Before After

Hissan and Sophia found their dream home in Brooklyn, but the kitchen was less than ideal. Besides the out of date faux-cherrywood finish, the cabinetry also seemed squatty and inappropriate in the space, adapted to a room with much lower ceilings. In their quest to renovate the kitchen and make it more appropriate for the space, they also wanted to rework a long but awkward hallway, a necessary but not particularly attractive part of the unit’s floorplan.

House hunting in New York often involves a few compromises, and for Brandi that compromise was buying an apartment with a kitchen in need of a serious overhaul. The backsplash tiles were cracked and yellowing, the wall oven didn’t work, and the hinges had so many layers of paint on them that the cabinets wouldn’t close. And to top it all off, everything was painted a particularly unappealing shade of olive green.

One of the hardest parts about room makeovers is envisioning what it all might look like. Before you spring for all the materials, how can you be sure it will look great when it’s finished? When working on Tara’s rental kitchen, we tried out some different design options on Photoshop, playing around with various design options. Mind you, these aren’t digital masterpieces. But they do help you see how different paint colors look, or what pattern would do to the floor.

When Maxine of We Love Home moved into her home she inherited a less than ideal kitchen. Not only was it pretty blah aesthetics wise, it was basically falling apart. Not one to be deterred, she saw this as a golden opportunity to design her dream kitchen. From Maxine: In my old flat, I inherited an almost-new kitchen so could never justify changing it. I hated it though. As it is had been designed by for someone else, by someone else – it never suited my needs.

When I stumbled across Molly’s cabinet project on her blog Almost Makes Perfect, I was smitten. This is the sort of random, kind of odd design feature that I would complain about but probably just live with, so I was totally inspired by Molly’s gumption in tackling this project. From Molly: For some reason the owner before us had installed this big built in cabinet right in the entryway of the house.

“Wait…that looks familiar.” Is what you may be thinking at this exact moment and hey, you’re right! This cute lil’ cabinet was the after photo in Molly’s cabinet upgrade. She DIYd her way to a subtle, yet impactful aesthetic upgrade to give her cabinets a cohesive look. From Molly: While I love the storage the multiple built-in cabinets our house came with, I hated the cathedral cabinet doors.

We love the idea of keeping the tile in a vintage bathroom, but unfortunately, sometimes that’s just not possible. The lavender tile in the bathroom of Laura and Matthew’s Brooklyn co-op was cracking in several places and needed to be replaced, and storage in the small, cramped room was almost non-existent. They envisioned a new bathroom that would be clean, modern and bright — while still maintaining a bit of the quirky character of the original.

Sam hated her kitchen, but she and her husband couldn’t afford to make real changes to it. Being on a budget meant they had to prioritize and focus on the floor — her least favorite part of the room. From Sam: I really really hated our kitchen, but we basically couldn’t afford to make real changes to it because each change begets another change and the whole thing really needs more work than were personally willing/able to put into this house and at this time.

Wood paneling and tile and fluorescent lights, oh my! Heather’s basement was lacking a cozy charm and full of standard issue basement problems (we’re talking about you, mold) so she flexed some serious DIY muscle and turned the space into a warm, family friendly hang out. From Heather: This basement remodel was a heavy lift. We started out with a linoleum and wood paneled jungle, complete with mold, mice, mildew, and hardly a beam of natural light as far as the eye could see.

Sometimes the “before” photo is more jaw-dropping than the finished project, and this is one of those times. Round of applause for Lotta, who was able to see the clean, modern potential in this living room —especially given what she had to work with. From Lotta: This beautiful modern home, designed and built in 1987 by architect Jon Condoret, needed to be brought back to modern again.

Purchasing an apartment in New York is no small feat (financially or otherwise). Rima knew she wanted to renovate as soon as she bought her Brooklyn co-op, but was a bit hesitant about pulling the trigger. After four years of dreaming of a new kitchen, she finally worked up the guts (and the money!) to make a big change. Her previous kitchen had a problem common to a lot of NYC kitchens: lack of space.

It took Rima five years of living in her Brooklyn apartment to finally embark on the renovation of her cramped kitchen — but when she did, this first-time remodeler decided to really take the plunge and upgrade her bathroom, too. A complete overhaul transformed this dated space, unfortunately lacking in storage, into a sleek, streamlined small bathroom with a classic look that’s sure to please for years to come. In the newly rehauled bathroom, subway tile covers the walls.

Chokers, Tommy Hilfiger, Wynona Rider. The ’90s may be back but Kirsten really wanted them to get out – and stay out – of her kitchen. With a little help from her husband, she was able to create a classically cool galley kitchen that won’t be going out of style anytime soon. From Kirsten: When we first looked at this home to buy, I remember thinking that the biggest transformation needed to be the kitchen. It was dark, too enclosed and feeling very 1990s.

Erin and Tobin had been living with a bathroom that was fairly functional, but cramped — and in desperate need of a modern update. The two creatives decided to tackle the project themselves, but as anyone who has ever taken on a remodel knows, projects can take longer than expected. This “weekend endeavor” turned into a six-week transformation, but the result was well worth the wait!

Tara Bellucci, our News & Culture Editor, just moved into a new apartment in Boston’s South End this fall. The space definitely needed updating but, since Tara’s renting, a full on, rip-it-all-out reno just isn’t in the cards. She got permission from her landlord to make a few changes — simple inexpensive updates to make it more livable and inviting. And yes, a whole lot less ugly.

This dark half-bath off the kitchen of Sarah & Keith’s home needed a major refresh. It had a good layout in place, but the brown walls made it feel much smaller than its actual size. Sarah and Keith kept the existing configuration and plumbing, and focused on new fixtures and and fresh design plan to give it a brand new look. By brightening up the walls, and sticking with a classic color palette, the bathroom now feels much more spacious.

Sarah and Keith knew it was about time to leave their cramped ’90s kitchen behind. While functional, the space was outdated and closed off. They wanted a space that flowed seamlessly with the rest of the vibrant, contemporary house. They opened up the floor plan, and chose design elements like a neutral wall color and tile, white cabinets and light marble countertops.

Sophia’s 400-square-foot apartment on New York’s Upper West Side was the perfect size for one person. After her husband Leon moved in, the apartment seemed a bit cozy, but they made it work. Then came baby. Three people (and all that baby stuff) in 400 square feet was just too much, so they started looking for a place to buy. They looked, and looked, and looked, but none of the two-bedrooms in their price range were even remotely livable.

In the 50s, General Electric made the fabulous Wonder Kitchen—an entire wall unit with all the appliances built right in. The units came in amazing colors: Canary Yellow, Turquoise Green, Petal Pink, Cadet Blue and Woodbine Brown, all under one stainless steel counter surface. Letitia acquired one of these units, along with other matching cabinets, which were salvaged from another kitchen, and she renovated her dark and gloomy kitchen around this gleaming, wondrous wall unit.

Sarah and Keith had just begun a transformation on the basement space in their house prior to this “before” photo being taken. While previously a functional space, they wanted a basement the whole family could really enjoy together. They wanted a space that was as inspiring to be in as it was lovely to look at. IKEA shelving and some new chalkboard walls were the first step, but something was going to have to be done with the dingy wall-to-wall carpeting.

This “office” space that was shared by Sarah and Keith in their dark, uninspiring basement in their New England Craftsman Colonial didn’t seem to have a clear design or purpose — or you know, much style. But they lightened, brightened and turned this space around! When they removed the carpet and added new hardwoods, a neutral area rug and drapes, the space felt more open and each side had a clear purpose.

On a peaceful, sidewalk-free street, lined with trees and near a lake, is Matt and Amanda’s 1947 bungalow in the San Rafael hills of Pasadena. It’s not hard to see what attracted the couple to this house, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t need a lot of work. The house had a lot of potential (and light), but not a lot of personality. Matt and Amanda wanted to create a rich, unique Craftsman feel.

With low ceilings, white walls and track lighting, Matt and Amanda’s post-war den in their California Craftsman didn’t exactly inspire the soul. As two people working in a hectic and creative field (they’re both actors), they wanted to add loads of personality to their small den, while also creating a retreat. In short, they wanted to banish the boring. Their plan? Transform the blank canvas above into a room with English pub vibes.

When Matt and Amanda first looked at this house, they were able to instantly imagine fixing up all of the rooms — except for the kitchen. It was a dark, dated galley kitchen with a wall smack dab in the middle. Matt writes: “We went back to look at it one last time and I just sat there trying to visualize what the solution could be. When I realized it could be done, I did my best to explain the mess in my head to Amanda and we went for it!

Matt and Amanda knew they wanted to strip this entire bathroom down and create something new that was light and airy — that felt good to be in. As Matt writes: “The two rooms of the house that we had done by contractors were the kitchen and the bathroom. I was too afraid to deal with that much tile and plumbing. We had them gut everything. …We wanted a classic subway or old Italian restaurant vibe in here for some reason.

At first glance, this space above the bathroom in Brett’s apartment looked like an unfortunate eye sore. But Brett saw this area as more than wasted space. He had a vision, and very specific goals for the small space. And his DIY solution is both attractive and functional. Using 1/2 inch PVC piping from Home Depot and some standard wooden slats, Brett transformed this otherwise useless space into his bedroom!

When Tim Sheehan bought an 1860s Greek Revival home that had been abandoned for six years, the kitchen was crammed into a small room at the end of a hallway. The house was used as a rectory for 80 years, so a full kitchen wasn’t necessary when the home was first constructed. So Tim gutted the back hallway, knocked down a wall that once enclosed the tiny, impractical kitchen and removed sheet rock and a drop ceiling to reveal wood walls painted white.

When Tim purchased his house in 2010, it had been abandoned since 2004, a year before Hurricane Katrina. The windows were left open and the walls were covered with mold. The property was what Tim describes as “marginally livable,” and didn’t even meet the requirements for financing. He would have to pay out of pocket to get a hot water heater installed, the electricity turned on, and have the mold re-mediated in order to secure a mortgage.

When Chris and Amber renovated their Brooklyn apartment, transforming their kitchen and adding an extra bedroom for their son, they hadn’t originally planned on redoing their bathroom, too. Then halfway through the remodeling process, they realized that they never, ever wanted to do another remodel — and that if they were going to re-do the bathroom, it was now or never. The original bathroom was, in Chris’ words, “tired and shabby.

Chris and Amber had a problem common to a lot of New York City homeowners: a family that kept growing, and an apartment that stubbornly remained the same size. After the birth of their first son they decided to look for a two-bedroom apartment, but were unable to find anything acceptable in their price range. When the impending arrival of a second baby really raised the stakes, they decided that maybe the solution was to renovate the apartment they already had.

First of all, shout out to Tanya’s mom for choosing kitchen elements way back in the ’80s that wouldn’t look totally insane to our modern eyes. As smart as her choices were, time waits for no man and since the kitchen was showing its age, Tanya figured she would jump in and help her mom update her space.

April’s guest bathroom wasn’t making a great impression, so she started again from down-to-the-studs scratch. With some seriously impressive DIY skills the final product is a serene and welcoming space. From April: Our hall bath is the bathroom in the house that all of our guests use, whether they be overnight or just dinner guests. The room needed a major upgrade. We completely gutted the space to start with – down to the studs and slab.

After fifteen years of living in their one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, Deniz and Ramon had plenty of ideas for upgrades they could make to the place. So when they finally embarked on their long dreamed-of renovation, the result was some very dramatic changes indeed. Previously, the apartment, while quite spacious at 1,000 square feet, was broken up into small, choppy spaces. The kitchen, separated from the living and dining areas, had no natural light at all.

You may remember Nisha and Tim Stevens’ house in South East London. Having spent most of their budget buying the house, Nisha and Tim had to be creative when it came to decorating. Luckily the couple is pretty handy and they saved a lot of money by renovating most of their old kitchen themselves. Nisha’s Advice: Paint an ugly kitchen worktop with an oil based blackboard paint. Ours was a not-very-nice wood-look laminate which we sanded back and then painted.

Homebuying in New York is one of those things that doesn’t always turn out like you planned. Jamie and Chad had their hearts set on buying a brownstone in Brooklyn, but when it turned out that everyone else had their hearts set on this as well, they wound up with an apartment in Ridgewood, Queens with plenty of space, its own backyard, and a bathroom that was well, interesting.

This galley kitchen in a Brooklyn one-bedroom wasn’t quite the nightmare that some of our ‘before’ kitchens present — but as soon as they closed on the apartment, homeowners Hari and Kaity knew they wanted to do something about the kitchen’s dark, cramped layout. Under (and over!) cabinet lighting didn’t quite make up for a lack of natural light, and the layout of the appliances meant that what countertop space there was was strangely segmented.

Amanda and Chris Covo spent eight months renovating their 1920s bungalow, also known as the Sallie Johnson House. Johnson was a freed slave and her home is now a historic landmark in East Austin, Texas. (You can listen to Sallie’s narrative here.) When the couple first saw this house, it was completely run down.

Every New Yorker dreams of living in a beautiful pre-war building with beautiful pre-war details, but sometimes the reality is less exciting. Hari and Kaity loved a lot of things about their one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, but the living room was a bit, well, dull. So they set about making a few changes — small, budget-friendly upgrades that nevertheless made a big difference.

Interior designer and stylist Brett and her husband Brandon bought a 1900s Craftsman house in Oakland, California in March of last year, but they couldn’t move in right away. The architectural charm was immediately obvious, but it also needed a lot of work. A renovation was definitely in the cards.

For almost ten years, John lived in his Hell’s Kitchen co-op while it slowly crumbled around him. The apartment, built in 1923, was definitely showing signs of its age: plaster was falling off the walls, moldings were caked with years of paint, and the kitchen cabinets, which had been replaced sometime in the 90s, were starting to fall apart. Faced with all this, and with the prospect of his partner, Katherine, moving in with him soon, John decided it was time for some big changes.

If you’ve ever found yourself a bit dismayed by a remodel where the homeowners took a perfectly serviceable kitchen and subjected it a complete gut renovation, then this project is for you. Instead of starting from scratch, Lindsay and Matt made just a few small changes to their Brooklyn kitchen, creating a fresh, modern space with a minimum of hassle (and a minimal budget).

Lindsay and Matt, the Brooklyn homeowners who brought a light touch to the renovation of their less than exciting kitchen, took the same approach toward their apartment’s somewhat generic bathroom. It had been recently renovated, and they were on a pretty serious budget, so a complete overhaul wasn’t in the cards. Instead, they made a few small changes that made this little bathroom much more fresh — and much more functional.

Clashing patterns, chipping paint, and mismatched furniture is far from unusual in Beijing’s rental market. But Becky Lane’s apartment in an older neighborhood near the city’s fashionable Sanlitun district was another ordeal entirely. Despite this apartment being at the higher end of her budget and in a state that would make most expats go running for the nearest renovated home, Becky said yes to renting.

My friend Joseph has a beige bathroom and asked me to come over and help him do something — anything — to make it better and I jumped at the chance. Because one less beige bathroom in the world is no bad thing. He’s a renter, so it couldn’t cost a lot, and everything needed to be 100% temporary. (You know those pesky security deposits and how they don’t get returned when you make permanent changes.

Joseph's bathroom had some decent bones, but needed a light and renter-friendly makeover. See what we did...

Renters rejoice.

If you have an old basement or other unused space in your home, you might dream about remodeling that space into something beautiful and useful. For Suzanne and Peter, that dreaming started the moment they bought their San Francisco home three years ago. The dark and dank basement room that came with the house no longer exists and has been replaced with a bright, open and welcoming space.

If there’s anything we love more than a great before and after, it’s a great before and after with Kristen Bell. The Good Place star surprised her sister and her family with a totally new basement for their Detroit home. In an episode of MyHouzz, the home renovation platform’s web series, the Frozen and Veronica Mars actor set out to do something huge for her big sister: totally renovate her basement.

Dream of living in an open, airy, minimal home but find yourself in a beige-hued, standard suburban house? After you pick your jaw up off the floor upon viewing these before and afters of a renovated Cleveland home, you’ll likely be inspired and motivated to try your hand at modernizing your own space!

Eric and Joel’s new apartment in Prospect Heights had a lot going for it: generously sized rooms, lots of light, proximity to dog parks. What it didn’t have going for it: an incredibly awkward floorplan where a closed-off kitchen adjoined a mostly useless ‘dining foyer’ — an orphaned bit of space that was too wide to be called a hallway and too narrow for anything else.

If you’re one of those people who hates words like ‘moist’, Joel’s description of his former bathroom is going to make you shudder. Besides the dark, dated tile and fixtures, the bathroom “always smelled damp and musty because the floor and walls were finished with absorbent limestone tiles.” Ew. To add a little extra space to the bathroom, Joel and his partner Eric chose to incorporate part of an adjacent hallway.

Meg and Joe are both graphic designers. They bought this house in Detroit about a year ago. Though their budget was small, they were able to refresh the whole house thanks to fresh paint. And they made the home their own by adding in personal objects with history, as well as art made by themselves or friends. The couple says the entire house is still a work in progress, but that’s what they like about it: They’re making the house their own home. “Be patient and take your time.

When Danielle and her family moved into their home, they knew which room they wanted for their daughters nursery but felt it needed some major restyling. After switching up the color scheme with paint and wallpaper, replacing the chandelier with something a little more kid friendly and adding all of the cute touches that make a nursery, they have an adorable space for their daughter that is a fry cry from the original room.

Name: Ana and Patrick Kamin Type of Project: Kitchen Update Location: San Francisco, California When we moved to San Francisco and started looking for apartments, 85% of the kitchens we saw were not acceptable by my terms. On the one side, you have the ones that are newly updated, but the landlord chose the countertop and cabinets straight from the ’70s. Or you have the kitchens that are totally rundown — and the renovation will cost a fortune.

The ‘before’ kitchen in this Upper West Side two-bedroom wasn’t in terrible condition, but it was plagued by a few issues common to small kitchens — teeny tiny appliances, and a serious lack of cabinet and counter space. The dark finishes and awkward, chopped-up blocks of cabinets made the small space seem even smaller.

After living in New York for 11 years, Diana Marsh was ready to move back to her home state of Michigan and design a beautiful nest. As the proprietor of the downtown Ann Arbor store Thistle and Bess, Diana stocks up and offers one-of-a-kind treasures for those seeking a luxurious lifestyle. And not surprisingly, she was looking to create a luxurious lifestyle in the 1890s house she bought.

Nicole and Dan’s house tour of their Park Slope brownstone had me green with envy. A large space, it was lovingly renovated and beautifully decorated. The way in which they designed the home — to maximize light, to embrace color and pattern — is impressive enough. But wait until you see what the living room and entryway looked like before they renovated.

Every square inch of this kitchen was ripped out and lovingly put back together — this time in a much more functional and stylish way — by the homeowners themselves. As designer Michelle Gage writes on her blog: “The floors were dirty and sticky. The appliances appeared to be original to the house. The counter tops were held together with tape.” It took two years to save enough money to finally tackle this outdated kitchen’s remodel.

A small bathroom is bad enough to live with. But when your small bathroom is windowless and boring? Well that’s just sad. Designer Mary Lee wasn’t going to stand for a tiny, depressing bathroom. So she worked her DIY remodel magic on this part of her Seattle studio apartment, and the result is inspiring! I just loved Mary’s advice for decorating that she shared in her house tour: “More isn’t always better when it comes to stuff and space.

Brandon and Gabi aren’t just living a dream life — traveling around and enjoying the beauty of our country — they’re doing it while living in this dreamy Airstream trailer. As we showed in their house tour, tons of thought went into the DIY details of their tiny mobile home, from storage to lighting and more. And while the end result is certainly beautiful, it took A LOT of work to get it there.

As bathrooms go, the bathroom in Lauren’s Brooklyn Heights studio wasn’t in the worst shape. Aesthetically, it wasn’t much to write home about (and the odd, alien sink seemed ready for takeoff), but we’ve seen much worse. The real problem in this small space was storage. As in, there wasn’t any.

Shaila’s kitchen came with both a fun connection to DC history and a pretty funky layout. Aesthetics aside, it was time for a reno; the kitchen had begun to fall apart. Taking a cue from the age of the building and her personal love of art-deco, Shaila gave her new-to-her old kitchen a stylish updated vintage-inspired look. Take it away, Shaila… After serving as a diplomat around the world, it was time for me to come back to Washington.

There are remodels…and then there are total transformations. Julia and Kurt bought a run-down studio apartment nine years ago. The layout was weird and it was on the teeny side. But instead of just improving the look of the current home’s foot print, they thought outside of the box! They decided to take over the home’s huge rooftop terrace to convert their studio apartment into a two-level, two-bedroom modern home. Originally all the living spaces were on one level.

Considering the amazing renovation work done on the living room, dining room and kitchen of Nicole and Dan Lucey’s Brooklyn brownstone, it’s not exactly a surprise that they also showed the same care, intention and design savvy with the family’s upstairs bedrooms. What is surprising are the bold design choices in two of the rooms, and the serene space the master bedroom turned out to be. Nicole and Dan’s sophisticated son originally wanted ALL black walls.

Structurally, there was nothing wrong with the bathroom in Nikki and Chris’ Astoria condo. Aesthetically, it looked a bit like an upscale gas station bathroom from the early 90s. The ‘after’, I think you’ll agree, is a huge improvement. The couple’s vision for their new bathroom was a modern twist on a classic NYC bath.