DIY Before & Afters | Do It Yourself Projects & Hacks

There’s just something special about the cooks, recipes, and kitchens you grew up with. Architect Dhara Sanghavi grew up in a now-dated ’80s-style kitchen, which her mother cooked in as-is for about 15 years.“It was a very central place in my household,” Dhara explains. “My mom is a great host and feels happy when inviting our friends and family for meals. The whole family would come together to chop vegetables, and I loved knowing what was cooking.

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.”They ended up purchasing a home that was built in 1978 and had not been updated since. “It still had the same dirty wallpaper, linoleum, and popcorn ceiling.

“When we first bought the house, the bathroom had standard builder finishes and felt fairly generic,” Lita Lee, founder of Stories from a Stylist, says. As an editorial interior stylist, Lita typically works with designers to create a room’s finished look, but in her and her husband’s home she took designing into her own hands. Lita wanted to give the bathroom more character and move away from the “original builder-basic feel.

There’s a lot to be said for moving into a boring and basic new build. Sure, they might not have the baked-in character of an older home, but a blank slate can create a lot of opportunity for turning your home into someplace that feels personal and uniquely you. That’s what Valerie Darden (@valerie.

Book lovers, get ready for a makeover that will steal your heart (and this one goes beyond just bookcases). This room started as a beige box catchall for Jessica Nickerson and her family, but it did contain a lot of books and what Jessica calls “random furniture.” But a year after living in their home, they were ready to turn this catchall into a cozy, functional reading room.

There’s nothing like a really bad smell to make a bathroom makeover a top priority. Before they had even moved into their new home a few years back, Sarah Chastain and her husband knew, based on just the odor, that the master bathroom would be one of their first projects.“When you walked in, the smell alone could turn you away,” Sarah explains.“My husband and I went back and forth on whether we should demo it completely or keep the drywall and just modify it.

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.“I didn’t have the confidence to do anything overly complicated for my first attempt, so I was looking for something achievable that would still look polished,” Sarah says.Inspiration struck as she was browsing — where else? — Reddit.

An outdoor area isn’t just aesthetically pleasing; it offers real, tangible benefits, too. Whether you live in a small apartment, work from home, or live somewhere with year-round sunshine, getting some fresh air and vitamin D might be high on the priority list. At least it was for Austin-based DIY and home decor influencer Lauren Gutierrez.

It’s safe to say that not all kitchen renovations are created equal. Some kitchens really only need some paint on the cabinets, new hardware, and a couple of days of work for a fresh facelift.But other kitchen projects can take months, a bit more money, and a whole lot of patience. That was the case for Sylvia Bermudez and her husband, Tim Murray, whose kitchen needed a lot of love (and labor).

When Rosaline Elbay was apartment hunting in New York, the fireplace, brick walls, and large windows in the living room of this Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, apartment won her over. And she painted the non-brick walls Farrow & Ball’s “Calke Green” after moving in. “Coupled with the greenery outside … it can really feel like you aren’t in New York at all when you’re sitting there with the window open,” she says.

For many people, long-backlogged projects take on a new urgency as they find themselves spending more time at home and using their spaces in different ways. For Melissa and Wyatt Shipman (Loving Here), that project was the half-bathroom in their basement.It was a relic of the early 1990s when their home was built, and it looked it: dingy tan vinyl floors, an oak vanity, poor lighting, and a dusty blue (yes, blue) toilet and sink.

“The tenants who were there before me had what can only be described as ‘gift shop’-themed furniture,” Rosie Dart shares about her apartment in London. As an illustrator, content creator, and director, she’s drawn to colors, shapes, and details, but even Rosie wasn’t a huge fan of the previous tenants’ decor.

Almost no house is complete without a home office these days. And they can range from something as small as a nook in the living room to as involved as renovating your garage. A spare room inside your home is probably the preferred way to create a functional workspace. Brielle Tolmeijer (@brielle_interiors) had just that in her 120-year-old Dutch Colonial home. In an Instagram post highlighting her office renovation, Brielle called her would-be office a “sad, forgotten room.

In general, neglected basements tend to fall into two categories. Either they are bare-bones bunkers that act as convenient storage units, or they are dated time capsules that likely haven’t been changed since Nixon was president. Basements come with tons of potential — and can be ideal for large families or social butterflies — but giving them a modern makeover often falls to the end of a home’s to-do list.

Even if you have an extremely dated space, it doesn’t always require a total demo to look new and stylish again. Take Geneva Slye’s (@just.geneva) bathroom, for example. “The first thing you notice about the bathroom is the pink tile,” Geneva says. “It is original to the house that was built in the 1950s.”Also part of the bathroom upon move-in?

“I could never figure out the best use of this space or its true potential,” DIYer Crystal Ransons says of her home’s large storage closet. The space was the only “extra” room and had gone through several phases of use.

Every once in a while, style switch-ups are good for the soul — even if the room “before” isn’t terrible to begin with. For Emma and Zack Shay, their kitchen wasn’t bad-looking by any means, but they wanted to ditch the blue-gray cabinetry for something that felt warmer and homey.

If there’s one 1990s or early aughts feature that DIYers and designers are ditching when redoing a kitchen in the 2020s, it’s a two-tiered island countertop. Multi-level bar seating is making way for something more practical — often an expansive, single-level island or peninsula. You can see examples in this green kitchen makeover and this navy one — and in Sheri Abernathy’s (@brasswalnut) recent kitchen makeover.

“I have a really high-quality bed with a vaguely modern aesthetic that no longer suits me,” Maya Drozdz says. She bought the bed frame years ago, but her current style shifted towards an eclectic, vintage look. Maya had originally wanted to replace just the headboard, as that was really the only noticeable part.But because it couldn’t be detached from the frame, Maya had to come up with another solution instead of replacing it.

Sarah Bryant’s (@sarah_louwho) over-100-year-old Brownstone apartment came with a lot of charm: original woodwork, two fireplaces, flower pots on the stoop, and friendly neighbors. A few things that weren’t so nice or charming? The large window right next to the toilet in her bathroom, the dated tan-and-black tile, and the hardware in the space. “The upgrades [over time] left some room for improvement that I’ve been happy to build on,” Sarah says.

Old homes have tons of cool history, charm, and character, but they can also come with a lot of necessary remodels and repairs thanks to plenty of years of use.That was certainly true of DIYer and real estate agent Melissa Doucet’s dining room in her 1922 home. “When we bought this century-old home, I don’t think anything had ever been done to it,” Melissa says of the dining room.

If you don’t have a fireplace in your living room or bedroom, you can always make one — whether that’s an operational one or a purely decorative one. Here are nine DIY fireplace ideas to inspire you — plus a 10th one from stylist and interior decorator Chad Burton (@chadburton.studio).

One of homeowner and interior designer Chloë Rideout’s (@chloerideoutinteriors) goals for her bathroom makeover was to make it look less cookie-cutter and more vintage. After all, her condo is in an 1835 rowhome.But in the first three years that Chloë and her husband, Joe, lived there, the bathroom was “gray and boring,” Chloë says.

People who live in smaller homes can probably relate to this sentiment from designer Lauren Saab @saabstudios.design): “In a smaller home, you feel the inefficiencies of every square foot,” she says.And Lauren was definitely feeling the inefficiencies in her 1,162-square-foot 1950s house’s bathroom. “The bathroom was one of the smallest rooms in the house, but the vanity made it feel even tighter,” she says.

Don’t get me wrong — all of the kitchens I’ve written about are special and gorgeous in their own way, but sometimes, a feature comes along that I really just have to pause and admire. This happened with Rachel (@ladyhighwayjewelry) and John Thompson’s (@johnny___666___) kitchen in their maximalist New Orleans home. And there’s one DIY feature in particular that’s so unique, I couldn’t help but write about it.

“The living room was our first project,” Maudie Francek says about her and her husband Ronnie’s 1928 Milwaukee home. Because the couple was tackling the whole home room by room, they needed at least one space away from the renovation messiness in other parts of the house.“We knew it would be the space where we spent most of our time, so we wanted to create a comfortable landing spot to relax in as we tackled the rest of the house,” Maudie shares.

Studio apartment dwellers often have to come up with clever ways to divide their space into distinct zones for sleeping, dining, working, and more. Take, for instance, these large pink IKEA BILLY bookcases that basically turn this studio into a one-bedroom, or this IKEA shower door hack that carves out a home office in a studio.A third space-savvy IKEA project to add to the list is Olamilekan Isaac’s (@our_commonspace) BILLY-built bedroom.

Kitchens are the highest-traffic areas in any home, serving as a place to work, cook, eat, and gather. The renovation inspiration for kitchens is endless, and sometimes it’s hard to decide where to start.If your kitchen isn’t in need of a complete overhaul, but still doesn’t fit your style, simply painting the cabinets or replacing the floors can make a huge difference.

Here’s the truth: Neutrals are nice, but they can also be a little… boring. That goes double when a room is filled to the brim with them, like this beige-on-beige living room from designer Natalie Papier’s own home.Natalie, of Home EC., is all about colorful, eclectic interiors — the exact opposite of the space she found when she and her family bought their new home in North Carolina after moving from Chicago.

“They always say ‘make a small, dark room a lighter color to make it feel larger’ and I feel the opposite is true,” DIYer and influencer Ava Russo says. She’s always loved warmer colors and dark, moody rooms, so her and her fiancé Danny’s basic all-white bathroom was the perfect opportunity to explore that style and “make it dramatic.

Sometimes, outdoor space ends up being wasted space for much longer than planned. After years of a mostly unusable backyard, Jen Rothbury of @cracktheshutters wanted to create an outdoor space that her family could enjoy year-round.For her, that meant getting rid of an old trampoline and getting a hot tub instead. “The hot tub means that we can make the most of our garden even when it’s cold,” Jen says.

If you ever have the lingering feeling that your space looks good, but not great, turn your attention to the walls. Often, they just need a bit more oomph.Giving the walls a dose of texture with moulding or coating them with rich, moody paint color is a surefire way to make an entire space look more sophisticated and meant-to-be.This dining room is a great example.

Some home design trends are destined to become classics that never go out of style (think: Shaker-style kitchen cabinets, hex floor tiles, and picture frame molding). But others are definitely more short-lived (remember spray foam decor?).The dark red wallpaper in this 1980s dining room definitely fell into the latter category. Homeowner Alexis Moore (@alexisnicolemakes) says the space hadn’t been updated since it was built, and the overall effect was drab.

You might not always be allowed to paint the walls of a rental apartment, but if you are, it can make a huge difference in how the whole space looks. Plus, adding a just-for-you color to the walls can make your place truly feel like home.Take it from renter Juliana, who has a 600-square-foot one-bedroom in San Francisco that was filled with white walls when she moved in.

Green is a great color to use in interior design because it’s so versatile. Muted sages make for calming sleep spaces, and bold or dark greens can create statement-making bookcases.Brandi Katherine Herrera (@alivelymanner) went with bright green in her Omaha cottage’s dining room makeover. But the space when she bought it had a “palette of gray and white builder-grade finishes.

When it comes to choosing a dark paint color, DIYer Danie Berger (@diyinprogress_) says, “Transitioning a space from bright and airy to dark and dramatic can feel intimidating.”But she says it can be rewarding, design-wise; the key is “layering tones within the same family so the space [feels] cohesive rather than chaotic.

Older homes have unique charm because the layout includes special details that, typically, aren’t seen in modern builds today. Historic homeowners Alexander Rigby and Bobby Naugle, who live in a Pittsburgh townhouse built in 1900, have a gorgeous parlor room. The front room has a fireplace with an original wood mantel and green tiles, plus large stained glass above the front window.

For better (see: these 20 incredibly chic studios) or worse (see: not being able to fall asleep due to a light coming from a random kitchen appliance), studio apartments famously do not have a distinct sleeping zone. But that doesn’t mean they have to stay that way. Renter Ashley Buchanan (@historyinhighheels) created a cozy bedroom with plenty of clothing storage in her 480-square-foot studio apartment in D.C.“Technically, there was no bedroom before!” Ashley says.

Blank white spaces, given their expansiveness and endless potential, can be tricky to decorate — especially if it’s a long hallway. But luckily for plant enthusiast Paige Tailyn, she knew she wanted to create an experience for her hallway that would make guests “feel suddenly engulfed by their surroundings,” she says.

Courtney Hierath had a lot to love about her little bungalow, but the kitchen, with its buttermilk-yellow walls and dark wood cabinets, wasn’t on the list.“I despised it from day one,” says Courtney. “But the idea of tackling this huge project was daunting, so I kept putting it off as long as I could.

During Meredith Svoboda’s final walk-through of her Nashville home, she photographed the dining room, “dreaming of the life I could bring to this room,” she writes.She, her husband, and their three children moved into their new house this past April, and Meredith decided from the get-go that she’d have to make some changes.“The room was so dark and always had a yellow hue to it,” she writes.

“That feeling of scrubbing a bathroom until your arms ache, only for it to still look kind of grimy, is the ultimate motivator,” DIYer Joe Bergantino says. Joe is one half of the DIY duo @HomosWithHammers, an account he shares with his husband, Ricky Gonzalez. They’ve slowly been restoring their 1800s Chicago home, and that grimy feeling was the couple’s inspiration to make the tiny powder room “pack a giant punch.

My 1940 rowhouse has great bones, like a beautiful brick fireplace and original hardwood floors, but it’s been up to me to add architectural details — all those charming, characterful touches that I love in a space. So when I moved in (with my new homeowner’s zeal for DIY and too many boxes of books), one of my first projects was to create a faux built-in using an IKEA BILLY bookshelf.

A functional, well-designed bathroom just might be the most important room in a home. After all, everyone in a home uses it — especially if it’s in a high-traffic part of a house or apartment. Homeowner Kiley Cutler wanted to make her main-level bathroom look and feel like a put-together space for her husband, two kids, and guests, so she opted to give the yellow-toned space a much-needed makeover.

Red paint is sometimes difficult to work with and style, but — when paired with the right colors and in just the right shade — it can elevate any room. (Have you heard of the unexpected red theory?)A rust-meets-red paint job in Abigail Rogers’ (@abigailrogersinteriors) bedroom is the perfect, rich color choice for her Victorian home — but that’s only one great element of her bedroom redo, which includes an IKEA hack, a DIY headboard, and more.

Renovating a dated part of your home poses a difficult question: How do you strike the right balance between making some much-needed changes and preserving the original character of the room? As DIYer Ericka Gularte (@oakandmarsh) found, giving some elements of the room a modern makeover and redoing others entirely made a world of difference when it came to updating her kids’ 1991 standard-build bathroom.

Older homes can sometimes become a hodgepodge of design styles as updates get added over the years. That was the case in Jess Bond’s (The Bond House) bathroom, which was partially original to her 1962 home — but was also partially updated with ’90s upgrades that included a vinyl floor and a dingy, yellowed tub insert.

Staying in your old childhood bedroom doesn’t usually mean stylish or luxurious accommodations. For most of us, it tends to be a hodgepodge of dated bedding and mismatched decor — and for Amilia James (@rosedoorhome), it was no different.So after redoing her sister’s bedroom at her parents’ house earlier this year, Amilia decided to tackle her own, which her parents had converted into a guest room.

Sure, there’s a lot to be said for minimalist decor—but there are places where blank walls just don’t work. One of those is a laundry room. When Ten V (Delish & Decor) and her family moved into their home, for instance, the laundry room was pretty much empty.“When we moved in, we just quickly got a wall organizer to hang all the cleaning tools and a cheap shelf for detergents and fabric softener for our laundry room,” Ten says.

Just because a bathroom is tiny doesn’t mean it has to feel cramped or uncomfortable. With some light colors and thoughtful décor, small really can be mighty.That was the approach Jasmin Robertson of Brick Dust Baby took when she decided to renovate the only bathroom in her new home.

Even rooms with tall ceilings and large windows can feel dark if the color palette isn’t lending itself to an airy vibe. Pamela Stewart’s kitchen looked “dated, dark, and dreary” — despite the 9-foot ceilings and amazing views of the Arizona landscape. While the walls were white, the floors, cabinets, and countertops were all shades of brown, which made the space feel darker than it actually was.

We love color. Love it! But sometimes moving into a new place means you’re working with colors you’re not wild about — like, say, the lime green and black tile in Lissi Walker’s kitchen in Leicestershire, UK.Although the size and layout of the kitchen were on point, the design wasn’t exactly Lissi’s taste. Aside from the checkered tile, the kitchen also had blah beige floors and orangey wood cabinets.

There’s something so special about a neighbor-to-neighbor bond. Neighbors are like a nearby safety net — watering each other’s plants, checking in when the power goes out, or shoveling each other’s walkways in winter. Or, for Holly Saulie-Rohman, giving her neighbor Jackie a ride whenever she needs one. “We support each other in all the neighborly ways,” Holly shares. But the neighbors’ bond goes beyond helping with admin tasks.

Sometimes a renovation isn’t a choice—it’s a total necessity. That was the case for DIYer Johanna Beach of At Home with Howie and her current Chicago rental kitchen, if you could even call it that.When she first moved in, the space (which is just inside the entrance of her apartment) had a fridge, a sink, a stove, and some sad, small shelving, but no counters and zero cabinets. “It was… not workable,” says Johanna.

It’s easy to look at a room and design it as it was intended: a kitchen as a kitchen, a bathroom as a bathroom, an office as an office. It’s a lot gutsier to look at a room and envision something else entirely — but that’s a risk that can bring lots of rewards.Conor McFarland saw potential in the living room of this 1880s house to be something more.

Sometimes all a space needs is a few small tweaks to pull it out of a rut. Case in point? A beige (very beige) bathroom in Desola Balogun’s parents’ home, which was majorly transformed thanks to a few of his fresh new additions.Desola spent an extended stay and wanted to do something for them.

In today’s world of technology, it’s not uncommon to find your next living situation on social media. As a New York transplant, I’ve heard stories from friends who have found apartments on TikTok or who have stumbled upon a group needing another roommate on Instagram.