The "after" is a whole lot brighter, but still exactly right for this 140-year-old house.

The after's lighter, brighter, and way more modern.

This mini mudroom is max-chic.

This entry is an explosion of pattern and color, in the best way.

This new space has major spunk with minimal investment.

Spoiler: The word art decal doesn't make the cut.

The shakeup took the space from blah and bland to totally vibrant.

This renovation made the space way more usable year-round.

This bright, welcoming redo is fireplace goals.

Ok, yes, strong claim—but wait until you see it.

Bye, dirty carpet and crumbly ceiling tiles. Hi, dream destination.

You can barely tell it's the same space!

The new bedroom and bathroom are a little fresh, a little funky, a lot stylish.

Hello, 1995? We're here to give your beige tile back.

This rental-friendly living room redo is peak chill spot.

This guest bedroom has tons of charm (and your new favorite IKEA hack).

Some clever DIYing turned this bathroom into a space you won't even recognize.

Lime green: great for slime, not always so great for cabinets.

This beige-on-brown bathroom wasn't pretty, and it definitely wasn't practical.

Claire Kennedy and her husband are renovating their entire UK home—and the bathroom needed extra help. Two types of tile and a chic new paint color made it look brand new.

What to do when your kitchen's perfectly fine but also just fine? Roll out the wallpaper and grab some paintbrushes, of course.

Perfect for fall: A comfy DIY book nook, done on the cheap. Dreamy!

When Eric Skyta first toured his San Francisco studio, he saw a messy, outdated space filled with peeling linoleum floors and peeling paint. But he says he saw something else, too: potential.

Like many half baths, Jo Char's powder room is tiny and windowless. Logically, she initially went with a light wall color, but all that did was make the room feel "sterile and anemic," she writes.

Myra McKeon's kitchen was, well, totally fine. "The before was functional and by all means great," she writes. "The style of the kitchen would be liked by most, but it just wasn't my particular style."

Meghan Clemons had a standard wood staircase in her Pennsylvania house, but she wanted something a little different.

Andrea Latham's entryway had fabulous bones, but it wasn't living up to its potential, and it wasn't very functional either.

Suchada Eickemeyer and her husband bought their house in 2016, just as she was beginning interior design school. She knew that she would be able to put her newly-acquired skills to good use in the home's kitchen.

"I wanted a kitchen with an open aspect that I could love, enjoy, and utilize," writes Vicky Flynn of Liverpool. Instead, she had a "dark, gloomy, decrepit space" with a leaky tap and "some interesting shades of brown."

Sure, Kalila's 1975 kitchen had been updated a bit with a cooktop, dishwasher, and refrigerator. But overall, it was a wood-filled, windowless room desperately in need of a renovation.

Joanne Gultig's UK bathroom had green carpet, and that really says it all.

When Lucy and her husband bought their UK home four years ago, their sitting room and its Victorian fireplace were every shade of neutral.

As soon as Hope Mendes and her husband saw their Cobb, California, cabin, they knew it was the place they'd been searching for.

How do you design a living room when it has an uneven fireplace sitting oddly in the corner? Kristyn Jackson was baffled.

Lucinda Mitra and her husband inherited a bathroom from their UK home's previous owners that was "completely livable, but somewhat tired and dated," she writes.

"Nice bones." That's how Alison Caporimo and her wife described their New Jersey home the first time they walked through it.