The Latest: May 2015

Minneapolis designer Jay Nuhring has another no-shopping makeover for us. This time, his client has a huge living room, three of the same sofa, and a wall of books that looks a bit bland. Jay applied the use-what-you-have motto and created a whole new space within a space! From Jay: This project was really easy and really affordable. Nothing new was purchased for this living room makeover. Everything was shopped and sourced from what the homeowner already had in the house.

Just because you're only in your place for a year or two doesn't mean you can't make it a home.

Fran over at Fall for DIY had this old-school vanity table and wanted to make it over. Although you’d think she’s reach right for the paint can, you’d also be wrong. She came up with an alternative method to give it a new look…. Here’s Fran: I must admit I’ve made my fair share of makeover messes whilst attempting to create a home interior I love.

While we were discussing mattresses the other day, my partner offhandedly remarked (not about us, just in general), “Since when are adults incapable of sleeping in twin beds?” My ineloquent response included the words “starfish,” “too short” and “fall out!

When you live in one place for awhile, rooms will begin to need a refresh. Such was the case for Sarah’s bedroom, and she enlisted the help of best friend and former roommate Katie to help give the small space a makeover. From Katie: My best friend Sarah has been living in the same rental apartment for over 6 years, and it was time for a refresh. I used to live in this apartment with her, so filling holes in the wall was therapeutic for the both of us!

Gaëtan is a talented architect now living in Montreal with his girlfriend Violaine and their son Hubert. After renovating their kitchen, he took on redesigning the bathroom! From dated to modern, the space is now sophisticated and fresh. The palette is monochromatic; Everything is white, except for the floor which is in a soft beige tone. To cut costs, Gaetan chose to go with white wall tiles from Home Depot, and decided to splurge on the sink and fixtures instead.

Well, folks, the long-anticipated day has come. Remember this sadness? Well, it’s sadness no more! After a Saturday spent covered in white paint and a Sunday spent arranging and rearranging objects, our new and improved bedroom has finally come into being.

Planning a room makeover can be fun, especially when it comes to sorting through inspiration photos and figuring out what elements you like most. But it can also be frustrating: developing a budget, thinking about needs, considering design constraints. It was all necessary, but once the planning was out of the way, the fun part of this makeover could begin: shopping!

Abigail’s fixer-upper stood out—and not in a good way. Sometime during its 100-year history, someone had slapped putty-hued vinyl siding on the front, which would be less jarring if it wasn’t one of many attached brick rowhouses! See how she and her husband restored the curb appeal: From Abigail: When we bought our hundred-year-old fixer-upper in downtown Frederick, Maryland, the first thing we planned to revitalize was its exterior.

Now that you’ve seen the peachy-beige before photos, it’s time to talk about the design direction that our makeover was taking. I’m an image hoarder, so I pulled open all the files that I had saved from the last few years and obsessed over them, looking for ideas. Join me on my journey. First, I thought a lot about what I wanted out of our bedroom.

Seduced by the siren song of free, Angelica scooped up this cabinet—as the panels started falling off. Not to be deterred, she took some fabric remnants and transformed it into a versatile piece: From Angelica: This modest wine cabinet was a free find. It looked like all it needed was a fresh coat of paint and it would become a great piece for extra storage in our home. But as I got it out of the car, the panels started falling off. I could not complain as it was free!

It’s been over a year since my partner and I moved into our home. There were plenty of things to occupy our attention, such as getting rid of the garish mixture of red and yellow walls in the downstairs living area, installing a new door, fixing some damaged exterior portions, and so on and so forth. But finally, enough was enough, and we decided to tackle the one room that hadn’t gotten a speck of attention: the bedroom. Feast your eyes on that peachy-beige wonder.

These blah shutter bi-fold doors appear in many a rental, and Jessica’s was no exception. While she decorating her daughter’s room, she had an idea to transform them into something a little more glam: What a difference! From Jessica: While redecorating my girl’s room, I had a big Ah-ha moment.

Erin’s dining room suffered the same fate as most of its kind. Hardly used except for special evenings, it was a blah purgatory for clutter and unused stuff. It needed a style boost to get the family to use it more often. And here’s what it looks like today. Erin took her time getting it fully decorated, and gathering things for the walls. She also used a lot of items that she already owned — like the table and rug — and swapped from other rooms in the house.

IKEA’s VITTSJÖ line is a sleek and modern staple as is, but Lidia took hers and gave it a minty fresh look. From Lidia: Being a a big fan of interior design, I find myself in constant decorating mode. I really enjoy bringing to life an idea or creative project and recently found myself doing it with our small living room. After painting the walls and rearranging the furniture, I noticed my small living space could fit a coffee table and would be more inviting.

We love a good “shop your space” room transformation. Jay is a Minneapolis-based designer and this bedroom project was completed in a day (another benefit of using a lot of what you’ve got!). With a few new elements and a shift in the space, there’s now a blissful new bedroom: From Jay: This bedroom redo was really fast and really easy.

The bathroom in Amy’s Brooklyn Heights condo wasn’t terrible or falling apart. But after living there for a while, she started to notice how the finishes picked by the previous owner weren’t in line with the style of the rest of her home, and the vanity cabinet and countertop extension were making the narrow bathroom feel unnecessarily cramped. So she decided to swap out a few fixtures, and replace the tile, to make her bathroom feel bigger and give it a classic, timeless feel.

I love to browse the thrift shops in my neighborhood, but sometimes find myself stuck on the creative possibilities of an item. I know it has potential but am equally aware that if I don’t have a clear cut idea that I want to execute, it will likely end up in a pile in the back 0f my closet. With this in mind, I rounded up a few DIY upgrades for items I come across frequently. 1.

Since they’ll eventually sell this house, Kelley didn’t want to spend too much money in updating the place. So when this bathroom was feeling a little bit country, she set a short budget, and made the existing vintage tile shine: From Kelley: We live in a small cape cod house built in 1951. We love it, but can’t stay here forever because the layout and size doesn’t really allow for a family in the future.

I recently told you about my quest to class up my Billy bookcases (and find someone online who’d already done the hard work for me to copy) and here’s another stellar idea from Little Green Notebook. It’s incredible how the extra additions to the ready-made shelving make a world of difference. I can just imagine Jenny causing some sort of worldwide Billy shortage with this one. She transformed two awkward nooks into this amazing wall of yummy built-in shelving.