Before After

A layout switcheroo plus some fresh new finishes made this bathroom way more spacious and relaxing.

When Georgia natives Sarah and Ryan moved into their two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, they knew they wanted to give the bare white walls a custom treatment. Inspiration struck as Sarah was browsing—where else?—Reddit.

Andrea did the $250 Challenge: a 6-week project that involved transforming one room in your home on a $250 budget.

This beige-on-brown bathroom wasn't pretty, and it definitely wasn't practical.

This kitchen went from dark and dim to bold and bright—all for only $600.

It's hard to believe they're the same room!

See ya, '70s-style mirrored doors. Wallpaper and paint pair up to make this closet way more fun.

What to do when your kitchen's perfectly fine but also just fine? Roll out the wallpaper and grab some paintbrushes, of course.

If you're going to do a makeover, you might as well make it big, bold, and super dark.

Perfect for fall: A comfy DIY book nook, done on the cheap. Dreamy!

When Eric Skyta first toured his San Francisco studio, he saw a messy, outdated space filled with peeling linoleum floors and peeling paint. But he says he saw something else, too: potential.

After a year of living with their new build's plain white living room, Olivia and her boyfriend Tom were ready to fill their space with color and personality.

New tile, paint, and lighting help this fireplace say, "hi, fall!"

You know what they say: the best home transformations come when the "before" photo looks like it came straight from a horror film (and if they don't say it, they should!).

First-time homeowners Nick and Sarah Wissinger bought their home in 2016 and, after having only rented apartments before, were grateful to finally be able to decorate in a way that felt like them. Their plain-Jane master bedroom gave them the perfect opportunity.

The couple snagged the retro trailer for $500, and while that price seems like a steal, you get what you pay for—meaning there was a lot of work to be done.

Like many half baths, Jo Char's powder room is tiny and windowless. Logically, she initially went with a light wall color, but all that did was make the room feel "sterile and anemic," she writes.

Myra McKeon's kitchen was, well, totally fine. "The before was functional and by all means great," she writes. "The style of the kitchen would be liked by most, but it just wasn't my particular style."

Name: Lorna Ziller Type of Project: Open plan kitchen, dining, and sitting room remodel Location: Moonah, Hobart, Tasmania Type of building: Brick cottage After planning, dreaming, destroying and shopping, Lorna’s new kitchen and living space is here! Take the full tour now. Afterwards, she crunches the numbers and offers some hard earned DIY wisdom — as well as shares her favorite things about her sleek new space.

Name: Graeme & Rebekah Molloy Type of Project: Kitchen Remodel Location: Chautauqua Park, Des Moines, Iowa Type of building: 1920 Tudor Graeme and Rebekah’s kitchen was seriously outdated, and had a crazy layout to boot. Join them on their renovation journey to a new dishwasher, complete with old-house problems, scheduling snafus and charming Pinterest finds. We’re sharing all their photos, budget, lessons learned, and the final reveal!

Meghan Clemons had a standard wood staircase in her Pennsylvania house, but she wanted something a little different.

Why have a room serve only one purpose when it can have a few?

Andrea Latham's entryway had fabulous bones, but it wasn't living up to its potential, and it wasn't very functional either.

The once-tight quarters included quirky floral (not-in-the-good-way) wallpaper on the bathroom and kitchen ceilings.

Y’all have been sharing some really fantastic before and afters with us this year, so we wanted to take a sec to highlight a few that stood out as especially brilliant and inspiring.

It took about three weeks and cost around $6,400 to complete this bold black and white bathroom renovation.

Suchada Eickemeyer and her husband bought their house in 2016, just as she was beginning interior design school. She knew that she would be able to put her newly-acquired skills to good use in the home's kitchen.

"I wanted a kitchen with an open aspect that I could love, enjoy, and utilize," writes Vicky Flynn of Liverpool. Instead, she had a "dark, gloomy, decrepit space" with a leaky tap and "some interesting shades of brown."

Sure, Kalila's 1975 kitchen had been updated a bit with a cooktop, dishwasher, and refrigerator. But overall, it was a wood-filled, windowless room desperately in need of a renovation.

Get ready to see a lot of plant action.

When Andrea Jensen and her husband were house hunting, they narrowed in on a Southern California area they loved. However, "the neighborhood came with a steep price tag," Andrea writes, "so we knew whatever we bought in our price range would require a lot of work."

Allison Schaeffer and her husband Noel had a large loft space at the top of their stairs that wasn't serving much purpose—but had serious potential.

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s $32 Design Challenge. Finding the perfect piece of furniture is hard enough… but then it can be surprisingly tricky—and expensive—to style it just right for your home. We challenged five staffers to style five different areas of the home, from the entryway to a desk, with a budget of just $32. Follow along with the whole series here.

It even includes a plant propagation station!

Bye bye, golden wood cabinets!

Every entryway needs these three things: a mirror, a dish for keys, and something pretty to motivate you on the way out the door (or welcome you home). See how they all come together!

Yes, it's totally possible!

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s $32 Design Challenge! Finding the perfect piece of furniture is hard enough… but then it can be surprisingly tricky—and expensive—to style it just right for your home. We challenged five staffers to style five different areas of the home, from the entryway to a desk, with a budget of just $32. Follow along with the whole series here.

Joanne Gultig's UK bathroom had green carpet, and that really says it all.

When Lucy and her husband bought their UK home four years ago, their sitting room and its Victorian fireplace were every shade of neutral.

A dark and dated back room is now an airy and bright master bedroom with gorgeous exposed ceiling joists.

It was about two years ago, my partner Emily’s 2006 MacBook laptop began showing the visible signs of being well used…very well used. The white polycarbonate front edges cracked after years of palm pressure and the heat discolored the once pristine white laptop to a yellowish hue most often equated with British dental hygiene.

As soon as Hope Mendes and her husband saw their Cobb, California, cabin, they knew it was the place they'd been searching for.

Alanna and her husband Jesse purchased their tiny, two-bedroom Melbourne cottage when they were in their early 20s. The kitchen hadn’t been updated since the 1980s and was so small, the couple couldn’t comfortably cook in there together at the same time.

Cali Gabrielle must be a magician, because she made an ugly old house turn into an absolutely stunning home.

Sarah Robertson has made a career out of designing kitchens—and she finally made one of her dreams.

Initially, Jessie Ecker only planned to paint her fireplace surround black, but she decided that it looked so good and modern that she would keep going and paint the paneling around it.

The previous owner had lived in this old house for about 70 years and it required updating.

When we see a bathroom renovation roll in for under $200, it gets our attention because, let’s be honest, a light fixture alone can cost well over $200!

At first glance, Nidia Serrano’s monochrome bathroom seemed like one we’d all love to come home to at the end of a busy day.

How do you design a living room when it has an uneven fireplace sitting oddly in the corner? Kristyn Jackson was baffled.

Lucinda Mitra and her husband inherited a bathroom from their UK home's previous owners that was "completely livable, but somewhat tired and dated," she writes.