Kristi and her family recently moved back to their small hometown in Northern Alberta. After a warm welcome, they were faced with the reality of a house that needed a major makeover. Kristi and her husband decided to tackle their son Carson’s room first and were inspired by their new Northern surroundings to make this room as cozy as a winter cabin. Wait until you see the transformation… Now the room is full of warmth from floor to ceiling with so much wood and so many cozy textures.

If you’re lucky enough to have an extra room, the challenge is deciding what to do with it- and keeping it from being a dumping ground for random furniture and junk. Spare rooms may not be top priority when it comes to decor and budgets, but they have so much potential and can make life easier as multi-functional (and pretty!) rooms. With just paint and budget-friendly DIYs, this neglected space was transformed into a cool, calm room for dressing, working, and hanging out.

There’s nothing that can freshen up your space or brighten your day like a bouquet of flowers. The only downside to these lovelies is that we wish they would last longer. We’ve all heard of different tips and tricks to help our flowers stay fresh as long as possible, and I thought I would put some of the common options to the test. Keep reading to see the results and the big winner!

If you love vintage decor, specifically vintage lamps, I’m about to make your day. I find so many great lamps in my vintage hunting but I had to start passing them by because as much as I love them, it drives me absolutely nuts trying to find the right updated shade for them. Finding the right shape and size gives me grey hairs. Then I discovered i like that lamp and their DIY Lamp Shade Kit.

Have I got a doozy of a before & after for you today. Have you ever purchased a house or moved into a rental that comes with plenty of the previous owner’s ‘character’? For Lidy and her family that meant acquiring a bright fuschia bedroom when they purchased their home near Calgary, Canada. It takes a strong vision and sense of style to transform a room like this into something so modern and cool. Above is how the room looked when they decided to purchase the house.

I’m so excited to share with you today a before & after of my very own kitchen! I live in a converted hard loft in the eclectic neighbourhood of Kensington Market in Toronto. It was converted to lofts in 1999 — which you can see by this before photo. There was nothing absolutely terrible with this kitchen (well maybe those countertops), but it just felt dated and didn’t match my colorful and eclectic personality and the rest of my space. I decided to give it a major makeover.

If you’ve ever done a kitchen makeover or thought about it and did a little research, you know that things get really pricey, really fast (I can speak from experience). That’s why I was so impressed by Brooklyn Berry’s $500 kitchen makeover. That’s almost like pennies in the kitchen makeover world. The key is being a really savvy shopper, getting creative and getting your hands dirty to do most of the work yourself.

The best before & after projects are those that you will never guess in a million years what they’ll look like. Alex from Northstory completely changes the form and function of these two thrift shop mirrors into a fresh, modern and Scandinavian-inspired planter. Check out the reveal: Totally fabulous and unexpected, right? It takes a special eye and talent to visualize this when spotting those mirrors amongst the junk.

There are a select few of lucky folks out there who get to live in authentic converted lofts full of character— and then there’s everyone else. Even if you live in a suburban home, you can still infuse your space with the feeling of wood beams, cement floors and exposed brick walls. It’s true! This amazing transformation by Shannon from AKA Design + Life is proof. She turned this simple space into a brick wall full of character that could pass for any cool downtown coffee shop.

Sometimes working with a blank slate can be tougher than reworking a room that already exists. Four blank walls looking back at you can intimidate some people. Not for Sabrina of Pink Little Notebook. She needed a space where she could be both professional and creative and this bare room in her new home was the perfect space to transform. Are you ready to see the amazing room she created? Wow, right!?

I was working on my own outdoor patio space recently and thought I would share an easy DIY project with you. I was looking for a small outdoor mat, but because of the high sun exposure all those beautiful patterned straw-like designer ones just don’t hold up. I needed something basic and hardy, but unfortunately that usually equals boring and unattractive. So I decided to give this $10 mat from Walmart a friendly little makeover.