Photos & Tours

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?

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.

Apartment owner Amanda Mactas (@manhattantwist) is a voracious reader, and that’s clear in her design aesthetic, too. “I really like the feel of an old library, but I also love some elements of more modern style,” she says.The goal for her living room transformation was to marry the two, and she worked with professional designer Kim Limtak. “I never did anything at all in the living room,” Kim says.

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.

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 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.