The Latest: 2019

While Joanna Harrison has done a stellar job decorating her family’s small Silver Lake cottage, she’s lucky the preservation-savvy developers at bettershelter got their hands on the decaying structure before their demolition-hungry competitors. The company restored the historic home before renting it to the Harrison trio, making Joanna’s renovation process more about adding functional style and less about, um, not dying.

Want to create a bit of a separation between the rooms in your house, but still let light flow through? Want to add architectural interest to a boring or unremarkable space? French doors are good for that. Of course, you can use them at the boundary between your house and the outdoors, too, but french doors are especially nice when used as a interior transition between rooms.

Betsy and Manny bought this 1920s “Kit House” in Savannah after outgrowing their 400 square foot studio apartment in Brooklyn. They remodeled the whole home (while respecting the home’s architectural charm), but the kitchen’s outdated and dilapidated vibes had to go. They ripped the cabinets out, stripping the the kitchen down to the studs. The result is a gorgeous space that fits their personalities and the architecture of the home!

Chalk paint may be the undisputed champ of aged, vintage-style furniture, but this matte medium is actually incredibly versatile, and can be used to revamp pieces in a wide range of styles. From mid-century modern apartments to artsy bohemian interiors, this easy-to-use, environmentally-friendly paint is showing up everywhere. Find inspiration in the projects that follow, then learn everything you’ll need to know about mixing up homemade chalk paint.

Hissan and Sophia found their dream home in Brooklyn, but the kitchen was less than ideal. Besides the out of date faux-cherrywood finish, the cabinetry also seemed squatty and inappropriate in the space, adapted to a room with much lower ceilings. In their quest to renovate the kitchen and make it more appropriate for the space, they also wanted to rework a long but awkward hallway, a necessary but not particularly attractive part of the unit’s floorplan.

House hunting in New York often involves a few compromises, and for Brandi that compromise was buying an apartment with a kitchen in need of a serious overhaul. The backsplash tiles were cracked and yellowing, the wall oven didn’t work, and the hinges had so many layers of paint on them that the cabinets wouldn’t close. And to top it all off, everything was painted a particularly unappealing shade of olive green.

These closet makeovers look expensive and difficult to pull off, but are actually extremely easy. In addition to being gorgeous, most are also affordable, and super renter-friendly. Here are nine ways to get your storage style in line with the rest of your decor…. Above, this closet is a major improvement, both inside and out. Room for Tuesday both did a massive purge and re-organization effort, and then finished the space off with newly framed doors and agate pulls for added style.

Our Surrealist take on witches’ claws, these Venus flytrap nails are every bit as dangerous, but thanks to sparkle polish and rhinestones, are 10 times prettier. These designs were dreamed up by extraordinary nail artist Mei Kawajiri (don’t miss her Instagram for even more OTT styles), but don’t worry nail art novices, our video tutorial and step-by-step instructions put this look totally within your grasp.

One of the hardest parts about room makeovers is envisioning what it all might look like. Before you spring for all the materials, how can you be sure it will look great when it’s finished? When working on Tara’s rental kitchen, we tried out some different design options on Photoshop, playing around with various design options. Mind you, these aren’t digital masterpieces. But they do help you see how different paint colors look, or what pattern would do to the floor.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that we all need to brush our teeth. What you use to carry out the chore is up to you, but if you’re looking for some natural toothpaste alternatives with minimal chemicals (more on that later), we rounded up 7 willing mouths at Apartment Therapy HQ to test out 9 top-rated natural pastes. Did they stand a chance against the raw garlic test? Read on to find out!

When Maxine of We Love Home moved into her home she inherited a less than ideal kitchen. Not only was it pretty blah aesthetics wise, it was basically falling apart. Not one to be deterred, she saw this as a golden opportunity to design her dream kitchen. From Maxine: In my old flat, I inherited an almost-new kitchen so could never justify changing it. I hated it though. As it is had been designed by for someone else, by someone else – it never suited my needs.

When I stumbled across Molly’s cabinet project on her blog Almost Makes Perfect, I was smitten. This is the sort of random, kind of odd design feature that I would complain about but probably just live with, so I was totally inspired by Molly’s gumption in tackling this project. From Molly: For some reason the owner before us had installed this big built in cabinet right in the entryway of the house.

“Wait…that looks familiar.” Is what you may be thinking at this exact moment and hey, you’re right! This cute lil’ cabinet was the after photo in Molly’s cabinet upgrade. She DIYd her way to a subtle, yet impactful aesthetic upgrade to give her cabinets a cohesive look. From Molly: While I love the storage the multiple built-in cabinets our house came with, I hated the cathedral cabinet doors.

We love the idea of keeping the tile in a vintage bathroom, but unfortunately, sometimes that’s just not possible. The lavender tile in the bathroom of Laura and Matthew’s Brooklyn co-op was cracking in several places and needed to be replaced, and storage in the small, cramped room was almost non-existent. They envisioned a new bathroom that would be clean, modern and bright — while still maintaining a bit of the quirky character of the original.

Last April, Emily Henderson needed a privacy solution for her rental studio space and wound up covering individual panes with a variety of window films — which not only added fun pattern and color to the space — but also added a helpful and modern-looking window treatment. We followed up with her to hear how it’s doing months later, and whether she thought it was worth doing in the first place.

Sam hated her kitchen, but she and her husband couldn’t afford to make real changes to it. Being on a budget meant they had to prioritize and focus on the floor — her least favorite part of the room. From Sam: I really really hated our kitchen, but we basically couldn’t afford to make real changes to it because each change begets another change and the whole thing really needs more work than were personally willing/able to put into this house and at this time.

Wood paneling and tile and fluorescent lights, oh my! Heather’s basement was lacking a cozy charm and full of standard issue basement problems (we’re talking about you, mold) so she flexed some serious DIY muscle and turned the space into a warm, family friendly hang out. From Heather: This basement remodel was a heavy lift. We started out with a linoleum and wood paneled jungle, complete with mold, mice, mildew, and hardly a beam of natural light as far as the eye could see.

Some rooms are blessed with really great bones. Things like original wood cabinets, brass hardware, and hexagonal tiles to name a few. But even when these features are in great shape, it can be hard to incorporate them into a modern remodel — especially when your contractor, your mother, and your neighbor are all telling you to gut the space. So how do you decide what to keep and what to toss? Well, if you’re like me, you default to saving every original feature you lay eyes on.

Sometimes the “before” photo is more jaw-dropping than the finished project, and this is one of those times. Round of applause for Lotta, who was able to see the clean, modern potential in this living room —especially given what she had to work with. From Lotta: This beautiful modern home, designed and built in 1987 by architect Jon Condoret, needed to be brought back to modern again.

Purchasing an apartment in New York is no small feat (financially or otherwise). Rima knew she wanted to renovate as soon as she bought her Brooklyn co-op, but was a bit hesitant about pulling the trigger. After four years of dreaming of a new kitchen, she finally worked up the guts (and the money!) to make a big change. Her previous kitchen had a problem common to a lot of NYC kitchens: lack of space.

It took Rima five years of living in her Brooklyn apartment to finally embark on the renovation of her cramped kitchen — but when she did, this first-time remodeler decided to really take the plunge and upgrade her bathroom, too. A complete overhaul transformed this dated space, unfortunately lacking in storage, into a sleek, streamlined small bathroom with a classic look that’s sure to please for years to come. In the newly rehauled bathroom, subway tile covers the walls.