Jamie Wiebe

You deserve extra prep space and additional seating, too.

No matter how well-designed your living room, the television often stands out like a sore thumb. Unless you have all-black walls, integrating an enormous black box with your colorful decor can be a challenge. A gallery wall seems like it would be the easiest solution, but fitting artwork around your television can be a challenge worthy of a Tetris master. Working something so oversized into an art arrangement requires thinking outside the box. How can you get an entertainment space to die for?

Yet more proof in the transformative power of paint.

Stop spending your paycheck on this stuff.

The dark blue accent wall cost $180 total, including trim, caulk, and paint.

Brianna printed her custom, watercolor-inspired artwork at Society6 and covered it with three "generous" coats of clear whiteboard paint. After five days of curing, she had her end result—"a giant surface for impromptu brainstorming, writing down weekly and monthly goals, taking notes while pacing on conference calls, or sketching website wireframes."

This pantry goes from cluttered to clean.

The enclosed porch on Ashley‘s 1905 home did not live up to expectations: a low ceiling and burgundy walls and floors turned the space into a “sad little box,” she says. “It felt disconnected from the rest of the house,” especially after doing extensive renovations. “I know how much some updates would transform this room,” she says. So over the course of six weeks, she transformed this dark and dreary porch into a pastel, botanical laundry room.

When Stasia bought her flat in 2016, she liked the kitchen—it was “big and bright and airy,” she says, and certainly on-trend. But it also “felt bland,” with “bleached white walls and cupboards that made it feel cold and clinical. I didn’t want to feel like I was cooking in a science lab.” When she decided to renovate, she was aiming for “industrial yet cozy, somewhere [she] could relax with a glass of wine.

White doesn’t have to mean trite. Paired with a joyful neon color scheme, a white room can be an honest delight. Gill gave her girls’ “small and dark” room a colorful makeover to make the space feel entirely modern—and still kid-appropriate. “It is a shared room for our two daughters, and while we were desperate to lighten and brighten the space, we also wanted to ensure it appealed to both a 6-year-old and a 6-year-old,” Gill says.

Etsy is a fantastic resource for unique artwork, one-of-a-kind vintage pieces, and cross-stitch patterns. And tiny homes. You may be surprised, but the website for makers also hosts a small cottage industry of teeny micro homes and structures eager to support your next adventure. As with all tiny homes, know what you’re getting (and not getting) before you buy. Some of these are kits, which require assembly, and the purchase of additional finishes, to be livable.

It was blessed with good bones, but also cursed with a purple laminate counter—and swinging saloon doors.

This homeowner took her inspiration from the past, including '70s and '80s-style touches.

Lindsay thought she found a “sturdy, but out-of-style wood coffee table” at her local thrift store—but when she got home, she realized she’d been fooled. The ugly veneer made this piece impossible to restore, paint, or reshape. “At that point, I wanted little to do with the table,” Lindsay says. But she’d already dropped $15, so she decided to figure out some solution.And it’s a good thing she kept trying.

Lindi wasn’t sure what to do with this awkward space on the side of her living room. “It didn’t really have a function and was largely unused,” she says. But soon she found her vision: Her home lacked a community work area where her kids could hunker down over homework and Lindi could edit images for her blog. Black vertical shiplap anchors the space, and floating wood shelves in a dark stain add depth—and match the desk.

Katherine‘s master bathroom was filled with wasted space, with a wall of closets and a separate room for the toilet and tub contributing to the cramped floor plan. In order to reveal this space’s true potential, “we pretty much had to start from scratch,” Katherine says. “It was in need of a major facelift.” They started by ripping out everything: unnecessary walls; the dark, gloomy builder-grade cabinetry; even the toilet.

Suzanne’s daughter used to enjoy her own room—but with a new baby on the way, she’d need to start sharing space with her sister. “I wanted to make their room a special space for them to enjoy together,” Suzanne says. Before, “It was just furnished, but not a lot of extra detail was added.” Luckily, both girls are “head-over-boots” (as Suzanne puts it) in love with horses, so picking a theme was easy.

Erin‘s small, square master bathroom was cramped and outdated, with brown tiles and a builder-grade sink that offered no inspiration. But a trip to Italy did: “I kept talking about how I envisioned a master bathroom that looked like it belonged in a boutique hotel in Italy, and my partner surprised me with a vacation to one of my favorite cities in the world! Rome!” Erin says.

Cat and her boyfriend, Brian, seriously lucked out: His family’s hunting lodge in southern Utah is the perfect weekend retreat. But over time, the cabin has transformed from a yearly hunting haven for the boys to a family vacation home. “Naturally, it was in need of some decor and interior design,” Cat says. Cat and Brian’s upstairs bedroom had an awkward slanted ceiling and standard white wall.

There's nothing spa-like about squinting in the dark.