Rooms

Fixer-uppers need a lot of attention — especially over-100-year-old fixer-uppers. So no surprise that when Liz Elliot moved into hers, a Sears kit home in historic Charleston, she and her husband focused on making the essential parts of the house livable and didn’t pay a lot of mind to the guest bedroom.

Cramped quarters can make it hard to want to spend much time in a kitchen. And plenty of factors beyond actual square footage can contribute to that feeling — dark finishes, bulky cabinetry, and blocked windows, for starters.Van Tuyet (@percivalinbloom) had to deal with all three in her townhouse’s kitchen. “The kitchen and dining area felt closed in, which amplified how narrow our townhouse felt,” Van says.

The 1960s gave the world a lot of groovy stuff—think bean bag chairs, Sputnik light fixtures, and funky colors like avocado and mustard. But some of the decor looked a lot better back in the 1960s than it does today.Case in point: Anna Westbury’s dark wood kitchen, original to her 1968 home. Its dark wood cabinets felt imposing, and the clunky fan made the ceiling feel extra low. Anna had already replaced the old beige appliances (win!

Open-concept living rooms, dining rooms, and kitchens have dominated home construction since the ’90s. But when DIYer Molly Miller moved into her new build in 2018, her family actually wanted more separation between the home’s main living areas. Everything was “lumped together in one large space,” and it made it difficult to have a functional kitchen with the limited storage.

A lot of great things came out of the 1990s — and there are plenty of design trends making a comeback that we love to see. But some of the decade’s looks could use a refresher, like the super-brown kitchen in designer Sheryl Sanders’s home.After living in the home for only two months, she knew she needed to do something to modernize the cooking space.Since the old cabinet boxes were solid wood and in great condition, she decided she could get away with just replacing the doors.

Many of us find living room makeover ideas on social media. But Christina Beck and her husband Colin literally found a house on Instagram.“One of our followers knew his mom needed to sell the house she had spent time in growing up for her dad,” explains Christina, who owns the renovation company Vero Home in Cincinnati with Colin.“It hadn’t been updated in at least 35 years and had a lot of deferred maintenance.

Small kitchens certainly aren’t unusable. In fact, there are plenty of space-savvy kitchen finds that can make tiny studio or galley kitchens work successfully.But sometimes, a small kitchen begs for a total renovation, which was the case for Bri Williams and her husband, Denver, and their 200-square-foot kitchen.

When I first discovered the town of Hudson, New York, I felt like a kid in a candy store. There was so much that I wanted to explore. It’s the type of town that seems to have it all: picturesque streets filled with historical homes, rows of antique shops and boutiques, and scenic drives that lead you to local farm stands, wildflower fields, and nature trails. What more could you ask for?

When interior decorator Katie Woodman and her husband, Joseph, first found their split-level house in Ft. Collins, Colorado, they fell hard for its unique features, including a treehouse-like upper deck, a huge wood-burning fireplace, vaulted ceilings, and a large solarium perfect for plant babies.

”The office didn’t exist before,” Alana Resnick says. When she and her boyfriend, Miles Ronbeck, found their Upper East Side apartment, it had a very long living space. And while they originally were looking for an apartment with two bedrooms (to convert one into a dedicated office), they fell in love with the natural light and the ample square footage.

Meredith Rose’s wedding registry included something not all registries do: power tools, which she was eager to use post-wedding to turn her townhouse into a space that actually reflected her design aesthetic.“My style is pretty classic in all areas of my life, so I wanted my home to feel the same way,” says Rose, who is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Sometimes you’ve gotta go big when it comes to a renovation, and that doesn’t always mean in terms of scale. Often, it’s about the scope of the work and taking a chance on layout tweaks and storage changes to find what works for you. That was the case for designer Anita Yokota and her late ’90s cook space, which she shares with her husband, Travis, and three daughters.

Multipurpose rooms, because of the nature of what they are (essentially combining two separate spaces, with their own goals and needs, into one), can easily become overwhelming and a headache. For June Cruz, that room was her dual laundry room and mudroom. It had no storage or organization, which made it a dysfunctional area. “It was essentially a drop zone for our coats, shoes, and bags, as well as our weekly laundry,” June describes.

Sometimes inspiration strikes where you’d least expect it — and closer to home than you’d imagine. For homeowners Sean and Brian, that couldn’t be more true: All it took was viewing their friend’s renovated, open kitchen — a friend who just happened to live in the same building. That layout showed them what they were missing, namely a space that would make entertaining so much more enjoyable.

Kristin Purcell spent this past year working from her Florida home and needed a designated space for an office. The creative lead — and chief candle pourer — behind the popular online decor shop, Henro Company, Kristin originally thought she’d use a spare bedroom.

White cabinets are nice, but this color is a looker.

Searching for and purchasing a home isn’t a small task. Not only is this process a major life milestone, but it can also be a hefty financial commitment. Knowing this, it’s totally fair to want to find a space that checks all the boxes. But in some situations, sacrifices might be necessary. Like when Lauren Alexander bought her condominium in 2021. “The home had good bones — beautiful crown molding and a stunning view with lots of natural light,” Lauren shares.

Orange-y wooden cabinets from the ’90s and 2000s might have a bit of a dated look to them, but they can be worth keeping just for the sheer quality of the wood. Throw a little paint on them, and they’ll be perfectly on-trend today, when dark gray, navy, and deep green paint colors reign.

Adding texture and architectural detail to walls is a surefire way to make a home look custom and character-filled rather than builder-grade — especially in a bedroom.You can see what a huge difference it makes in designer Cerrissa Fitz’s (@piranhadesign) basement bedroom, which she took from “sterile” and “boxy,” as she wrote on Instagram, to an “old-world vibe.”Although Cerrissa is an interior designer, this was her first time dabbling in DIY.

Are you a renter feeling limited, home improvement-wise, by the terms of your lease or by the fact that you might someday move? Heed this advice from Lily F Tsutumida: “Do the math and consider what it’s worth for you to be happier in your space while you’re there; if it’s feasible, go for it!

“Every great design process starts with a conversation, and for this project, that conversation began with discussing their life,” founder of Rise Up Home and interior designer Kendra Joseph explains.Kendra asked her clients questions like “What does a Tuesday morning look like with two young kids?” and “Where does the chaos land, and where does the calm need to be?

When food blogger Christine Han and her partner moved into their Brooklyn apartment in the summer of 2021, they knew they had a big renovation project ahead of them. Luckily, they were more than willing to tackle the work — especially the kitchen, which was a mishmash of furniture, inefficient appliances, and odd backsplash tiles. Before they began, Christine convinced her partner that they could revamp the space for less than $2,000.

When Orima Kamalu describes the former kitchen in her colorful, DIY-filled house, it’s hard not to wonder why she wanted to make any changes at all.“The original kitchen was always a lovely, large open space with plenty of storage and room to move around. The units were all gloss-white with chrome-effect bar handles,” she explains. However, while the kitchen (which Orima thinks was last updated in the early 2000s) was functional, it wasn’t exactly their style.

“When [my husband and I] bought our first home, the bathroom was at the top of my list to transform,” Samantha Kivell, a DIYer and bespoke upholsterer, says. But DIY projects can sometimes be put on the back burner when schedules fill up, or other projects become top priority. However, once Samantha’s schedule cleared up, she finally had time to tackle the DIY transformation she had been eager to do.

Digital creator, interior decorator, and color-lover Devin Downs quickly realized that the somewhat basic kitchen in his New York City rental wasn’t going to work for him.“The kitchen had no personality — it felt purely functional and uninspiring,” he explains. “I was cooking in a sea of beige and stainless steel.”After painting the adjoining hallway with Behr’s “Young Green,” Devin knew the kitchen needed to mirror that energy.

The thought of building a kitchen from scratch might seem daunting to some (me included!), but to Tim and Kat Moore, it was a no-brainer when it came to their coastal Sicily house.The unfinished room, which essentially served as a walkway to gorgeous sea views, was actually a benefit to them. Instead of having to remove outdated fixtures, they could imagine how the space would work for them.The couple didn’t want to compromise the sea view with a flashy, loud kitchen.

When Sophie Simmons moved into her 331-square-foot New York apartment, she was living alone and planned on using the railroad apartment’s awkward middle room as her closet and living space for her “single girl setup.”“The room started as a small shoebox with a closet spanning one entire wall, and a bench seat on the other,” Sophie explains. The whole room revolved around her French Louis XVI-style John Richard coffee table that she had bought secondhand for $50.

Three years ago, when Morgan and Faye Hurley moved into their family home just an hour outside of Boston, they were charmed by the vintage details — especially in the kitchen. Faye describes the original room as “so retro and fun,” but the smaller space (which included a connected laundry nook) wasn’t big enough to accommodate their family of five plus three cats.

When Katherine and Genevieve moved into their Spanish bungalow-style Southern California home (built in 1933), they set out to find a way to honor the space’s past while also looking toward their future. This included the “mismatched but functional” kitchen, as Genevieve described it. Initially, the three countertops and two cabinets were competing against each other for space and the eye. Additionally, a pocket-sized laundry room divided the space.

When homeowners Heath and Samantha Mitchell moved into their cottage-style home in Sydney, Australia, they loved the charming historic details. The colors in the kitchen, though? Not so much. “Our ‘before’ kitchen had golden timber-look cabinetry, yellowing tiles and walls, and a dark gray speckled benchtop,” Samantha said. “The handles and knobs were black and gothic-like, and there were even black dragon fixtures at the entry.

When your life is already changing exponentially, and you’re taking on a brand new adventure, why not add one more task to your already very full plate?At least, that was Elisabeth Edelman’s thinking when she purchased her 1950s Cape Cod home. “I had just sold my PR firm, had a baby on my own, and was setting out to write a novel and get published,” Elisabeth shares.

In the world of kitchen remodeling, there are entirely DIY projects (like this ‘80s kitchen makeover), while some transformations require professional help (and there’s no shame in that!).However, some unique makeovers are so hands-off, they take place while the homeowner is living in an entirely different country — at least, that was the case for Sonia Blair’s Latin American home. Blair owns a home in Mazatlan, Mexico, but lives in Colorado.

Sometimes a kitchen renovation might modernize a space, but the contemporary changes don’t necessarily fit the home’s aesthetic. That was definitely the case in Yvonne Langen and Michael Rizk’s colorful Canadian home.When they originally bought the house, “the kitchen featured reddish-orange cabinetry, a mottled brown laminate countertop, white appliances, and beige/brown ceramic tiles on both the floor and backsplash,” Langen explains.

When moving into a new space, it’s normal to discover unique (or even strange!) things abandoned by the previous occupants. Whether that’s items left behind during the move, or unusual design choices that you now have to figure out what to do with — it’s always an interesting adventure people face.

It’s not that Detroit-based interior designer Christie Kristl didn’t like the updated kitchen in her 1963 home, but it didn’t exactly scream fun. The hardware, countertops, and cabinets were all fine, so they stayed put.But thankfully, when the previous owners updated everything in 2018, they didn’t bother with any backsplash — so Christie got to make the call.

When Shardé Marchewski and her husband, Jens, moved into their 1885 Boston home four years ago, the basement was unfinished. And not just incomplete but like a scene out of a scary movie.Luckily, the couple had a vision — as all creatives tend to: a gorgeous in-law suite complete with a fully functional kitchen. (The kitchen, arguably, ended up being the star of the project.) “We wanted the kitchen to feel timeless, striking, and functional.

Inspiration can strike from almost anywhere — and that includes your undergarments drawer. In the case of Vickiann Vachula’s primary bedroom redo, a pair of soft-colored underwear was a close shade to what she had envisioned and helped inspire the room’s eventual color palette. Vickiann is the creator of My Crappy House, a blog that documents gradual renovations and DIY projects of her home.

When Anna Ladd moved into her 100-year-old Philadelphia home, it had everything she was looking for. It still had some of its historical charm but had been renovated enough that it didn’t feel like an overwhelming project (this being her first home, after all). However, the kitchen, which was renovated in 2022 (after being “very 2000s beige,” as Anna describes it), was a bit over-renovated for her taste.

The design idea for this Nova Scotia kitchen renovation was delightfully specific: “Ralph Lauren Polo Club meets Martha Stewart,” says Victoria Armour, cofounder of Stil James.Luckily, she understood the assignment. The client, a mother of three teenagers, wanted a space where the extended family could gather and make memories, and what better room to start with than the kitchen?

Jordan Smith knows most homeowners might raise eyebrows at her choice to remove the upper kitchen cabinets in her tiny kitchen. She and her husband, Luke, live in a 529-square-foot studio apartment in Brooklyn, so storage is at a premium. But to her, it all made sense.The builder-grade cabinets and finishes weren’t the couple’s style, and they knew they wanted to renovate the kitchen before they even moved in.

A vintage-inspired kitchen? We love to see it. But a dated kitchen? Hard pass. Daniela Sanchez, founder of Rose House Talent Agency, had a kitchen that fell into the latter category; in fact, the room (sans appliances) was original to the 1979 home. “‘Dated’ would be an understatement,” Daniela says of the original kitchen.

Without a demolition!

It all stemmed from a single tile.

A favorite travel destination inspired many pieces of this personality-packed gallery wall.

The space is totally unrecognizable.

This living room redo is chock-full of tips for filling up a small space without it feeling overwhelming.

It’s totally sophisticated and totally pink.

The fresh vibe comes courtesy of new wallpaper and some smart DIYs.

Plus, this first-time cabinet painter has some great DIY tips for getting the job done.

This homeowner’s advice? Don’t be afraid to go bold.

The details are everything.

The before was gray with mostly brown-toned furniture, rugs, and objects that my boyfriend described as “curbside pickups.”

It's an "eclectic, artful oasis."