The Latest: May 2017

Megan’s rental bath makeover is low key awe inducing. Without making any major upgrades, it’s like she helped her bathroom leap forward into modern styling, while also time traveling back to the time of glam powder rooms. From Megan: The walls of our bathroom were decked in a puzzling color scheme with one brown wall and the rest purple. It was flat paint so it felt pretty dingy and not very practical in a bathroom.

Mel was hired by her clients to breathe some style into this workable, but very dark, slightly cramped bathroom. Using a single piece from the client’s old house as a jumping off point, she identified their style and found solutions for their pain points while giving them the look they wanted. Beautiful blue tile, a subtle yet stylish light fixture and funky accents create a bright bathroom oasis.

Prior to the renovation, Cybele described the kitchen in her Park Slope apartment as “Functional, but…a little worn”. It was still getting the job done, but the kitchen had seen better days. There were giant holes in the walls behind the cabinets, the electrical was outdated, and a dark countertop and backsplash sucked the light out of the room. The mosaic tile floor, with its miles and miles of grout, was a nightmare to clean.

Tarah lovingly updated the kitchen in her family home, holding onto history while creating a space that meets her needs and matches her style. She’s kept pieces of the old kitchen throughout the new one, lending a true vintage charm to the room. From Tarah: My grandparents built the kitchen of my grandma’s dreams when they installed indoor plumbing in the home for the very first time in 1958. They also put the bathroom behind the kitchen .

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a bold color in the kitchen if it’s executed well. Sadly that was not the case for Shannon’s sporadically navy blue kitchen. She made some small updates to the space when she first moved in, but after living with the kitchen for a few years she decided it was time to give the space the true makeover it deserved. From Shannon: When we first bought the house six years ago the kitchen walls and cabinet panels were painted a dark navy color.

This once grande dame of a sofa had good bones, she just needed a little refresh. In swoops Ashley’s mom, Janie, newly(ish) minted upholsterer and true tuffet champion. After three weeks and, like, a million buttons, this beauty was ready for her second act. From Ashley: This 1970s pea green sofa was certainly lovely in its time, but the velvet was worn and stained and its skirt wasn’t doing it any favors.

Vinyl aside, these chairs had a certain je nais se quoi. Stephanie snatched them up from the salvage yard and gave them a loving and era-appropriate upgrade. From Stephanie: These Australian-made mid-century chairs came from the salvage yard at our local landfill. The colors and finishes are different, but I noticed their matching frames under the worn vinyl and busted lacquer finish. Both also had a pivoting metal under frame – so they weren’t just regular armchairs, but recliners!

Bathroom renovations are one of those projects that are easy to keep putting off, until you come up against a real, hard deadline. For Jenna and her husband, who had lived with the less-than-ideal bathrooms and kitchen in their Chelsea apartment, that deadline came in the form of a very small person. A few months before their baby was born, they decided it was time to bite the bullet and overhaul their kitchen and bathrooms.

Kristina and her boyfriend triumphed over one of the most trying of relationship milestones: their first renovation. Kristina points out an important truth about renovations, that even if you’re not working on your forever home, the time and energy that goes into getting a place ready to flip is still monumental. After multiple trips to Home Depot, disagreements and disappointments, and a moment of buyer’s remorse, Kristina and her boyfriend now have a bathroom they can be proud of.

Penelope and Andrew’s outdated kitchen needed a boost. Well, not just a boost. A whole new extension and then a boost. After paying the high price of living through a kitchen reno with a toddler, they were handsomely rewarded with a gorgeous kitchen chock full of brand new functionality. From Penelope: We wanted a bigger and more useful kitchen. I’m an architect so I couldn’t help but see the potential a small addition to the house could provide — a larger kitchen!