearranged their own homes into something new or entirely different. Below are twelve of this year's most interesting "before and after" transformations...