The Latest: Dec 2016

When we moved to our Canadian home in the middle of the winter, furniture-less and looking for indoor weekend activities, we turned to Home Depot and online tutorials and decided to make some stuff. Here are three surprisingly easy and effective projects we think you should try at home in 2017 — you can see them in our recent house tour. This is by far the easiest DIY we tackled. It takes all of two steps: screwing a bracket to the wall and wrapping a pendant light around it.

Sure, we might all want to freshen our living room or bedroom, but no room can get dated, dingy, and even dangerous as quickly as a kitchen can. These 10 amazing makeovers, ranging from $200 DIYs to splashy professional jobs, show the power of paint, paring down, and—for crying out loud—new cabinets.

Warning: If winter has you stuck inside, growing increasingly sick of your same four walls (while grateful to have walls, of course), these 10 incredible redesigns might push you into a repainting, redecorating, cabin-fevered frenzy. Whether you’re considering slapping on a coat of paint or are ready to gut the place, there’s at least one project here that’s sure to inspire.

Who among us hasn’t dragged home a $5 garage sale chair or a battered bookshelf left on the curb, convinced that we could make something out of it? Whether by painstakingly restoring it to its former glory or by giving it a major makeover, we just know something special is lurking beneath the cobwebs, scratches, or worse.

Ashley wanted a bathroom update that was stylish, full of storage and helped maximize the space of her small bathroom. By pulling in a surprising piece of furniture and painting the space a calming color, she created a bathroom that blends form and function. From Ashley: The tiny half bathroom connected to the master bedroom was original to the 1972 house and in desperate need of an update.

A dreary bathroom seems dirty no matter how clean it actually is, so giving it a fresh coat of white paint, additional lighting, and sparkling tiles can completely transform the look and feel of the room, all while making the weekly cleaning feel less Sisyphean.

Right before Thanksgiving we posed a question to readers — “If you had $200 to surprise someone with a gift, what would that gift be, and to whom would you give it?” Brigid Barjaktarevic’s response — some supplies to spruce up her non-profit workplace — caught our eye. We thought we could do more than just provide paint as the gift; we wanted to go all in on an Apartment Therapy makeover.

IKEA Pax wardrobes can be a godsend for creating closet space out of nothing and here is an exquisite example of how they can not only provide a massive amount of storage but appear like they were built just for your space.

The size and scale of this fireplace is striking which means that changing its look has a big impact on this space. The homeowners also opted for a new wall paint color. Together, these changes give off a whole new vibe. Take a look: From Christina: I am not a big DIY person so I spoke to the amazing contractor Adrian at Craftsman Construction that we worked with on this project, about how they were able to change the multi-colored stone fireplace into the clean white look that we finished with.

We’ve seen Natalie’s 19th century home before and this time she’s tackling her dining room. Not happy to just strip the floors and replace the chandelier, she put her artistic talents to good use and painted something gorgeous on the walls. From Natalie: My husband and I bought a circa 1870s house in Pittsburgh nearly three years ago. The house has a wonderful lived-in feeling and great bones, but it needed an infusion of style.

When Sophia and Leon bought their 3-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom Manhattan apartment, there wasn’t a lot going on in the petite second bathroom — but what was going on looked a little like a gas station bathroom: fine for a gas station, but not for a home. The yellowing wall tile was distinctly uninspiring, and dingy grout made the floor tiles look dirty no matter how many times they were cleaned.

Heather’s kitchen was outdated, but not unlivable, so she and her husband opted for a few smart and thrifty updates to add some style to the space before a big kitchen remodel. From Heather: My husband and I recently purchased a 1960s home. It’s in great condition, but most everything is original to the house.

Natalie’s home was originally divided into apartments, so she had the not-so-small challenge of turning it back into a cohesive space. After experimenting with new paint colors, and switching up the floor, she finally found herself with a moody library full of quirky, personal charm. From Natalie: This room has changed over time as my husband and I have lived in the house. We bought our circa 1870s Pittsburgh home nearly three years ago.