We passed by this today on 23rd Street. It's a Home Depot shop window set up to look like a before/after from a home makeover...
Apartment Therapy on Home Makeovers
Makeovers intrigue us. We love to see all kinds of beautiful, inspired homes. But seeing the ashes from which they rise adds icing to the cake. When magazine spreads are accompanied by before shots, we find ourselves reading deeper. We even catch ourselves watching the last 5 minutes of Extreme Makeover Home Edition (muted, of course) just for the before/after overview.
That said, we think this display doesn't really capture the magic of the home makeover. Home Depot just displayed a sweeping change in style and probably price point, from "traditional" to "contemporary". We see real life transformations that blow this one away all the time. The makeovers we find most compelling are accomplished not simply with lots of money and new finishes but with elbow grease and thoughtfulness. The "after's" do not always abandon the "before's", but sometimes just carefully improve upon them or clean them up.
See some really moving home makeovers here at AT: Fall and Spring Cures undertaken with the AT Book and Maxwell's own 9 Month Cure.
Comments (7)
Daily Email
Top Tours
- Beth's Family Townhouse
- Studio Aalto: Alvar Aalto's Design Office
- Jessica's Vintage Vibe
- Ray's Staircase Renovation
- Vero & Thierry's SoHo Chalet
Top Posts
Today in Marketplace
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I used these guys once for kitchen work. This was before I learned about the web sites dedicated to the horror stories of product issues and shabby work by their sub contrators. I ended up redoing the work myself it was so bad.
view Chris - Annapolis's profile
It's Home Depot. Anyone who has visited the 23rd Street store knows their lack of style along with the incredibly unhelpful staff.
view right angle's profile
Lowes is better, although I'm assuming there is no Lowes outpost in Manhattan.
view david's profile
both stores suck. i have used both in the past. i get sooo mad watching those commercials with the helpful staff. when you go to either store be prepared to wait a long time for assistance. Only the lucky ones will leave with the item that they were looking to buy.
view itsthehouseshow's profile
The only thing that the Home Depot's makeover window captured for me was "Ew!" because of the fake waterbugs glued to the sink along with a big note that said "buy bug spray." Ha, ha.
Home Depot's good for housewares, but I wouldn't think of them for decoration.
view Melinda's profile
I still prefer my neighborhood hardware store. They don't have everything but at least they will tell me how to solve my problem.
view alexis's profile
I am so addicted to makeovers, but I generally dislike makeover shows (the hosts are overdramatic, and as my friend Marie always complains ... they make a big deal out of a really obvious design solution) so I do the same thing and only watch the last five minutes. But man, I watch the last five minutes of ALL those makeover shows ...
Oh, and I saw this display at HD too and thought it was weird. At the very least they could've used some old cabinets, etc. or some of those really basic cheap melamine/faux wood trim builders' cabinets that a lot of people have in their NY apts.
view ridge_van_winkle's profile