Home Projects

Get ready to see a lot of plant action.

Because when it comes to choosing a wall color for your home, the sheer number of paint options can be daunting.

People often think of patio season as starting and ending with summer, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

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."

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.

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.

It even includes a plant propagation station!

The half-moon dowel is more or less having a moment.

Bye bye, golden wood cabinets!

Electrical fires are the third leading cause of home structure fires, according to The Electrical Safety Foundation International. But fortunately, there are a variety of preventative measures you can take to help ensure that one doesn’t happen to you.

Every entryway needs these three things: a mirror, a dish for keys, and something pretty to motivate you on the way out the door (or welcome you home). See how they all come together!

It's becoming chillier outside, which means it's officially the season for cozy nights in, pumpkin-flavored recipes (if that's basic, so be it!) , and, of course, candles.

Yes, it's totally possible!

A firepit isn't like other yard goals (a new deck, a hot tub, a perimeter full of privacy-lending trees), because all you need to add one is a tiny yard and a little motivation.

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.

Your entryway is the first area that guests see when they walk into your home, so it's only natural that you want it to look welcoming, at the very least. But shouldn't it go a step beyond that?

When Lucy and her husband bought their UK home four years ago, their sitting room and its Victorian fireplace were every shade of neutral.

A dark and dated back room is now an airy and bright master bedroom with gorgeous exposed ceiling joists.

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.

Alanna and her husband Jesse purchased their tiny, two-bedroom Melbourne cottage when they were in their early 20s. The kitchen hadn’t been updated since the 1980s and was so small, the couple couldn’t comfortably cook in there together at the same time.

Cali Gabrielle must be a magician, because she made an ugly old house turn into an absolutely stunning home.

Sarah Robertson has made a career out of designing kitchens—and she finally made one of her dreams.

Sure, they're a pretty way to store bottles of wine and cocktail mixer sets, but bar carts can also serve so many other purposes around the house.

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 it comes to kitchen design, there have really only been two options: cookie cutter IKEA or cost prohibitive custom—and not much in between. While the former is getting a lot nicer with the recent crop of third-party sellers creating design-forward cabinet fronts and various other elevated touches, the latter hasn’t seen much in the way of innovation or accessibility.

Remember Precious Moments dolls? Canadian artist Keith Busher is turning them on their heads—or, rather, transforming their heads.

The previous owner had lived in this old house for about 70 years and it required updating.

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!

IKEA's GLADOM tray—at only $20—is a strong contender for the newest classic piece to come from the brand.

At first glance, Nidia Serrano’s monochrome bathroom seemed like one we’d all love to come home to at the end of a busy day.

How do you design a living room when it has an uneven fireplace sitting oddly in the corner? Kristyn Jackson was baffled.

Galvanized stock tanks and troughs are essentially huge tubs which can be turned into or reused as any number of things. Depending on the context, they can read modern, industrial, or farmhouse. Learn all the ways you can hack them and create something spectacular and useful for your home. Bathroom Tubs: Jayme used a large round tank as a bathtub in her in warm and inviting modernist home in Philadelphia.

Curious to see what all the hype's about?

File the tip under “just because you see it on Pinterest doesn't mean it's a good idea.”

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.

"Nice bones." That's how Alison Caporimo and her wife described their New Jersey home the first time they walked through it.

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

While painter's tape promises clean lines, it can come with issues. And, of course, there’s the time requirement: It takes forever to apply.

When Becca and Tim first saw this home in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, the roof was damaged, there were five different types of tile in a 2,000 square foot area, and the whole home had suffered from neglect.

Here are nine useful or fun ways to use your food coloring and bring the rainbow to projects outside of the kitchen.

This three-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv used to be a neglected and gray apartment. You have to see it now!

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.

Paint is one of the easiest ways to transform your home. And while simply picking a new color and rolling it onto your walls will do the trick, sometimes you're looking for something a little more exciting. Thankfully, the 2020 IKEA catalog dropped this week, and it's full of great ideas for your next home project.

Pretty fabrics AND comfy armrests? Yes, please.

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.

Jenna Schreck is a holistic nutrition consultant and the blogger behind NO WHEY LADY. She currently lives in this bright San Francisco loft with her dog.

Chip and Joanna Gaines have spent four seasons helping Waco residents realize their shiplap-filled dreams, and you’d think by now they’d seen it all. On last week’s episode, though, they took on a whole new challenge—a houseboat. Even if you’re not a devoted Fixer Upper fan, trust us—you’ll want to see this transformation. The design duo started with a landlocked 1970s double-decker houseboat with a pontoon bottom.

It’ll solve tons of your small space problems.

The plush seats were once the height of cool home decor.

With back-to-school season quickly approaching, Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown worked with HomeGoods to give the generic space at his alma mater a Gen Z-appropriate makeover.

The truth is, an IKEA hack isn’t always worth your time and effort.

It took eight months for couple Catherine and Adam to completely renovate this 1935 Charleston house.

Vintage interior lighting can add sophistication to a space, making it look more expensive.

How to handle the lectures, study groups, social activities, and living arrangements.

Marble is a classic and timeless choice for countertops that’s versatile enough to look good in a wide variety of kitchens. But what about the cost and value? We regularly ask readers to share their experiences with various home projects. We hope this collective information proves helpful to anyone needing to get a basic sense of how much certain items cost, how much you can expect to pay for a service, or how long a project takes. How Much Did You Pay For Your Marble Countertops?

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 hallway-turned-home office makeover is great inspiration for anyone looking to carve out space to be creative and productive in an unlikely or unconventional spot.

Our experts sketch out the 12 things you must know before you paint your house.

Apartment Therapy readers are an amazingly helpful and knowledgeable group – over the years, they have stepped up and provided answers to all sorts of questions about how to do things around the house better, where the best sources are and, of course, what color to paint the walls of your (fill in the blank).

Time: 2 WeekendsCost: $120 This is one project that most (including ourselves) consider TOO HARD. Recovering a reading chair? Forget it. But NicoleMari’s patient, smart, inspiring instructions will soothe your nerves and give you confidence. NicoleMari submitted this project to our January Jumpstart Contest and tied for second place in her category (Thanks, Nicolemari!)… AFTERTell us the tools and resources you used for the project: I bought all my materials and notions at fabric.

If you’re moving into your first “grown up” place, you’ve probably been told time and time again that you just have to go to IKEA for affordable, functional furniture. While it’s no secret that we’re huge fans of the Swedish retailer—not to mention the countless hacks you can perform to glam up even its most basic pieces—the search for inexpensive furniture items doesn’t have to end there.

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.

Name: Dan Bailey Type of Project: Kitchen remodel Location: East Boston, Boston, Massachusetts Type of building: 2nd Floor Condo in a Greek-Revival Row House At times, it may have seemed like the Kitchen Renovation That Would Never End. In fact, Dan had the dubious honor of edging out Christine and Pierre for Longest Renovation Diary Project to Date — but through all the setbacks and pitfalls and I-had-no-idea-this-would-take-so-longs, Dan stayed strong.

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

These vintage fragrance-filled pops of color and pattern seriously deserve a comeback.

With the rising population of plant parents, it’s no surprise we’re finding Kokedama decorating on porches, chilling on coffee tables, and hanging in showers. Kokedama, roughly translated as “moss ball,” is a minimal form of Japanese gardening that perfectly balances the odd and the beautiful, elevating hanging plants into an art form. That art form happens to be perfect for your bathroom—in the shower, to be specific.