The Latest: May 2019

Moves are stressful. Joey had made the long move from the South Coast to the East and loved the new little Victorian terrace to call home. But, not all the furniture fit, both in size and style. Especially sad was not being able to find a place for this sideboard that, though it was getting shabby, had been loved a long time. Instead of getting rid of it, Joey found a way to make it work in another part of the home, with a fresh new function and look.

Priyanka’s kitchen was just fine. Not the prettiest, that’s for sure. And it was a little…beige looking. When she was ready to renovate, Priyanka knew exactly what she wanted. Take a peek at what she decided to do with it: Instead of going with color, Priyanka chose clean, basic white — from the cabinet to island countertops to tile — which a touch of black and gray. The result is bright, fresh and classic enough to last for a lifetime.

Amit had been using these two IKEA floor lamps for TEN YEARS — ever since senior year of college. From dorm room, to first apartment, to the first home, which Amit moved into about a year ago. But while they functioned great, they were drab — boring office gray with a plain white plastic shade that disappeared against the new house’s gray walls.

These extra large paper chandeliers make such amazing party decorations. They are colorful, easy to make, and have a huge impact in a room. I recently assembled this one out of movie ticket strips for an Oscars viewing party this year, but you can use other types of paper instead.

After 10 months of searching, Alison and Jovito purchased the home of their dreams: a charming 100-year-old brownstone in Brooklyn’s Ocean Park. There were lots of things that needed updating all over the house, but they decided to focus first on the most egregious spots: the upstairs bathroom and the very, very, brown kitchen. We’ll leave it to Allison to describe the extent of the former kitchen’s ickiness: The kitchen needed a gut renovation.

Kelly and her husband bought their first home in Spanish Town, Baton Rouge and it had a lot of…character. They’ve been sprucing it up ever since and their recent project was to transform this office space into a room to welcome their new baby. Two big challenges: decorating for either a boy or a girl and making this dark, claustrophobic space into a happy, bright room for their child.

This kitchen before and after is a little different from our usual fare because it doesn’t involve a change in style: it involves a change in function. Blaise, Kristin, and their three kids had just made the move from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Their new home was almost twice as big as their previous one, but the kitchen, they found, was prohibitively small. They loved the way it looked, but they didn’t love storing kitchen basics in the basement and pots and pans in the oven.

Fall is officially here, and everything is coming up gold. From garlands and wreaths to pumpkins and pears, read on for simple ways to DIY this metallic into your home for the season. TOP ROW: 1. Falling leaves garland from 6th Street Design School. 2. Gilded acorns available to buy from Light of Day Creations on Etsy, but an easy thing to DIY! 3. Gold-painted branches from Popsugar. 4. DIY no-sew burlap table runner from Inspired by Charm. 5. Gold-dipped log candleholder DIY on the Etsy blog.

This is not an “OMG! You lost 100 lbs.!” kind of makeover. This is more like,”Hmmnn…did you change your hair? get new glasses?” But therein lies the beauty: small changes are sometimes all that’s needed to make a room feel pulled together. The bedroom above belongs to Noah and his little sister Everly and here it is after a few simple changes: So, what changed? The blue paint is gone, there’s a new bedside table, new artwork and a new, cozy rug.

During one of my many trips to the paint counter at the hardware store this week I spied a very curious item from Glade. Since I’m a sucker for scents and it was under $5, I just had to try it and see if it was as exciting/exotic as it seemed. For all you Scratch-n-Sniff enthusiasts, yes, the “smell for yourself” sticker actually smells like the end product.

Forgive the bad pun in the title of this post, but do check out the makeover of this classic Jenny Lind-style chair, recently restored and revamped by Reddit user the Grizzard of Oz. After peeling off many layers of old upholstery, she stripped off the green paint and even used toothpicks to clean out all the nooks and crannies in the wood. The new natural looking wood stain is covered with a layer of wax for added protection.

IKEA’s KURA loft bed usually steals the spotlight in terms of hacks and makeovers, but this transformation of the plain Jane MYDAL into a playhouse for an 8-year-old girl shows just how much potential this higher bunk has. With some plywood, 512 screws and some fabric, this bunk became a tented sleeping area (reached by TROFAST “stairs”), a reading nook with a hammock and a mini desk. Not to mention the adorable flower boxes and bucket on a pulley!

This worn, old wardrobe had seen better days, but Beau wanted to cheer it up for her daughter’s bedroom. So she add some fun colors, painted on a perky pattern and completely transformed this old piece into a fun addition! From Beau: This little wardrobe was well beaten up and really sad looking, not solid wood in parts so it needed a paint job.

If you need inspiration for how to turn an old, unused piece of furniture into a new piece with a fresh look and function, you’ll love this dresser makeover. The result is far from where it started! From Karen: We love challenges. So when my husband and I found this broken dresser on garbage day we were on a mission to bring it back to life.

When Sarita and her husband bought an old home that needed a lot of work, they cooked up a plan to keep their two young daughters occupied and not underfoot while they spruced it up. Their mission: transform this unappealing closet into a happy play space. Sarita describes the project: This tiny closet is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door. I work as a muralist for children’s spaces and love colour! I was anxious to play with bold and bright yellows.

Sharon describes her home as a mishmash of styles (mostly tropical-beachy-outdoorsy nature-modern with a little traditional-hollywood regency-eclectic-real life thrown in) with no one dominate influence. When it starts leaning too far in one direction, she switches it up to keep decor in an eclectic balance. Take her family room’s mantel for instance, which was feeling entirely too traditional given her plans for the rest of the space….

If you’re interested in knowing just how you can take a pair of chairs from IKEA and make them unmistakably your own, you’ll find lots of inspiration from Brynne’s project with these club chairs. From Brynne: After searching for the perfect, affordable club chairs for my living room for weeks, I stumbled across a secondhand pair of IKEA Klappsta chairs (no longer carried in store) on Craigslist.

Whether you’re battling dry skin, tending to a sore throat, or just trying to keep germs at bay, rosemary oil is an excellent remedy for what ails you this winter. Check out just a few of our favorite uses and consider adding it to your health and wellness arsenal! Rosemary has been used medically for centuries as an antiseptic, an aid in digestive and respiratory health, and in skincare.

Without fail, every year I end up with half lit (no, this has nothing to do with egg nog) strands of christmas lights. It doesn’t seem to matter if I safely store them away, or throw them haphazardly in a bag, they refuse to ever be on the same work schedule. Repairing Christmas lights is not particularly difficult, but I wouldn’t say that it’s easy either.

Project by: Jenna Piccirillo of PICCISTUDIO Location: Fairfield, Connecticut This bedroom needed to house two growing pre-teen boys and provide space for them to sleep, study and hang out with friends. Jenna Piccirillo’s solution is the stuff kids’ dreams are made of and include a room-within-a-room treehouse.

Project by: Aparna Chacko / AjjC Design Location: Fremont, California This room needed an injection of personality before its new 10-year-old occupant moved in. It also needed a design that could carry this tween straight through the teen years. From the designer: Design brief: To convert the spare room into a space that the home owner’s 10-year-old daughter will not outgrow in the next 6-8 yrs.