Furniture

When Tiffany found this chair she was immediately in love. What she didn’t love was the scratchy, ripped fabric covering it. As we all know, DIY upholstery projects can be daunting so Tiffany decided to leave the recovering to the professionals. To the auto body professionals, that is.Upon the recommendation from a friend, Tiffany, from the blog Living Green with Glamour, decided to take her old chair to a local auto repair shop to have it reupholstered.

Ikea markets the Gorm shelf as lowly secondary shelving for the pantry or garage. Well, take a look at this makeover, Ikea. We think this transformed Gorm belongs in the living room, office, or even a lucky kid’s room.After!Shauntelle from A Beautiful Abode snagged a $15 Gorm off Craigslist and with some silver spray paint, wood stain, and some boards, turned it into this amazing industrial chic shelf.

A few months back I busted out some fabric spray paint and painted a pretty chevron on my carpet. Although the looks are alright, there’s a new trend sweeping around the internet that will most likely yield better results. See that sofa up there? It’s about to get painted — with house paint.Over at Fabric Bliss a vintage sofa was purchased for the small price of $45. It had great bones but those flowers just had to go.

It takes a little imagination sometimes when you see a tired little piece like this at a garage sale or flea market. But Carrie at Fine & Handy had the vision and turned it into a sweet piece for her daughter:A little pink paint, new knobs for the sliding doors, and two adorable painted birds transform the old toy box. The end result is wonderful and makes us want to run out and scavenge for a unique piece of furniture like this one.For more on the before and after, head to Fine & Handy.

When Casey bought a condo in the Minneapolis loft building where he had been renting, he transferred his luxurious style to his new home. Luckily for us, he had the foresight to snap some before pics so we could witness the transformation …Casey’s Loft Life house tour was a highlight of my summer house tours last year. When I heard from Casey that he was moving to a new, larger unit in the same building, I was anxious to see how he would transfer his style to his new home.

Oh IKEA, where would our homes be without you? You offer us one product and the world turns it into 100 new designs and custom pieces for their home. This room is no different and this window area is about to go from drab to chalkboard fabulous!They’ve been busy getting organized at Repurposed Playground and although this transformation is similar to ones we’ve seen in the past, there are a few ideas to glean from this set-up that are perfect for any home.

This small wall isn’t an eyesore, but it’s just kind of “there”. It’s between the bedrooms of Kimba’s sons and she decided to make it not just a place to display their art, but a space for creating art too. Check it out:It’s nothing terribly tricky or time-consuming, but what an impact!Kimba painted thrifted and craft store frames to provide visual cohesion and filled them with her boys’ artwork.

When I moved into my brother, Matt’s newly purchased bungalow, I brought with me an heirloom farmhouse-style dining room table which just barely squeezed into the 9’x9′ dining space. Since the space exists in the corner of an open kitchen and living area, it was doable, but the traffic space was limited and storage non existent.

You’ve probably seen a lot of before and afters by now where you can sort of predict what the after might look like. A coat of paint or some new knobs might be what you’re expecting for this dresser.It’s a squid! You weren’t expecting that, were you? Well, maybe the title gave it away a little.

Of course safety comes first, but if you can combine safety with style, all the better. Lindsay wrote us to share a terrific solution her friend, Kate, Stone, came up with to keep her toddler out of the fireplace while adding to the decor instead of subtracting from it.A magnetic chalkboard – nice!! It’s not only leaps and bounds more attractive, but its become a functional playspace. See Kate’s toddler in action using it on Lindsay’s blog, Pink Green & Zebra.

We know there are plenty of good-looking hampers available for sale, but some of them have not so good-looking price tags. And, come on, it’s going to have my son’s dirty socks in it. Couldn’t I just figure out a way to jazz up his old plastic hamper?Sure! I love a challenge, and this is what I came up with. Silver spray paint (with a coat of plastic primer first) and a simple orange drawstring bag.

Ginger wanted to hand down her own childhood desk to her daughter Clara, but due to water damage and “the remnants of various stickers I put on there long ago (oops)” she needed to give it a refresh first. See how it looks now:Great job Ginger! We see desks like this all the time at flea markets and usually dismiss them as too dowdy, but bright paint totally modernizes the look.

You may be looking at this thinking, “I have that exact same stroller at home.” While yours is also likely pink (the non-pink doll stroller is akin to the Holy Grail), you’re probably referring to the state of disrepair this one is in. From how quickly they fall apart, you’d think these kids were pushing around bowling balls not little baby dolls.

Heidi is a hoarder. She doesn’t have dusty stacks of newspapers lying around or dozens of cats, she hoards her son’s artwork. And who can blame her! Determined to display his cute scribblings and paintings, she strung a small line of rope and hung his artwork with clothespins. Finding this inadequate, she took a tip from another blogger and went big. Really big. Find out what humble material has solved her problem:Yep, chicken wire!

This family may not have a big entryway but they have a wide staircase which they turned into a mudroom of sorts with tons of storage for every family member. See how great it looks now:Even seeing other people get organized makes me feel good. I imagine these cubbies will fill up a lot more over time and not look quite as pretty, but what a great way to maximize this space along the stairs.

So much of the successful end result of design projects depends on the ability to take risks and think “outside the box” when in the planning stages. Being able to consider the idea of making one big shift opens up many possibilities. This was the case with the story of the redesign of the entrance and facade single family home in Chicago…… featured in the current issue of Chicago Home + Garden.

What happens when water invades your living room and you have to take the carpet out? Well in this case you do great things while staying within a budget. Curious to see what this boring concrete floor looks like now?Over at the blog TwentysixFiftyeight there’s been some serious transformations happening. After having to remove the carpet in their home due to some unforeseen water issues, Merritt and Cris were left with a slightly uneven, yes solid concrete slab.

I recently had the idea to replace the photographs which hung above my couch with several images from one of my favorite picture books, Caps for Sale. Five dollars for the book, a few cuts with an X-ACTO, and I have six beautiful images that add new life to the room.Since I already had the frames, this was a very cheap and easy way to do a quick change to the room.

Do you tend to bring home project pieces from the thrift shop simply because you can’t pass up a good deal? We must be related. I adopt pieces of furniture even if I don’t have space for them. When I saw this unloved little ottoman, I knew I had to bring it home. See how this ottoman went from sad to glad after the jump!A close-up of the ottoman before it’s overhaul.Supplies:1 Old Ottoman-$151 Can of Spray Primer-$2.991 Can of Sunburst Yellow Spray Paint -$3.

Jarret and Catherine of Bungalow Bungahigh had a classic renovation story play out when rehabbing the kitchen in their Chicago home. What could go wrong, did, and the job took much longer than initially expected. But, I’m sure you’ll agree the results are worth it — just check out the after:Here’s the story from Jarrett and Catherine: We bought our 1931 Chicago bungalow knowing that we’d have to do one major renovation project: the kitchen!

In cities that have an IKEA, their furniture is found in many homes. While there’s nothing wrong with this affordable option, that doesn’t mean your pieces have to look like those everywhere else in your city. Check out what these BESTA cabinets after Kris was through with them! Kristina Klarin isn’t one for plain and boring. She is all about making a splash with color and these cabinets were slightly lack luster before she got a hold of them.

Making over an area like the bathroom can seem like a small project. At first it feels as though only a few things will need refreshing or changing out — but often once things get started it seems as though everything must go. In this bathroom highlighted on This Old House, everything received a makeover from hardware and fixtures to lighting and paint — all for $439!

Peter and Molly’s light-flooded West Village studio was perfect for the two of them plus Hugo, their dog. But when they were preparing for a new baby, they successfully reorganized the space and added a sliding door, creating a comfortable and calm one-bedroom. Initially, Peter and Molly used the larger area for their bed, a comfy chair and storage.

Jarrett and Catherine of Bungalow Bungahigh have tackled DIY projects that make mere mortals shy away, like rehabbing an outdated basement bathroom on a super tight budget. They got creative with their choice of materials and were able to get a whole new look for under $200 – $158 to be exact……and the After!Here is what Jarrett and Catherine tell us about the project: We recently rehabbed our tired basement bathroom.

When I was growing up, this glass door bookcase lived in the home of an elderly neighbor housing a collection of beautiful hardcover books. My sister and I always considered Miss Matthews a surrogate grandmother, and I was delighted to inherit this and some other furniture pieces when she passed away a few years ago. Though this bookcase wouldn’t work in my library, I knew it would be perfect to house my DVD collection.

I have always dreamt of having a “couple’s desk”. However, every apartment we’ve had hasn’t given us the proper space for this to happen. Luckily, for Valentine’s Day my guy surprised me with a rearranged space and enough room for my dream double desk to finally happen!In the before photo above, you can see our original desk. It housed his cluttered workstation and was large — but not large enough for two people.

With some white paint, elbow grease, and a few affordable accessories, Noreen and David turned a barely-used storage area in their 180-year-old Florida home into a peaceful and comfortable guest room.When I was visiting my parents Florida home earlier this month, I was so thrilled to see that they were transforming an old storage area at the back of the house into a guest room – and they didn’t even know it was Home Project month here at Apartment Therapy!

We moved into our home four years ago in a flurry of MA thesis writing and job changes. When we had time, we worked on decorating the bedrooms, living room, and dining area — but we pretty much ignored the loft space at the top of the stairs. We eventually bought a rug and our friend Karen kindly built us pine shelves while staying as a houseguest. Sadly, that was about it until last year, when our home office moved there to make way for a nursery.

Whit and Rachael Gardner of Our Mid Century are savvy stylists, whether we are about talking vintage or contemporary furnishings— the post that they shared with us for Home Project month proves it. When the search for an affordable mid century sofa kept coming up dry, they did a complete makeover of an affordable IKEA basic to help it fit in smoothly with their vintage style home. The “after” looks like a totally different sofa!…and the After!

When I moved into my apartment, the built-in cabinet in my bedroom was shoddily painted in yellow and blue with brown “accents.” To make matters worse, there were so many layers of paint that the hinges didn’t work well.Basically, I spent several hours over two weeks chipping away at the old paint — a process I found surprisingly satisfying. Beneath the yellow, blue, and brown, I found pink, gray, and lime green.

Unless you drop your china and it shatters into a million pieces (which is usually my luck), it probably only suffered a small crack from a fall or mishap. Instead of just waiting for the day it inevitably breaks for good, try giving it a milk bath. Yup, your china is getting a day at the spa!Curious about how it works? The idea is simple. You place your cracked piece in a pot and cover it with two cups of milk (or more if needed). Next, heat over low for an hour.

Ashley sent in the results of her just-completed upholstery project &mdash and it’s crazy! This afternoon I re-covered a set of four dining room chairs that my husband and I received from his GREAT grandmother, all the way across the Atlantic from Bermuda. It’s a lovely set — but the fabric in which they arrived was dirtied and dingy and was in desperate need of a change.

If you were following tech news yesterday, you likely noticed a few notable announcements on the tablet front, with announcements of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Toshiba Folio 100 widening the available options in the growing handheld computing category. But with all these models available and without the opportunity to hold them in your hand, how do you know which size is best for you?

After seeing Jeanine’s post on Desks and Furniture Designed From Plumbing Pipes, we thought we’d share a DIY we did a few years ago. For some reason, we decided to build our own bed. Out of pipes. We’ve used it every night for four years, and it still looks pretty good. Detailed plan follows.We found the project in Country Home magazine and since it’s not online, we scanned in our tattered page from the magazine.

If you need a shot of color in your home, painted furniture is always an option. We rounded up a selection of solid wood furniture from IKEA that could be dressed up with a coat or two. Some of these are unfinished, and some have a clear lacquer coat that just needs some light sanding before you prime it…Top Photo: Left to Right, Top to Bottom:• Rast 3 Drawer Chest, $39.99• Mackis Magazine File, $7.99• Stranda 4 Drawer Chest, $149• Fira Mini Chest with Drawers, $12.