Jenna’s living room was filled with furniture that she loved, but that wasn’t working in her new home. Here’s how she transformed the space by letting go and bringing in some new color and pieces: From Jenna: Over the past 3 years since moving into my home, this space has been forever in transition. Much of the room was filled with furniture that was meaningful to us, but just didn’t fit.

The Portus House in Istanbul was used to getting high praise from guests, except for the bathrooms. Check out the how they transformed these beige boxes into rain shower retreats:From Portus House: We own a small hotel with a total of ten rooms in Istanbul and often are inspired by projects on this site. Last year, when yet another guest praised every little detail of our venue except the bathrooms, we finally decided to empty our pockets with brand new bathrooms.

You might walk by this unassuming stool at a thrift shop, but Charlotte saw potential. See how she gave this flea market find a fresh facelift. From Charlotte: Back when birds were chirping and grass wasn’t buried by 24″ of snow, I grabbed this wheelie stool at the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in New Milford, CT. The seller clearly thought he was getting the good end of the deal charging me $10. But a simple coat of spray paint later, and it has a new lease on life.

Samna flew out to New York from her home in Seattle to help her sister set up her studio apartment. With only five days and $500, here’s how she transformed the rental into a chic hangout.From Samna: Here’s what I had to work with: My sister’s apartment in a post-war building, 248 square feet of bedroom/living area and kitchen, $500 budget and five days to get it all done. This project is for all of the people who claim “I don’t have time.

Laura spent seven years using this room, with its high ceilings and statement fireplace, as a family room. But considering its pass-through and access to the kitchen, she found a new purpose for the space that felt more natural. The process of transforming a living space into a dining space may not have been without challenges, but the results are stunning!

When Charlotte and her family moved from New York to Connecticut, they fell in love with this 100 year-old house and its bay window. With so much white everywhere, it was a blank canvas. Check out how she transformed this living room with color:From Charlotte: We moved to the Connecticut suburbs from NYC into this sweet 100 year-old house. The previous owner had a love affair with all things off-white (carpet, walls, trim, window treatments).

From Celestyn: This is a pretty great “up-cycle” done by my super talented husband for the front office of our family business, Repla Prints. He broke down old pallets (FREE!!) and aged them by rubbing them with steel wool that had been soaking in apple cider vinegar before putting them onto the wall. He used the ugly existing desk and made an amazing privacy cover around it. The top is 2×6’s glued and clamped together and sanded for a smooth finish.

This bathroom had not been touched since the 70s, so we thought we’d modernize it a bit. We replaced the old vanity with a double sink IKEA vanity with ample storage. The old faux travertine flooring was removed and new tile was installed. We chose the gray because we wanted a nice, serene color so our guests can feel comfortable while they’re here. We chose the long glass kitchen cabinet doors from IKEA to give the small bathroom an airier feel.

I purchased this 1960’s folding card table and chairs from an estate sale for $20. The table top and seats were covered in avocado vinyl that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since its last party, 40 years ago. The way the table is constructed, the center of the table top is level with the outer rim, therefore I couldn’t substitute tile or mosaic for the vinyl because it wouldn’t be level. The best solution I found was laminating fabric.

I check in with Craig (and his list) on a daily basis, and when I came across a pair of matching wooden arm chairs, I pounced. I talked the seller down to $75 each and brought them home for a facelift. We have a bright red coffee table I had sprayed at an auto detail shop, and I thought these could be a nice complement. A million hours later, all the nail heads and staples were out and I was ready to spray.

The second bedroom of our house is only 8 feet wide and 13 feet long. In spite of its size, we still needed it to function as an office/craft room and a guest room that would sleep 2 people. The major projects here were pulling up the carpet and painting the walls light gray and the ceiling blue. Then we found the perfect sofa bed for small spaces and built a wall shelf behind it since there wasn’t room for end tables. The whole transformation cost about $800.

LACK hackFrom Noelle: I decided to tackle my own project with my ages old white Ikea Lack coffee table using Cece Caldwell’s paint in Destin Gulf Green. I figured the worst that could happen is that I’d have to head out to Ikea and buy another Lack coffee table if it was a total bust.

 Anything blah can be turned into something wowing, including those ugly upholstered folding chairs. All you need is some nice fabric and spray paint. I used home deco fabric so it will hold up longer. I removed the seat cushions and back rest. The chairs I have were quite old so the screws were worn out and refused to come out, so I had to cut them off. Once the seat cushion and back rest were removed, the fabric was easily removed by pulling out the staples.

After researching relatively simple and inexpensive ways to update my bathroom’s hideous ‘butterscotch’ tiles, my partner and I thought we’d give adhesive linoleum tiles a go because they’re cheap, impactful (in classic black and white squares), relatively simple to install yourself, and super quick (versus not being able to use the facilities for a few days!).

We have had this coffee table for 12 years. It was the first piece of “grown up” furniture we bought as a couple, so it is quite sentimental to us. It has inlay detail on the top, and we had glass custom made to fit it so that we wouldn’t scratch it (I always referred to the glass as the giant coaster). In recent years, the table was looking increasingly orange (I think because the rest of our decor is slowly leaning towards 50 shades of gray).

A couple of years ago, a friend and I decided to invest in a home that we could fix up, and flip in a year or two. I also needed a place to live. I took on the role of general contractor, landlord and designer. I also took over one of the units on the second floor of this 4-plex. We found the perfect house in Roncesvalles, near shops, waterfront, highway and crown jewel, High Park. My unit was in a pretty rough state but I could see the potential.

I had the great fortune of moving into my grandparents house on our family farm a couple of years ago. It hadn’t been touched much since it was built in 1971, so we saw it as an opportunity to make it exactly what we wanted… starting with the removal of the mostly original carpet. It covered the entire house from kitchen to bathroom!  Since it’s a working farm, our house projects are limited to winter time.

I found this little piece at the Salvation Army for $7.50. I was looking for a nightstand and knew this would be perfect. The top had water stains where cups and glasses were placed, but other than that it was in good shape. Because I feel that I am drowning in brown furniture sometimes, I decided to paint the drawer fronts white. After sanding and patching the holes from the hardware, I used a high gloss lacquer spray paint on the drawers and stained the rest of the piece.

Most bathrooms are small, wet places, so choosing appropriate furniture is often a challenge. Learn from Jenny, who took a flea market lucite stool and fixed it up to work in her bathroom.Jenny from Little Green Notebook spotted this scratched up stool at a flea market and decided to use it as a seat for when she’s bathing her kids.For wet or messy locales, laminated fabric is a great alternative.