Before After

From book nooks to outdoor hangouts, these spaces are all about feeling cozy and comfortable.

The "after" feels way brighter, bigger, and more welcoming.

It took about six weeks and £7,000 to turn the bathroom from unusable to an "OMG, when can we come over?" oasis.

No one will be sad to see those beige cabinets go.

"We had to get creative with our finishes to get the look we wanted but for less," the homeowner says.

Hello, color!

This bathroom went from blah to bold and beautiful.

Designer Orlando Soria brings new energy into a home for a family to be able to move forward.

Now there's tons more room to relax.

This house needed some serious updating, starting with the wall to wall carpet.

"The cost was so little for the overall impact on our home," the homeowner says.

When architect and interior designer Taryn Bone of Bone Collective Studio bought her first home last year with her husband, she knew the laundry room of her new Boston residence would need some work just to become functional.

This redo's full of smart money-saving tricks.

This space is just as beautiful as it is functional.

With a little bit of paint, family photos, and frames from Michael's!

You'll want to steal ideas for your own bedroom.

Cabinets can really make all the difference in a kitchen.

Lisa Backus and Andrea Richardson of Design Bar Detroit transformed this dark and dated Detroit loft bathroom into a bright, modern space.

This is a smart way to update chairs you've gotten tired of.

They call it a “cozy, Scandinavian cottage.”

It's so much more inviting now.

"The only thing I would do differently is I should've done this project years ago," the homeowner says.

This refresh holds on tight to the bathroom's original vintage charm.

This DIYer's first reupholstery project produced super charming results.

The after feels like a breath of fresh air.

The before? "Tremendously ugly," says the homeowner—but she saw the potential.

It's all about highlighting mid-century style.

In just two weeks' time!

Karen E. Laine and Mina Starsiak describe its style as “refined industrial.”

You'll want to take a sledgehammer to your uppers once you see the result.

The new space will make your jaw drop.

The old laundry room was such an eyesore that it "quickly became the dumping ground for items we wanted to be hidden from our every day living space," the homeowner says.

Updating old laminate countertops without having to completely replace them can be a big challenge. Faux finishes can often look, well… faux, and tackling a DIY project (like pouring your own concrete countertops) can be tricky and exhausting. That’s why I was so impressed with this project from interior designer Kara Paslay.Kara managed a realistic concrete look without the hassle and weight of fully-formed slabs.

Most of our Renovation Diary projects involve transforming an existing space. This one was different because Faith and Mike chose to create a bathroom in their 1920s Columbus home where before there was only a sleeping porch. Originally the space was only 7 feet tall, with a sloping floor that would have to be replaced. It was a unique project, and a unique challenge. (You can see many more photos of the original space in the post that introduced Faith and Mike’s bathroom remodel.

TOP ROW:1. Before & After: A Trashed Curbside Dresser2. Before & After: An Unexpected Upholstery Project3. Before & After: Faux Snakeskin Table4. Before & After: Dresser Makeover5. Before & After: From Trash to Silk Screened Style BOTTOM ROW:6. Before & After: Ottoman Transformation7. Before & After: Salvaging a DIY Dresser Gone Wrong8. Before & After: Trash to Treasure Table in Just an Hour9. Before & After: Restoring a Solid Wood Desk10.

Nancy was recently faced with the challenge of completing a quick and affordable bedroom makeover for a couple who is adopting three siblings. She transformed a guest room into a bright and airy girl’s room in only five days, and while there are plenty of lovely touches in the space, it’s her simple and cheap solution for a wall treatment that really stopped me in my tracks.

Stacy had a great home office. The question was, would it be a great nursery, especially if she wanted to re-use many of the same pieces? Let’s see what this room looks like reconfigured as a nursery and which items Stacy kept in the space: Sweet, right? As you can see, Stacy kept the gray paint along with the colorful turquoise shutters (re-repurposed from her wedding). The fetching tissue paper artwork is a DIY project.

This kitchen was so dark that you could hardly see what you were cooking at night.

I was warming up to make a bunch of wagon wheel coffee table jokes — most referencing When Harry Met Sally — when I realized this is actually a mill wheel. We’ll just have to appreciate this project for what it is: an approachable, unique upcycle of a neglected old piece of equipment. Here’s how this project came to be, according to Roxanne of The Honeycomb Home: While at a flea market, an old wooden wheel caught my eye. The seller said it may have been from a grist mill.

After spending four muddy days under flood water this mirror was on top of a pile of trash, destined for the tip. Then I got sentimental and retrieved it. It was too wet and filthy to bring inside so it spent the next 6 months outside before I finally decided it was time to make it work or let it go. I toyed with the idea of painting it bright yellow but in the end I couldn’t do it, so I kept it simple and tried to return it to its former glory.

TOP ROW:1. Before & After: Molly’s IKEA Rast Turned Campaign Chest2. Before & After: IKEA Changing Table into Home Office Desk3. Before & After: The DIY IKEA Office Organizer4. Before & After: Bet You Can’t Guess What This IKEA Malm was Converted Into5. Before & After: IKEA Malm Gets an Upholstered Ombre Makeover BOTTOM ROW:6. Before & After: Anna’s Take on the IKEA Rast7. Lizzie’s Wallpapered IKEA Lack Table8. Before & After: IKEA Granas Table Gets a Rustic Makeover9.

We’ve seen the topic of painting upholstery come up from time to time to time, but this Before & After made my jaw drop. While I may have been on the fence before — one look at the After photo and I’m a believer.the After!Given the option of spending hundreds of dollars to reupholster her Craigslist chair or experimenting with painting the fabric, Kristy Swain of Hyphen Interiors broke out the brushes.

I had no idea that my little kitchen overhaul would yield such a response, ranging from “awful” to “amazeballs.” Thanks for all the great comments, both good and bad. By the way, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dr. Kevorkian, and stem cell research combined have nothing on the “brass knobs with stainless appliances” debate. I’m not sure which issue will take longer to resolve. And that brings us to the bathroom.

My kitchen Before.. just two-three months ago. Name:Type of Project:Location:Type of building:Whenever I am asked how you learn to make good interior design decisions, how to trust yourself or how to just plain have style, I say the same thing. Start by copying. I don’t mean the type of copying where you cheated in high school by looking at someone else’s answers.

We like to reserve for our very last Before & After roundup the projects that really wow you. As in, these ‘after’ photos will leave you shocked. Amazed. Inspired. Take a look at some of this year’s most dramatic transformations. Click on the slideshow to see the projects. To learn more about each project (and see more pictures), click the links in the captions.

Here’s a look back at Maxwell’s renovation of his and Ursula’s new apartment in SoHo. If you missed any of this earlier in the year, you’ll definitely want to take a look — I think you’ll be impressed with how much he was able to achieve in such a short span of time. Here’s another view of the kitchen before, to give you an idea of what we were dealing with.

On the floorplan, it’s listed as “Auxiliary Room,” a vague definition that falls far short of inspiration. What to do with this space, with no windows, no definition, and to be honest, no saving grace? Not to worry. Enter gentleman designer Matthew Patrick Smyth, who manages to turn slightly vague into totally specific. Through the lens of the talented Mr. Smyth, it’s part Kasbah but pure Kismet. And it stole the show at Hearst’s Designer Visions.

Some of my favorite before & afters are the ones where some intrepid DIYer sees the potential in a piece that everyone else would’ve left on the curb. From a side table turned pet bed to a humble crate turned into a swing, this year’s projects featured plenty of impressive repurposings. Check out some of our favorites. To view the ‘after’ photos, click the links for each project.

I was sitting around the other day, thinking about pairing gold kitchen cabinet hardware with stainless steel appliances, and I suddenly remembered: I never showed you all any photos of the finished World’s Ugliest Condo bathroom!These photos were taken with an iPhone, but you can still see the what’s what. Enjoy.

Before: The kitchen, although graced with beautiful large windows, left a little something to be desired. After: A new kitchen from the studs inward, including a new Kohler sink and industrial task lighting above the windows for more functionality.From Andi: Possibly the most luxurious thing is the increased square footage (we went from 95 to 170 square feet).

For all of us who have been following along with Claire and Jeffrey’s renovation, the ultimate moment has finally arrived. That’s right — the kitchen is finally complete, and it’s time for the big reveal. Before: The space viewed from the living room entry. After: Now, the kitchen is wide open, with an uninterrupted view of the window to the backyard.From Claire:We spend all of our free time in this room.

You'll want to steal the high-contrast color scheme for your own space.

Here's proof that you don't have to bust down a wall to brighten up a dark space.

I am beyond thrilled with the result of my Style Cure and today I share my “after” photos! We went from a gloomy, unused, unfinished sunroom to a bright, open, and warm lounge area and office. There are so many elements in this new space that make me extremely happy, but just the fact that I can edit the photos for this post while sitting at a real desk in front of cheerful windows is enough to send me over the moon.

Soffia bought two of these tall, imposing pieces at an Icelandic Goodwill—I’ve dubbed them “bookdenzas”—and wanted to lighten them up and give them some personality to use in her son’s bedroom. Here’s what she came up with: Soffia tells us: The tall book case is an old piece of living room furniture that was very popular in Iceland in the 70s and 80s. I bought it for around $40 at a local Goodwill.

Short on space and lack a headboard? Pegboard, our favorite kitchen and workshop workhorse, may just be the solution you’ve been looking for. Carmel from Our Fifth House transforms her boy’s bedroom from bland to brilliant with a Union Jack paint job and inexpensive material.Carmel’s 8 year old son needed some easy access storage, so when she planned to DIY a headboard, pegboard won.

With the warm season starting, I’ve become obsessed with all things white. So I’ve returned to my rental white walls in the bathroom, which feels so fresh and clean for summer. Check out the results below. I used the same color on the baseboard and moldings so I didn’t need to worry about that clean line of paint as the color changes (the most frustrating part of a painting job to a self-proclaimed lazy perfectionist).

“Before and After” makeovers are such guilty pleasures—what’s more gratifying than fast-forwarding through all the hard work, and just seeing (and getting to comment on) the final result? Throw in a very small budget, and they become especially delicious food for thought. These bathroom projects don’t disappoint. As transformations go, they are pretty incredible for the money. Scroll through, and by all means, enjoy.