Kitchen Home Projects

We’ve seen the transformational power of paint here at Apartment Therapy many, many times. And yet I am still awed when I see that, with a little paint on the cabinetry, an entire kitchen can be transformed …Kimberly, over at Restoration House, has slowly been rehabbing her kitchen over the past five years. She had already added a backsplash, switched out the countertop, and traded out the old appliances for new stainless steel units.

Faced with two sets of mismatched cabinets in her otherwise dreamy kitchen, Alana decided to paint the lower deck of cabinetry to complement the upper deck. After a lengthy color selection process, Alana dived into the project and the results are gorgeous!The upper deck cabinets in Alana’s kitchen are the vintage windowpane variety that were original to her bungalow — but the lower cabinets are all new.

Late last year, Edgaroso shared his “Brave Bathroom Renovation” with Apartment Therapy. Well, he’s back with another room makeover in the small home he inherited from his grandmother — this time he tackled the sweetly retro kitchen on a truly miniscule budget.

We can install our own surround sound and hack wires to do what we need, but somehow, the microwave still eludes us. Yes, our microwave has a “beverage” button. No, we don’t know exactly what it does. Instead of living life in the dark, we wanted to find out exactly what all those crazy microwave settings are designed to do.If you’re equally confused by your own microwave, the first step is going to be reading the manual.

Life lessons happen less frequently as you get older. After years of getting to know the ins and outs of the world, you find you’re a pro at life—navigating your once-foreign city with ease and troubleshooting the office coffee maker. Yeah, yeah. But you’re probably still loading the dishwasher wrong. Sorry. Don’t feel bad. There’s a reason these are 8 common dishwasher mistakes.

One of our tips for “How to Know When to Replace Your Dishwasher” was to check that your dishwasher is draining properly by looking out for water leftover after it runs a cycle. But the truth is, not all standing water is a bad sign. After a few awesome commenters asked about their own water woes, we’re here to help set the record straight.How much water should there be?Anywhere around 1 cup of water leftover after a cycle is normal.

Our Homies winner in the Kids at Home category, Meg of Whatever posted Before & After images of her kitchen remodel — and it’s a total transformation.The massive makeover took 3 months and involved tearing down a wall to transform a porch into an expanded family area of the new kitchen.You can see more pictures of the process Whatever | Before and After and see a great list of FAQ and resources from Meg in a follow up post Whatever | Questions.

Let’s just say the kitchen was not what attracted us to our new home. Country rooster decor was in abundance and so were peeling vinyl floor tiles, 80s lace valances, and honey-stained cabinetry — not exactly our dream kitchen. However, coming out of grad school, we weren’t really in a position for a total dream kitchen remodel, so we prioritized our list of essential updates, enlisted a handyman friend, and went to work…FIRST ROW• 1 Before & After views.