The Latest

Vinyl aside, these chairs had a certain je nais se quoi. Stephanie snatched them up from the salvage yard and gave them a loving and era-appropriate upgrade. From Stephanie: These Australian-made mid-century chairs came from the salvage yard at our local landfill. The colors and finishes are different, but I noticed their matching frames under the worn vinyl and busted lacquer finish. Both also had a pivoting metal under frame – so they weren’t just regular armchairs, but recliners!

Bathroom renovations are one of those projects that are easy to keep putting off, until you come up against a real, hard deadline. For Jenna and her husband, who had lived with the less-than-ideal bathrooms and kitchen in their Chelsea apartment, that deadline came in the form of a very small person. A few months before their baby was born, they decided it was time to bite the bullet and overhaul their kitchen and bathrooms.

Kristina and her boyfriend triumphed over one of the most trying of relationship milestones: their first renovation. Kristina points out an important truth about renovations, that even if you’re not working on your forever home, the time and energy that goes into getting a place ready to flip is still monumental. After multiple trips to Home Depot, disagreements and disappointments, and a moment of buyer’s remorse, Kristina and her boyfriend now have a bathroom they can be proud of.

Penelope and Andrew’s outdated kitchen needed a boost. Well, not just a boost. A whole new extension and then a boost. After paying the high price of living through a kitchen reno with a toddler, they were handsomely rewarded with a gorgeous kitchen chock full of brand new functionality. From Penelope: We wanted a bigger and more useful kitchen. I’m an architect so I couldn’t help but see the potential a small addition to the house could provide — a larger kitchen!

Nick found himself with the familiar small space dilemma of moving to a new spot and needing more storage. He decided to give his plain IKEA bookshelf an EPIC makeover, turning it into a high glam, conversation-starting storage piece. From Nick: A couple of years ago, my boyfriend and I lived in Queens, where we had enough room for a studio for my graphic design work. This bookcase used to live there and worked perfectly as is.

When your bedroom is too small to even fit a nightstand, this homemade ledge for your bedside wall is the next best alternative. Constructed from the parts of two $4 BEKVAM spice racks, this little shelf is perfectly sized for holding a glass of water, your phone and a pendant lamp—so everything you need is right within reach.

Madeleine needed both storage and a sleeping option in her small mountain bedroom. She figured that a captain’s bed would solve both dilemmas and after getting super lucky on Craigslist, set about making her find a little more visually pleasing. From Madeleine: When we bought a tiny (600-square-foot) condo in the mountains, we needed to furnish it efficiently both in terms of space and cost.

See how a creative couple transformed a wood-paneled basement into a warm and cozy library you'd want to curl up in.

Sometimes, when you’re dealing with a little space, all it takes is a small change to make a big difference. When Lauren bought her Brooklyn Heights studio, it had just one small closet in the bed nook — but there was a large home office in the living room. The bed rested on a platform with storage underneath, but the storage underneath was only accessible from a trapdoor directly underneath the bed (and who wants to move the whole bed to get to their seasonal storage?).

Spring has (maybe? hopefully!) sprung and now is the time to get outdoors. Natalie and her boyfriend recently moved in together and found themselves with a spare table that was a little worse for wear. Rather than toss it and buy all new deck furniture, they had the bright idea to give what they had a colorful upgrade and now they have a lovely outdoor space without breaking the bank. This old table had been in storage and was showing its age- stained, chipped and scratched.