Before After

This is the story of how one Clinton Hill co-op got a complete, top-to-bottom refresh. The apartment had a problem common to lots of older homes: a small, cramped kitchen, cut off from the rest of the living areas. The homeowners, who love to entertain, envisioned a new, modern kitchen, and an open, uninterrupted living area that would take full advantage of the apartment’s incredible light and views.

A lot of the kitchen Before & Afters we share here on Apartment Therapy feature dramatic changes: new cabinets, new countertops, new appliances, walls torn down. But in this Fort Greene kitchen, the changes are much more subtle. They’re so subtle, in fact, that flipping back and forth between the before and after photos is a little bit like one of those puzzles where you try to spot the differences between the two pictures. Can you spot the changes?

The second bathroom in Michelle and Brad’s condo was in a strange state of flux. The home’s previous owners had removed the bathtub with the hope of installing a washer and dryer, but since the addition of the washer and dryer was rejected by the co-op board, the bathtub was instead replaced with a couple of awkwardly placed IKEA cabinets.

When Brian and Greg purchased a 1,500 sq. ft., 1960’s-era ranch house that had been on the market for over 500 days, they knew they could turn it into something special. A first priority was turning an 11 x 12 kitchen that comfortably fit one person into a bright, open space that met their needs as a growing family and frequent hosts. I would say they achieved their goal…a thousand times over.

Erin of Earnest Home Co. admits that small changes aren’t her specialty. Once she focuses on a room, it’s usually all or nothing. So simply sprucing up her small bathroom was a decided challenge, one she did with only $150 and a couple of hours one afternoon. Since the tile and floor wasn’t going anywhere soon, she focused on the little things she could change out easily.

Ashley Poskin lives in a beautiful old Victorian house in Sterling, Illinois — a small town west of Chicago — which she is also restoring. The house is large, and Ashley and her husband are actually human, so it’s taken awhile to work on each room and make it into a home. (That’s her boxer Charlie front and center, checking out her small living room that’s still pretty devoid of decor and furniture.

Shopping for real estate in New York can be a bit heartbreaking. Corey found this out the hard way when he and his partner put in an offer on their dream apartment, only to be completely outbid. They wound up instead with a perfectly decent Williamsburg two-bedroom, with lots of space and beautiful views. But the good-enough apartment lacked character, and they couldn’t stop thinking about the one that got away.

Name: Andrea Location: Boston, Massachusetts Room: Living Room Size: about 150 square feet Own or Rent: Own We’re on a road trip across the United States to tell people about Complete + Happy Home, and while we’re at it, we’re saving the country, one room at a time! First up, Boston—where we meet Andrea, her cat Sterling, and a blank slate living room that needs help going beyond the basics.

Marina and her husband Sebastiano bought a 100-year-old home in Houston about a year ago. The overall condition of the house was near-perfect, but Marina wanted to transform the traditional home into a more modern, open space. After knocking down the walls between the living room, dining room, and kitchen, Marina and Sebastiano now have a full view of the major rooms of their home from the front door. The openness and the new white paint work together to create a bright, open space.

Name: Wintta Location: Capitol Hill; Washington, D.C. Room: Bedroom/Living Room Size: about 400 square feet Own or Rent: Own We’re on a road trip across the United States to tell people about Complete + Happy Home, and while we’re at it, we’re saving the country, one room at a time! Our second makeover stop is Washington, D.C., where we meet Wintta and her studio with an inherited Murphy bed, just itching to for us to come in and make her Parisian dream a reality.

You may remember Ellen and Ben, the first-time Brooklyn homeowners who, instead of remodeling their kitchen, decided to tackle their master bath as their very first renovating project. Feeling more than satisfied with the results of that remodel, they decided to go with the same contractor for their second bathroom, although they elected to take the design in a slightly different direction.

Name: Jessica & Christian, and their two children Location: Atlanta, GA Room: Living Room Size: about 220 square feet Own or Rent: Rent We went on a road trip across the United States to tell people about Complete + Happy Home, and while we’re at it, we’re saving the country, one room at a time!

Name: Corinna and Eugenia Location: LA Room: Living Room Size: about 200 square feet Own or Rent: Rent We’re on a road trip across the United States to tell people about Complete + Happy Home, and while we’re at it, we’re saving the country, one room at a time! Our last makeover was in Los Angeles—where we meet Corinna and Eugenia, a couple of artists who could use our help blending their creative styles into one playful living room.

We purchased our townhouse about 4 years ago. We wanted to purchase a home that needed a kitchen remodel because we didn’t like what we saw when we toured houses with remodeled kitchens. Also, we wanted to get used to our place before we embarked on a remodel so we knew what we wanted as far as layout, finishes, and appliances. We were glad we waited because we made many decisions that were different from our initial thoughts on what we wanted.

Some people like to live in their homes a little while before renovating them, to get a feel for the space and figure out what they want. Before embarking on his kitchen renovation, Barrin took plenty of time; he’s lived in his Carroll Gardens condo for 18 years. The appliances had been slowly replaced over the years, but the almost 30-year-old cabinets had definitely seen better days.

Here’s a kitchen transformation where I think we can confidently say that no one will like the ‘before’ better. When Robyn and Alejandro bought their two-bedroom condo in Brooklyn’s Columbia Waterfront District, the kitchen was in distinctly sad shape (and had, apparently, a basketball in place of a refrigerator). I’m sure it was tough to imagine this space as anything near livable, but Robyn and Alejandro had a vision for what their apartment could be.

Remember Robyn and Alejandro, whose sad sad kitchen was transformed into a bright, super-modern space? Well, their condo also had a bathroom which, although not in quite as dire a state as the kitchen, was still in need of a little TLC. It’s kind of hard to believe it’s the same space, isn’t it? The defining feature of the new bathroom is the three kinds of tile that Robyn chose.

When we bought our house two years ago, I was very excited about the thought of having a windowless air conditioner in the bedroom to keep us cool throughout the summer. However, I soon realized that an in wall a/c unit was very hard to hide, especially since it’s the first thing you see when you enter the room.

You may remember Lee, whose Midtown East kitchen got a serious upgrade, transforming from a dark, cramped, dated space into a bright and minimal galley kitchen. At the same time Lee undertook his kitchen remodel, he also chose to renovate his utterly unremarkable late-70s bathroom, which had definitely seen better days. Thanks to smart choices in fixtures and finishes, the new bathroom feels much cleaner, bigger, and brighter than the old one — hardly like the same space at all.

When Lee Hoffman, the CEO and founder of photo-sharing app Memoir, bought his co-op in Midtown East last year, he immediately knew that the kitchen had to go. The small, cramped space was cut off by a wall from the rest of the apartment, and to make things worse, the apartment’s previous tenant was a smoker, which meant that everything in the kitchen was covered in a thin layer of smoky residue. After months of research, Lee was finally ready to embark on the project.

Kind of hard to believe this is the same house, right? When Kezia and Jonathan bought their home, they were seemingly stuck with a material they hated that couldn’t be removed. Instead of throwing up their hands in despair and settling, they got creative and gave the facade of their home some major curb appeal. From Kezia: We bought a cookie cutter house and redid the kitchen and facade ourselves – we call it the Kimono Project (because our house is on Kimono Ridge Drive).

Fabric is simply clothing for your furniture. Take time to create unique, one of a kind pieces that are a reflection of who you are and how you live! We took an “old and dirty” club chair, cleaned it up, reupholstered and made it “fun and flirty”! When we wear clothing, sometimes we dress casual, fancy, or sporty. This chair was created with a working woman’s apartment in mind. Someone who has traditional values while living an adventurous and colorful life.

Greg and I are in our third plus year of bringing back the charm of a Dutch colonial foreclosure. It’s taken so long because it’s mostly been just the two of us. I obsessively plotted and planned while Greg, the perfectionist, made it all happen. After the second year or so, if our friends and family asked when we’d be moving in, I would always answer, “never” — but we did!

Name: Catherine Cachia Location: East Danforth — Toronto, Ontario When we moved into our house two years ago, I was really excited to have a dedicated workspace for the first time in my life. This room gets the best light in the house, which made it a great place to draw, make stuff, and practice my calligraphy and photography. From Catherine: “When we moved into our house two years ago, I was really excited to have a dedicated workspace for the first time in my life.

Park Slope homeowners Elinor and Joel were charmed with the details of their 1920s bathroom, like the original tub and tile. Less than charming were the 90-year-old fixtures: the towel bars that fell out of the wall, the showerhead that sprayed water all over the place, the toilet that threatened a flood with every flush. After six years in their co-op they decided it was time for a renovation, not to change the look of their bathroom but to restore it to its former glory.

Lest you think that Megha’s ‘before’ bathroom was merely ugly, you should know what the pictures don’t show, which is that up close, finishes were peeling and the whole thing was starting to fall apart. After living with this space for nine years, Megha knew that it was time for a change. The overhauled space feels much bigger and brighter, thanks to a few smart design decisions.

The kitchen in Megha’s Midtown West condo had a problem common to lots of older kitchens: it was tiny, and awkwardly walled off from the rest of the living spaces in her apartment. After living with a less than ideal floorplan (and a falling-apartment bathroom) for nine years, Megha decided it was time for a change — and embarked on a renovation that would dramatically change the look and feel of her apartment.

I can not get enough of this transformation! Popcorn ceilings, Miami Vice blue walls, Julie certainly had her work cut out for her. almost So, inspired by the challenge of small space design and well-resourced by Apartment Therapy and Houzz , I rolled up my sleeves and called my contractor. And, while he saw uninsulated 2×4 stick framing, funky wiring, and a complete absence of something called “square” — I saw modern cottage. Thank you, Julie!

I purchased this Condo on August 31, 2015. At the time it was renter occupied, which happened to be three (maybe four) college kids. I saw potential in the unit and wanted to make it my own. I fully designed the new space and worked with two contractors to get it fully to my design. In six weeks time, it went from dumpy to modern! It also has a porch and an amazing view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. Thank you, Matt! Re-edited from a post originally published 12.11.

Upper West Side homeowner Christine had a unique problem: her two-bedroom co-op was lovely, but the limited storage options there were no match for her extensive collection of art and books (including a full-size terra cotta warrior!). After living there for seven years, she decided it was time for a change: a renovation that, besides updating the apartment, would provide all of her treasures with a proper place.

A job opportunity brought us to Milwaukee from San Francisco and we fell in love with the older homes along the northern shore of Lake Michigan. Our 1927 Tudor has a wonderful layout and beautiful details, but was in need of updating for modern living. The master bedroom gets lots of natural light from the original lead pane windows and the size was exceptionally large (especially compared with our prior homes in San Francisco and Manhattan).

I think when most people move into a new home, decorating the guest room probably isn’t their first priority—but that wasn’t so in this case. Emily, owner of Cheerfully Made, recently moved with her family into a big, four-bedroom in the small town of Almonte, Ontario, and while the extra space was amazing and the house was in great shape, it was stuck in a time warp. And what was the first room Emily attacked? The guest room.

When Henry purchased his one-bedroom co-op in a former tenement building in Manhattan’s East Village, it was in bad shape. Really, really, really bad shape. The entire apartment was falling apart, and the kitchen was, in a word, ‘destroyed’. Never had a space been more ripe for a makeover. Luckily, Sweeten was there to help Henry revitalize his space, and he didn’t just stop at the kitchen.

This ‘before’ bathroom might be the ugliest befores I’ve ever seen — and it’s certainly one of the strangest. Years ago, the person responsible for retrofitting a bathroom into this one-bedroom apartment in a former tenement building made a very unusual choice: in order to fit a bathtub into a very narrow space, they shoehorned it in lengthwise, so that you had to climb in from the short end. It was awkward, to say the least.

We recently purchased our first home, a 1950s ranch in Clifton, New Jersey, that needed updating to the main bath and kitchen. The existing bathroom was, quite frankly, hideous and couldn’t be salvaged. We used a contractor for all of the work and I based my design off an inspiration photo I had seen on the Internet. The black tiles (made by Lungaro) were purchased at Standard Tile in Totowa, NJ (who are fantastic to deal with!

The front entrance can be a tricky space to make over. It usually is not very big, has limited options, and needs to be really functional. And if you have an open-concept home, you have to make sure the entry works with the look of the whole space. Lidy and Joel from Hello Lidy had already tackled most of their open-plan, split-level house and were not happy with the view of their dated front entrance from their newly made-over living room.

When Alex moved into his cozy and bright uptown New Orleans rental apartment, he was faced with great architectural bones—beautiful wood floors, big windows, two fireplaces and more. What wasn’t so hot? The builder beige colored walls mixed with other colors that did really work together and made the place seem darker than it needed to be.

It’s hard not to romanticize the meet-cute between Sofia and her now stunning bar. Just an average, overlooked workbench is collecting dust all on its lonesome, until it finally found that special someone who came along and claimed it. From Sofia: I found this workbench under mounds of dusty boxes in the cellar at my mum’s house.

College living is chock full of design challenges (small spaces, random roommates, a general sense of impermanence) so I’m always impressed when people commit to living their best dorm lives. Roxanne came up with a pretty ingenious way to carve out a workstation for her daughter, seemingly out of nowhere. From Roxanne: My daughter needed a study area in her tiny dorm room. With no floor space available I had to get creative. Working with only 2 feet of wall space, I added a fold down desk.

This is an ugly kitchen. But its ugliness might seem a bit innocuous to you, if you didn’t know the extent of the fire damage hiding behind its walls. The unit’s owners, Colin and Orli, originally intended a fairly simple renovation, before they realized the extent of the unseen damage their kitchen was hiding. Their renovation was more involved than they originally planned.

For some people, a totally blank slate of a room is just plain intimidating. For Jolie, it’s a joy. See how she built a lovely little nursery in a room that was in need of some serious charm. From Jolie: When my sister-in-law and I first started off on this renovation journey, I don’t think we realized what we were getting ourselves into!

In their Clinton Hill co-op, Mario and Joe were struggling with a problem common to many apartment dwellers — a cramped, tiny bathroom with hardly any storage space. So they decided it was time for a renovation and, working completely within the room’s existing footprint, made a few changes that completely transformed this cramped space. The biggest change: converting the old tub into a walk-in shower with a frameless glass door, which opens up the room considerably.

When Cara and Jared moved into their Chelsea apartment, they weren’t too excited about the kitchen’s inefficient layout and dated finishes. But the last straw was when the mosaic tiles (the result of a former homeowner’s DIY project) started falling off the wall.

When Celeste first moved into her Park Slope condo in 2008, she wasn’t super excited about the bathroom’s generic, builder-basic look. But she didn’t consider remodeling until several years later, when dark spots on the floor’s limestone tiles alerted her to the fact that the floor had never been properly sealed. Limestone is extremely porous, and despite her best efforts at cleaning the tiles just got more and more discolored.

When Lisa moved into her Upper East Side one-bedroom, she loved everything about it but the kitchen. Besides not being very pretty, Lisa’s kitchen had a lot of problems. The upper cabinets were too shallow for dishes, and the lower cabinets were too narrow for pretty much anything, meaning Lisa had to store her pots and pans in the coat closet. The whole kitchen had only one outlet, and there was a large and suspicious stain on the laminate countertop.

I can’t even look at a picture of this kitchen without feeling claustrophobic, so I can’t imagine how Anne lived with it (and cooked in it, even) for almost a decade. I think it goes without saying that after cooking for ten years in a kitchen that measured only 27 square feet (no, really) she was ready for a change. The biggest change, by far, was the removal of the wall separating the (previously teeny tiny) kitchen from the living room.

The kitchen in John and Kaija’s Brooklyn co-op began life as a narrow galley kitchen, but a previous owner had the smart idea to tear down the separating wall to half-height, and top the remaining wall with a countertop. This made the kitchen a lot more spacious, but the new countertop, inconveniently located at bar height, wasn’t particularly useful for prep work, and storage was still an issue.

Few things in decor are more polarizing than the retro pink bathroom. Some people hate them with a passion, and some people really, really love them. Unfortunately, when Chase and Lauren bought their more than 50-year-old house in Austin, they didn’t have a choice. Lurking behind all that pink tile was something even more unappealing: extensive water and termite damage. The pink bathroom had to go.

Nathan Rittgarn doesn’t list the square footage in his professional project submission of this kitchen, located in a pre-war Brooklyn Heights one-bedroom apartment. But you can see from the before photos above, it’s not particularly expansive. Coupled with the fact that the apartment’s “entryway” dumps you right in front of this small space, and it’s clear this room needed an update not just for aesthetics, but for function, too.

Finding your dream apartment in New York can be hard. So Austin found the next best thing: a less than dreamy apartment that could be turned into his dream home. All it needed was an improved floor plan and a little tlc. The apartment, which hadn’t seen a renovation since the 70s, had beautiful tall ceilings, but was broken up into a series of awkwardly cramped small rooms. A new floor plan — and a few new finishes — was the key to realizing the apartment’s potential.

Unless you’re incredibly wealthy, finding a dream home in New York City can be a real challenge. That’s the position Holly and Christian found themselves in when they started house hunting: the apartments they could afford fell significantly short of dreamy, but they didn’t want to leave Greenwich Village, a neighborhood where they had lived for many years. So they found the next best thing to a dream home: a fixer-upper that, with a little work, could become their dream home.

While preparing for their first baby, Kelsey and Matt found themselves getting creative with their closet space. One armoire, a few DIY projects and four months later, they have an adorable and cozy nursery all set for their daughter. From Kelsey: With the upcoming arrival of our first baby, my husband Matt and I wanted to create a special nursery in our one bedroom rental home in Topanga Canyon, California.

Faced with an awkwardly shaped ceiling, Catherine and Bryan had to get creative and totally rethink the space of this bathroom. From Catherine: This bathroom was the only room in the house that needed some {major} love. It was the only bathroom on the second floor, and awkward was an understatement. Our biggest priorities when renovating the space were: 1. Ditch the tub and replace it with a shower that’s more comfortable to use (and prettier, of course!).

By switching up three simple elements in this dark nursery, Sarah completely transformed this space. Nothing new-fangled or extra fancy, just some really smart design choices. From Sarah: A few months ago we bought a new house and immediately set our eyes on a nursery makeover. The room was originally painted a dark tan, which made the space feel drastically smaller and more dated than it was. The ceiling fan was way oversized for the space and the lights were directly in front of your face.

I’ve always been a huge fan of 1950s style kitchens, and was lucky enough to score a tiny vintage refrigerator from a few years ago. The small size made it a bit of a challenge (we had to be very cognizant while grocery shopping!) so, when we added a member to the family this year, we also decided it was time to upgrade to a bigger refrigerator.

We moved into our house in summer 2011. The house, built in 1944, was in good shape, in a great neighborhood, and priced very competitively. However, aesthetically it was a bit lacking. The previous owners had owned the home for 50+ years, and the most recent updates to the kitchen and main living area had been made in 1974.

This is what my guest room looked like 6 months after moving into my new home eight years ago, and this is how it’s looked every since. White walls, metal twin bed with a wool camp blanket, and a former doctor’s table helped the room earn its nickname as “the hospital ward.” This month I swapped out the bed, which led to a lighting project, which led to wallpaper and soon the room was pretty much redone.

This ‘before’ kitchen wasn’t nearly as dire as some we’ve featured — it was just, well, awkward. A previous renovation left the kitchen floor covered in a dreary ceramic tile, with an awkward curb that guests continually tripped over.

This is the story of a kitchen that was once so small that it could barely be photographed. Having bought a place of her very own in Manhattan, Evelyn was living the dream, but her kitchen left a little something to be desired. Besides being (a bit) on the small side, it also featured a leaky dishwasher, cracked floors, and barely-there workspaces. After living in the apartment for a few years, she knew it was time for a change.

This week Camille is sharing her real life rental challenge and how she transformed her dingy carpeted entryway stairs (with her landlord’s permission!) into something more welcoming, yet still temporary. If you want to start by hearing all the plans, check out the before photos here. Updating an old home is filled with challenges.

When you’re lucky enough to live in a home with beautiful historic architectural features, you probably want to highlight those features with your decor. Paint can work, sure, but maybe not in this icky green color? That’s what Danny and Lyndsay faced when they moved into this Portland, Maine rental. So they used the power of paint to cover up the unpleasant green, refresh the space, brighten the home and turn the focus on one charming architectural feature in particular.

Round of applause for Chelsea and her terrific eye! While taking her Mom out for her birthday (awww) Chelsea picked up this diamond in the rough and took it home for a little TLC, and boy did it pay off! From Chelsea: This piece was sitting outside in the muddy lawn of an antique shop this past Spring when I took my Mom out for her birthday. I had no intention of making a purchase of my own but couldn’t pass this soggy piece by without wondering what it could be if it were restored.

Ashley’s sleek little cushion adds serious style to her already impressive dining room chairs, all while making them a little more welcoming. From Ashley: We have a set of four metal chairs and I like them other than the fact that they are not the most comfortable. I got to thinking that they could be comfortable with a cushion. To stay consistent with my decor, I knew that a slim, modern cushion would look best. I couldn’t find anything that I liked so I decided to try to make some.

When Holly and Christian bought their two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op in a 1920s building in New York’s Greenwich Village, they knew it would need a little work. The apartment’s kitchen wasn’t in great shape (you can read all about its transformation here), so, while renovating the kitchen, they decided to refresh one of the apartment’s aging bathrooms as well.

An old pro at the vintage rocking chair game, Ashley spotted this gem and knew that with a little TLC it could become something truly special. From Ashley: Over the past two years we have hunted and found vintage rocking chairs for friends (including ourselves!) at least six times. Our friend group has definitely hit the parenting band-wagon. There are a lot of new options out there, but we wanted rocking chairs that could add some character and history to our nurseries.

April turned this beige, catch-all “pool house” space into such a crisp and gorgeous home office it is almost unrecognizable! From April: Hi all! I’m April from Uncookie Cutter. A while back we moved halfway across the country into this crazy house in which every room needs a makeover. One of the reasons we bought this house is that we knew this junky “pool house” would make a great office for my husband, who does the majority of his work from home.

Only a few months after buying our first home and moving into this 1927 fixer-upper, I found out that I was expecting my second child. We knew it was going to be a big project, but we didn’t realize just how urgent it would be for us to transform this darling little house into a home for two little ones. So almost immediately, we shifted gears and got to work on a shared nursery and toddler room for our now 2.5 year old son, Adam, and 3.5 month old daughter, Edie.

While Joanna Harrison has done a stellar job decorating her family’s small Silver Lake cottage, she’s lucky the preservation-savvy developers at bettershelter got their hands on the decaying structure before their demolition-hungry competitors. The company restored the historic home before renting it to the Harrison trio, making Joanna’s renovation process more about adding functional style and less about, um, not dying.

Betsy and Manny bought this 1920s “Kit House” in Savannah after outgrowing their 400 square foot studio apartment in Brooklyn. They remodeled the whole home (while respecting the home’s architectural charm), but the kitchen’s outdated and dilapidated vibes had to go. They ripped the cabinets out, stripping the the kitchen down to the studs. The result is a gorgeous space that fits their personalities and the architecture of the home!