After a frustrating and unsuccessful 10-month hunt for a new house, I offered my Facebook friends a reward if they’d bring me a lead that converted into my new home. A local talk radio station picked up the story and put me on air to ask about my unconventional home search methods. I got a few dodgy calls from listeners (one man just wanted to take me out for a drink!) before a woman texted me to say she had a ‘kind of magic’ home she thought I might like.

We wound up buying our first home in Edmonds. The home’s previous owners ran an old folks living facility. Once the house was foreclosed on the owners abandoned ship and squatters settled in. We purchased this fixer upper in February of 2015. Short on cash my husband and his father took on the work themselves. My husband would work his day job from 5am to 1pm and then head up to the house and work into the wee hours of the night.

If you’re looking for a non traditional holiday DIY (that you could totally leave up year round), look no further than this stunning paper reindeer. It should take you about 3 days (on and off) and come in under $30, so get cutting! Glue Stick Double-Sided Tape 100 lb Cardstock Paper Ruler (with sharp edge) X-acto Knife / Scissors Instructions Download template. Print template out on 100 lb cardstock paper (using the paper color of your choice!

While I’ll never say no to drama, sometimes a subtle, relaxing makeover is in order. Jordan and Anton took their awkwardly laid out bathroom and turned it into a timeless retreat (plus storage!). Check it out… Thank you, Jordan and Anton!

We needed some extra storage space in our new house and when I spotted this piece that was the perfect size for just 5 bucks, I purchased it with the idea of turning it into something completely different. At first I was a bit reluctant to take the legs off because they were the cutest part of the thing but couldn’t really change the style if I kept them so, off they went. I then removed the moldings and the doorknob and suddenly the piece was a blank canvas.

I have been teaching myself to reupholster furniture. When I found this sturdy vintage arm chair with cane sides on Craigslist for $15 I knew it could be a gem. The chair has a wonderful horsehair cushion and did not require any new batting. I cleaned it up, applied Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Old White, lightly distressed the edges, and put a couple coats of wax on the frame.

My husband and I recently moved into a brand new townhome in San Diego, California. We absolutely love the new place but for some reason, the builder created really awkward and unevenly sized “designer nooks” above the fireplace. We tried to think of ways to design around them but ultimately we knew we needed to cover the holes up and create a mantle.

Our family room has a cathedral ceiling and a large, prominent fireplace. We wanted to make this room a standout, but our budget was more of a washout. By whitewashing the fireplace ourselves, and installing faux beams, we were able to make a big impact, on a not so big budget. We’ve always loved beams. But we didn’t love the prices. Luckily, we discovered faux beams, which sell for a fraction (like 1/5) of the cost of real wood beams. And guess what? They look real. Seriously.

My daughter lives in an off campus college house with three other girls. From the first time I saw this space, I wanted to give it a makeover! It had good bones, but was SO dark and dreary. It had dark paneled walls, and brown carpeting. To further add to the darkness, the girls were given black leather sofas and they hung dark green curtains. The girls and the owner of the house gave me full permission to make this space over. I started with painting the paneled walls white.

Our living room downstairs was transformed over to a playroom when my babies were little, and the room was a disaster. It was time to make that step and donate a big percentage of my kids’ toys and create a more grownup space in here. I was able to sell the furniture from the room, and that helped me with my budget for the makeover. I wanted to create a comfortable living room with lots of textures, layers and personality.

We spend a lot of time in the living room as a family, reading after dinner, celebrating birthdays, entertaining, playing board games on New Years, and it’s a space that needed a little editing to gracefully reflect transitions in our family life. As I simplified the room, my family instantly felt at home in the new space, and our new teal velvet sofa became a popular (and comfortable) destination.

Our home was built in 1919. The bathroom had undergone multiple “updates” which included a huge clawfoot tub. When we moved in, the bathroom renovation was not our first priority but after about a week of living in a house with one bathroom with only 10 inches between the toilet and bathtub, it became our priority.

When my husband Mark and I purchased our 1890s brick row home in Frederick, Maryland, we knew the kitchen would eventually need some attention. There was really nothing wrong with the space… it was just utterly lifeless. Like the rest of the house, the kitchen had received some well-intentioned but poorly-executed updates. Everything was off-white: cabinets, countertops, linoleum floor, walls.

Shehzeen was faced with an all too familiar problem, a rental kitchen that just didn’t work. The color was off, the placement wasn’t ideal, but she made apartment lemons into very cute lemonade. From Shehzeen: I live in a rental so doing any kind of a permanent overhaul to the kitchen or its appliances is out of the question. Also, my kitchen was extremely open plan and was sitting right there in the living room.

When I moved into my first one-bedroom (rental) apartment I knew I had a lot of work to do. The previous tenants left it in pretty bad shape and it was hard to see the final vision through all the clutter. But, I knew the place had great bones and I couldn’t ignore the 7 windows that wrapped around the whole place letting in a ton of sunlight. I loved the open floor plan and for a Beacon Hill place, it was a great size just around 600 square feet.

I moved small my app development to Cowork.rs Gowanus a couple of months ago. The coworking space just opened, and I was inspired by the potential of a new space and ‘blank canvas.’ All of the furniture is new while most of the office decoration was stuff I had on hand.

Did any of you make it through all seven seasons of Mad Men without thinking, “I should really get a bar cart?” I certainly didn’t. Erin turned her dreams into reality and DIY-d her way to a Joan Holloway worthy bar! From Erin: Mad Men I found this old bar cart on Offerup for $20 and with a little paint, it turned out amazing!!! Thank you, Erin!

My wife and I bought our house last year and there was a back house that was part of the property. At the time of the sale there was someone living in the back house so we weren’t able to see it (other than peering through the windows). In short, we had no idea what state the house was in but, from what we could could gather, it was a dump. Once we closed on the house, we finally got to tour the back house and we were in shock.

My husband and I bought our house 7 years ago, in the city of Laval, a suburb north of Montreal. The layout of the bathroom was typical of the houses in the neighborhood. Since the first day I set foot in it, I did not like anything about that room. The shower was so narrow that we had difficulty washing our feet. The bathroom was as demoralizing as a rainy day. I demolished everything, including the ugly shell-shaped soap dish and the strange podium around the bath.

I recently remodeled my kitchen and had leftover subway tiles. I decided to use the remaining tiles to redo my fireplace which I had been wanting to refinish completely since I moved in four years ago. I also wanted to remove the tiles on the floor, but we didn’t think the hardwood carried through since other units who had redone their fireplace told us that theirs did not.

This is one of my favorite furniture flip stories. I found this chrome mid-century modern chair left for dead on the roadside. It was covered with rust, mildew and grime. For a long time, it sat in my garage and just lingered. It took me a long while for inspiration to strike. I live in the country, and happen to have kind of a thing for cowhide. I had wanted a sleek, modern looking cowhide and chrome chairs for years. You know those kind of chairs?

My husband, Jake, and I recently purchased our first home. It’s a 1950s ranch and we have lots of fun projects we need to tackle to bring it up to this decade. The first thing we took on was our smaller bathroom. We were able to salvage the tile in the tub and the toilet but almost everything else had to go. We (mostly Jake) did all the work ourselves including demo, putting in new drywall, electrical work and plumbing. Our final budget was around $1200 for all materials.

We’re big fans of small updates and little tweaks round these parts. But we get equally excited when we see a space that has made some major changes. Taylor’s kitchen went from beige and blah to absolutely stunning, and the best part is you can tell she absolutely loves it! From Taylor: When we bought our house, the kitchen was pretty sad. There was hardly any counter space or storage. Over the years, we slowly replaced appliances until we were ready for a full renovation.