DIY Before & Afters | Do It Yourself Projects & Hacks

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.

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."

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

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

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.

"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.

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.

It even includes a plant propagation station!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

This vintage RV has been torn down, fixed back up, and glittered, dangled, and frocked within an inch of its life.

The powder room didn’t quite make it to the top of Laurel list of must-immediately-make home improvements—until she found out that a wall had to be taken out completely and rebuilt for proper support.

Alexandra Madison loves “taking old spaces and making them feel new and fresh,” she writes, so in a few weeks and with less than $600, she gave her dining room an entirely updated feel.

When Katie and ​David​ purchased their home in Memphis, the house had all of the charm of the 1940s—but the bathroom left much to be desired.

Joanne Mooney​'s IKEA FLÅDIS​ planter did its job—aka, holding plants—but looked pretty bland against the backdrop of her colorful home. She decided to use punch needling to give the seagrass baskets a makeover.

Color, peel-and-stick backslash tiles, and a few gorgeous light fixture splurges COMPLETELY transformed this old, dark rental kitchen.

If you're looking for a home that, somehow, brilliantly blends the best of Gwyneth's sensibilities with Sterling Cooper-era interior design, do I have a home for you.

This place needed A LOT of updates but after six weeks of chaos, countless Home Depot trips, and tons of sweat equity, this condo now fits the couple's personalities.

For a less intrepid DIY-er the assortment pictured above would be one intimidating pile of rocks. Not so for April. She transformed her courtyard into a relaxing spot, perfect for entertaining. Best of all, it’s super low maintenance so she can spend more time planning parties and less time watering grass! From April: I am in love with the new look of my courtyard area, which was almost all do-it-yourself projects.

The dark blue accent wall cost $180 total, including trim, caulk, and paint.

Brianna printed her custom, watercolor-inspired artwork at Society6 and covered it with three "generous" coats of clear whiteboard paint. After five days of curing, she had her end result—"a giant surface for impromptu brainstorming, writing down weekly and monthly goals, taking notes while pacing on conference calls, or sketching website wireframes."

This pantry goes from cluttered to clean.

I can attest to the challenge of refinishing a vintage stereo entertainment cabinet. They’re undoubtedly beautiful, but also big, heavy, packed with difficult to disassemble, pre-miniaturization era electronics, and usually require a great deal of stripping and refinishing to bring them back to glory.

If you’re following along, you may have caught us drooling over Arlyn Hernandez’s makeovers. Arlyn is Emily Henderson’s editorial director and the proud occupant of not one but two beautifully designed rooms in a 100-year-old Los Angeles Mediterranean-style apartment building.

When Stasia bought her flat in 2016, she liked the kitchen—it was “big and bright and airy,” she says, and certainly on-trend. But it also “felt bland,” with “bleached white walls and cupboards that made it feel cold and clinical. I didn’t want to feel like I was cooking in a science lab.” When she decided to renovate, she was aiming for “industrial yet cozy, somewhere [she] could relax with a glass of wine.

White doesn’t have to mean trite. Paired with a joyful neon color scheme, a white room can be an honest delight. Gill gave her girls’ “small and dark” room a colorful makeover to make the space feel entirely modern—and still kid-appropriate. “It is a shared room for our two daughters, and while we were desperate to lighten and brighten the space, we also wanted to ensure it appealed to both a 6-year-old and a 6-year-old,” Gill says.

Every week, our resident “plant doctor” Hilton Carter, takes us behind the scenes into his own home jungle to answer questions about plant care and tips. But we thought it could be fun to, er, grow the series: sending him into real homes where the plants aren’t always quite so healthy. Today we’re launching House Calls with the Plant Doctor.First up is Aaron Nachmann, who is our director of ad operations here at Apartment Therapy.

Attention, all you renters out there: this is an easy, affordable, and ultra-stylish way to upgrade your dingy rental floors. We have been meaning to do something like this ourselves for quite some time, and seeing this project by Orlando Soria on Design*Sponge totally got us all jazzed up to copy her.

To anyone else, Adriana’s dark blue bedroom might seem complete—styled perfectly, designed for her particular taste, not a thing left to do! But the closet door was an eyesore that she just couldn’t overlook; it was tall and so bright-white and just didn’t seem to fit in with the design of the rest of the bedroom.

Hutches are weird things. They take up a great deal of space, and although they display your collectibles well, unless the vibe of the piece really fits your home, they feel monolithic and out of place. So when Brooke’s friend passed along a hutch from her Grandmother, she set out to make it her own and all we have to say is, “Wow!”Brooke over at The Crafting Chicks really did a bang up job on this transformation.

I love this kitchen remodel from Olives and Daisies. It’s definitely green to find ways to make do with what you have rather than buying new or throwing things away, and in this case they did a few simple things that had major payoff: painted the cabinets, took out some upper cabinets, replaced a few doors and worked on the hardware among other things. The transformation is really incredible considering the minimal investment. Well done!

When I moved into my home, only one out of the three units was livable. The downstairs had been gutted and wasn’t much more than a glorified storage unit. You’ve gotten a glimpse of the bathroom via my Ace Hotel-inspired shelving post. Now I’m going to share my mostly recycled kitchen-on-a-shoestring.Diving into this project as a novice homeowner included lot of naivety and the necessity of getting a unit rented ASAP to help pay the mortgage.

If you live in a small space that is short on closets you may find yourself surrounded by a variety of “storage solutions.” Unfortunately, the visual appeal of giant plastic boxes is pretty low, so why not convert your rubbermaids to a relaxing reading nook?It’s amazing what a quilted bedspread, a couple of throw pillows and a faux fur rug can do!

There aren’t many items that I can’t think of some way to transform or repurpose, but when it comes to woven or wicker furniture like these barstools, I’m often at a loss…until now. This trio of trashed items received a makeover from Fabio de Minicis that I never would have thought of!Fabio does wonderful things with items that are otherwise considered discarded, junk or trash, and this barstool makeover is no exception.

Perfect timing for project month! We were happy when an email from Maja, a regular Apartment Therapy reader, hit the inbox. She sent us in these before and after photos of an eBay chair makeover project — from a traditional floral to a bright and bold modern graphic pattern, we love the transformation……and the After!Maja writes: I’m moving to a new apartment in a couple of weeks and have been buying some furniture.

Reusing old drawers as shelving is something we’ve discussed here a few times before. In fact, you may recognize one of these drawers from a post on the subject. While I’ve been using drawers as shelving for a couple of years, I wanted to take the concept to the next level.I had already been using one of these drawers as a wall shelf in my bedroom and when I gave the bedroom a makeover, I wasn’t sure whether I would use the drawers again.

Although it’s not terribly difficult to make your own frame for a canvas, it can be more work than required. Check out this thrift store painting — not many would consider hanging it in their homes as is — but with a Bambi makeover, I’m all over it!Over at Under The Table and Dreaming, Stephanie Lynn has been hard at work revamping this red barn into something a little more modern and fresh for her space.

I’m sure in certain parts of the world people are looking forward to the start of Spring and warmer days, but here in Australia it is hot hot hot and there is never enough shade. So I’m making my own! No heavy plasticky shade sails for me… I’m opting for light white muslin to let the light in but take the edge off.MaterialsAs much fabric as you need to cover your chosen area. (As mentioned above, I used muslin.

The washer/dryer hookup in our apartment is perfectly located right off the kitchen and close to the dining room, where we do all the laundry folding. Since this is our first apartment with laundry inside the unit, we’re quite happy to have it so centrally located. Although the location of our little laundry closet may be nearly perfect, the presentation leaves a lot to be desired. Those louvered bi-fold doors have got to go!

Re-Nest reader Abigail recently sent us her super thrifty sofa upgrade: A hand-me-down from her parents, she’s been living with the sofa for 3 years trying to disguise it with a floral slipcover and lots of pillows.

This thrift store find has great lines, but the rest of the piece needed a bit of work. Kate from Centsational Girl put a little bit of love and a whole lot of elbow grease into fixing this piece up. Check out her cane chair transformation into a timeless piece for her living room.First things first, she took apart the chair until only the frame was left. Then she gave that a good coat of glossy white paint. For the fabric, she went with a soft yet durable fabric in a taupe color.

Laura, a regular Apartment Therapy reader was on the hunt for an affordable ottoman. When nothing suitable turned up, she took matters into her own hands and went the DIY route. Here is her story…and the great looking finished results……and the After!Laura writes: I wanted to share my simple and cheap ottoman makeover.

Arren Williams’ home in Toronto is also his ongoing project . With his long list of design skills, each room is an opportunity for some wow-level end results, which he, luckily for us, shares on his blog. A basement room, especially one that was converted from a drive-down garage can be a challenging space to decorate; dark, with low ceilings and a lack of windows. But that didn’t deter Arren……and the After!

Used as a rental for years, Gregg Olsen, the owner of this 1960 split-level in Boulder, CO had a vision to add a second story to his home. When that plan promised to cost $100,000 – $150,000 more than he had budgeted, a change of plans was in order. The new concept included energy efficiency and modern design elements.Mr. Olsen hired VaST Architecture to realize the extensive renovation on his home.

When I saw this little file box at a Salvation Army, it practically called to me from across the store. “Jason,” it called out to me, “please take me home and give me new life. I’m only five dollars!” How could I possibly pass it up?The original gray finish on the file box had definitely seen better days. Even after a thorough scrubbing, the finish was marred with years of tape and dings and scrapes. Nothing a little spray paint won’t fix!

Using a $20 garage sale settee as a base, Suesan over at Frou-FruGal wanted to create a family heirloom map furniture piece. Using a drop cloth, some incredible hand painting skills and some elbow grease she has created an unexpected decor element.Whether you like the look or not, this is so much more than just your typical piece of furniture. As Suesan describes, It’s unique to our family and I’m happy with the look. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t fast.

At $7.99 the LACK table from IKEA is a popular purchase. Supremely simple in design, this piece looks great in the living room or even as a minimalist beside table. Alas, like all things, the surface inevitably shows signs of wear—and there is only so many times you’ll want to reposition a potted plant or stack of books to strategically cover up scuffs or stains. It’s good to know that there is light at the end of tunnel when its life as a table begins to look LACK luster!

When Theresa and her family first bought their home it had been unused for a long time. But with the sweat off their brows, some thoughtful budget spends, and some clever DIYs they are turning their unused house into a gorgeous home. Here’s a peek at how they handled the kitchen.

My Mum has owned her mismatched set of reproduction Georgian dining chairs for just about 35 years. Over that time the seats have been recovered in all manner of fabrics, but until recently they retained a rather traditional air. A little white paint and a bright, bold fabric turn these chairs from formal to funky!First off, you probably noticed the after shot does not feature the exact same chair, but as mentioned, the dining set in question contain chairs of the same era with slight variation.

This project requires slightly more DIY skills than I have (I’m a fan of the ‘near enough is good enough’ approach to measuring), but it shows what’s achievable with some know-how and a lot of creative thinking.The rocker is the work of Måns Salomonsen who took a one week challenge to give an old piece of furniture a new designer life.

With a little convincing, a close friend recently converted her tiny front room into a fabulous walk-in closet. Because of all the natural light it was also an ideal spot for a small vanity, but finding one the right size was nearly impossible. As luck would have it, an old side table and a little problem solving went a long way. See the perfectly pretty transformation here!The table was selected because of its diminutive scale, which was absolutely necessary in such a tight space.

There are so many bathrooms out there with colored tile that are aching for a makeover like this one. By choosing a contemporary paper pattern that complements the tile these homeowners were able to completely transform this space by only changing the walls, leaving the rest of the space untouched.I love the way that by simply adding wallpaper the tile goes from dated to intentional looking. As the homeowner describes: I love how it turned out.

So many of us have builder basic kitchens that have great bones but scream out for attention to make them more original. This makeover takes boring cabinets and personalizes them with paint. The kitchen is completely transformed with this one simple change.This kitchen required a lot of painting.

BEFOREOld doors can be used for many things, but what about using them as, well, a door? That’s what Adrienne of Dream Book Design did: she found a door on the side of the road (for free!) and, after a bit of sprucing, made it work to fit in her existing laundry room door frame. See the ‘After’ and how she did it below: AFTERAdrienne explains that the door they replaced was a generic particle board Home Depot door that lacked character.

There are 1,000 different ways to hack furniture from IKEA — although this transformation is so extreme you won’t even recognize it. This ho-hum piece has gone Mid-Century!Inspired by Mid-Century pieces from Paul McCobb, this basic IKEA entertainment stand was given a makeover.With the addition of sliding front panels and retro-style feet stained to match, this piece is anything but basic anymore.

This brass chandelier may have a lot of life left in it but it’s definitely a bit dated. Of course, that’s nothing a little paint and patience won’t fix!Reviving an old, dated piece is always the greenest option versus replacing it altogether. So I’m delighted to see that Diane, over at In My Own Style, was able to modernize this dated brass chandelier.

In keeping with my current obsession for budget makeovers big and small: this reading bench was $20 and in dire need of some TLC (apparently the cats loved the cushioning as much as its new owner). So with the meager investment of $10 for for a new mattress, some sewing leftovers and one afternoon, this reading bench was given a new home.