Home Projects

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.

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."

Rant over.

Sometimes living small means paying up.

Some crafty renovation moves and other tricks that'll make a tiny shower or tub seem double its size.

Here are the moments when these eight designers knew their environments had leveled up.

If you think you have termites, don’t skip straight to burning down your house for the insurance money. Take these steps before resorting to fire.

Not to mention balanced.

It's going, going, but not quite gone.

You don’t need to be a D.I.Y. pro or color expert to know that picking a paint hue is easier said than done. With dozens of brands and ever-so-slightly nuanced shades to choose from, the whole process can be confusing, time-consuming, and headache-inducing. But even if you know all the questions to ask yourself when narrowing down your paint chips, you might forget to factor in the finish. Deciding between matte and gloss may seem like an afterthought, but in reality?

Start with trendy rattan to make these eight DIY creations that will look way-too-perfect in your summertime, beach-inspired decor.

Think your decorating work is done? There’s a spot you may very well be missing—your interior doors.

It is really very simple to hang curtains across a room or a doorway if you have the right ingredients. We do it constantly in order to divide rooms or create soft walls that allow light to pass through, while maintaining privacy.The pic at top is from an apartment we did for HGTV last year. You can see the one room studio is divided by long curtains that came from Anthropology.

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.

Leather furniture can last for decades if properly taken care of. Prolong the life of your piece by using this simple, all-natural leather conditioner. Vinegar Linseed oil Essential oil (optional) Jar with a lid or spray bottle Microfiber cloth Wipe down your furniture to be sure it is dust-free in preparation for the conditioning treatment. 2. Mix 1 part vinegar with 2 parts linseed oil in a jar with a lid. Close the lid and shake vigorously.

We’ve all experienced it at one point: fruit flies, first a few then an infestation surrounding your fruit bowl. They’re pesky little critters, but we’ve found the best way to rid your kitchen of them. Here are our quick instructions for making a fruit fly trap with just a few simple materials. Vinegar, fruit or wine (apple cider vinegar works especially well) Glass or jar Sheet of paper Tape Find a suitable glass or jar.

IKEA says: Whether for a walk-in wardrobe, hallway solution or a business, ELVARLI storage system provides open storage that’s easy to get just right, while looking nice. ELVARLI storage system is the result of some innovative development at IKEA to create flexible, beautiful and lightweight storage. ELVARLI storage system is elegantly designed with attention to small details like seamless joints and invisible fittings.

IKEA’s description: The herringbone pattern has a beautifully pleasing geometry to the eye. In BARKABODA countertop the pattern in dark brown wood adds true elegance to the kitchen. The countertop is made durable with a layer of solid wood that covers a particleboard core. This technique not only gives a genuine expression of solid wood, but is a good environmental choice as it’s resource-efficient.

Years ago when I decided to paint the floors in my small summer house, most people were shocked (including my parents). Bare wood floors were so chic and such a staple of 90’s style, that painting them over and covering them up seemed sacrilegious. I didn’t think so anymore. See how they turned out… The floors were cheap, solid oak floors, in great need of refinishing.

Lemon balm can struggle indoors, but with enough attention it will thrive. Follow these dos and don'ts to start your indoor herb garden.

Kristin’s The Amazing Staircase is not only one of our favourite AT posts of all time, it’s a glowing example of utilizing limited space efficiently. Staircases are often overlooked for their storage space potential, but the interior architecture feature can often be converted by using the space ontop, inside, under or over the stairs themselves.

Grilling is one of the great joys of summer. If you live in an apartment with an especially small outdoor space — or none at all — you may be worried that this particular joy is denied to you, but never fear. Below you will find our absolutely biggest roundup – 17! – of grills big and small, portable and iconic, but ALL charcoal (or wood). Enjoy and tell us your faves. This is our reader favorite.

Bedside storage is a must-have in any bedroom. But what to do when you don’t have the space—or budget—for a brand new nightstand? Fret not friends; we did some digging and it turns out there are several alternatives to traditional bedside tables that still offer more than enough room for all of your nighttime essentials. From compact consoles to small side tables and more, here are six bedside storage solutions that aren’t actually nightstands.

This clever pair shares budget-friendly, out-of-the-box projects that even DIY-newcomers can complete with ease.

In my neighborhood, it’s common for residents to set out piles of unwanted items with friendly “free” signs, meaning that you never know when you’ll head out for a walk or to run an errand and come back with something interesting and useful. After seeing these amazing luggage transformations, I’m majorly hoping that one of my neighbors will toss an unneeded suitcase or two to the curb. Looking to work some DIY magic of your own?

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.

The year was 1995, and there was a ficus tree that lived in the corner of our living room, beside the couch. The tree had a wicker basket over the base with shredded moss covering the soil. The leaves were a deep green, splattered with soft yellow variegation. My mom never watered it, but it never died. I thought, at the ripe age of six, that if I did not touch the tree as my mom demanded, it would grant me a wish. Unfortunately, the ficus was not a magical fairytale tree.

Sometimes you see something you just need in your space, no matter what. You know there will be a downside, but it’s just too perfect. For me, it was the window-style fixed shower panels. I started seeing this look last summer when we were renovating the bizarre and so-ugly bathroom in our Victorian home. Honestly, anything was an upgrade from the teeny, low-ceilinged, stained-beyond-all-hope stall shower that came with the house that I might have just gone with the first shower I saw.

Emily Henderson’s editorial director, Arlyn Hernandez, just revealed her “Bright and Happy” (rental) living room Makeover Takeover over on the site, and it’s packed with design inspiration and great advice for renters and homeowners alike. The living room “before” was so relatable: quality pieces that didn’t fit the new living space.

These Instagram accounts sell vintage or refurbished furniture and many ship to buyers across the United States.

The enclosed porch on Ashley‘s 1905 home did not live up to expectations: a low ceiling and burgundy walls and floors turned the space into a “sad little box,” she says. “It felt disconnected from the rest of the house,” especially after doing extensive renovations. “I know how much some updates would transform this room,” she says. So over the course of six weeks, she transformed this dark and dreary porch into a pastel, botanical laundry room.

The blinds in my room? Sure, I hung them. The shelves in the kitchen? Of course I put those up. The gallery wall in the hallway? Yes, that was definitely my doing.(Lies!)My dad thinks I did all of this handiwork with the power drill he bought me, but I can’t bear to tell him that I actually have no idea how to use the thing. I’ve been hiring people for years to hang things in my apartment while the power drill collects dust somewhere under my bed.

We have looked into framing many an odd sized image, and more often than not a custom framing job really breaks the bank. Here is a little tutorial on “custom” framing your own images for far less than a professional framer. standard frame, larger than your image paint (if desired) custom cut mat acid-free artist’s tape acid-free paper 1. Select and paint your frame. We chose a frame in raw wood (saved a few bucks there) and opted to paint it matte green with acrylic paint.

Every well-run home is teeming with tricks and shortcuts to keep it humming along. We’re sharing our best quick tips — for cleaning, organizing and repairing stuff at home — to save you time and money. Click through for today’s helpful hint, and links to tons more… Use a WALNUT! Just rub a shelled walnut on the damaged area, and watch in amazement as the dings, scrapes and scratches all begin to darken and disappear.

See this "coffin of a kitchen" open up.

There’s nothing better than cooking with something you’ve grown and harvested with your own hands. But not everyone is blessed with the space for a vegetable garden or even a vertical garden on a balcony or terrace. That’s okay! You can still pretend to be Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated and harvest the heck out of a window full of herbs in your kitchen.  Here’s how.Some herbs thrive indoors, and some don’t.

On their own, the colors beige and gray aren’t especially groundbreaking. But combine them and bam—you’ve got a color that’s as versatile as your basic neutral, but miles more nuanced. Greige, a warmed-up gray, adds serious depth to a room and makes a great backdrop, no matter whether your style is traditional, modern, or somewhere in-between.

Even if you're dealing with a very small laundry space, there are ways you can fit in all the functionality of a much larger room. All it takes is a little ingenuity.

It’s a simple truth: The eye tires of seeing the same thing over and over. That’s why trends come and go—first, a detail, color, shape, or form feels fresh and new because you’ve never seen it before. Then you’re seeing it at the mall and your aunt’s house, and finally, like with skinny jeans, you’re just… done. It’s a natural evolution, sure.

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.

What’s cooler than an exposed brick wall? An exposed, weathered, white brick wall!If you’ve been pining for that distressed, vintage look, read on—and don’t fret. It’s totally DIY-able and costs next to nothing… as long as you’ve got plenty of time. When my husband and I uncovered the original brick in the apartment over the former stable behind our Victorian, I knew I wanted to go with a random, weathered white look for our newest Airbnb.

If I admire one home design advancement, it just might be the advent of soft-close. You never realize how annoying slamming toilet lids and cabinet doors are until you experience the calm relief of closing those things quietly. This invention is so ubiquitous now that you can even get refrigerators with soft-close drawers—which, frankly, is a little gimmicky… but I still like mine.What if you have cabinets that date back to the time before this common upgrade?

Maybe you need a power snake to clear your drains after a heavy rain. Or a weed whacker in early spring. There’s always that one tool you need desperately for one job, but it isn’t anything you’d really want to buy—or worse, store. If you’re lucky, you know someone who knows someone who might lend you a tool for a weekend. But in our wondrous sharing economy, there’s another solution: tool libraries.

It’s hard to resist the siren call of exposing hidden brick. When you know it’s tucked away under drywall or plaster, just begging to make a big statement, you’ve just got to do it… right?It sounds so easy when you tell friends your plans: “Yeah, we’ll just tear out the plaster and expose the brick. It’ll be amazing.” And if it were a TV show and you could fast forward to the finished product, it would totally be amazing.

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.

Ah, Reddit. You can always be trusted for unfiltered opinions (and a lot of snark). When Redditor tomandjerry0 posted a question about the home trends we’ll regret in 20 years in the ever-popular r/HomeImprovement subreddit, some 2,400 posts came in fast and furious. Setting aside the topic of PEX, some consistent themes and hot topics emerged. (Shiplap, for one, still had enough defenders that it didn’t quite make the list).Another DIY that should be a DIY-don’t?

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.