Room-by-room transformations, before, after, and everything in between. · 11 posts
Four years of 1990s polished-gold lanterns nobody saw until a phone photo at dusk. Two black fixtures at the front door, two brass at the back, one afternoon, under $300, and the house looked decided.
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One medicine cabinet, one drawer, one cabinet under the sink, then a child. Three cabinets with doors and matching hardware, and the counter has stayed clear for a year.
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Removing the uppers on one wall cost $400 and opened the kitchen the same afternoon. The honest part: 30 percent of the time the shelves look like a garage. Here's the rule that got it to 70.
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A marble table with no storage, covered in remotes, chargers and blankets for three years. An oak table with two drawers and a shelf, and the surface has stayed clear for eight months because everything has a home.
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The character ceiling light was $40 less and would have been replaced at seven. The plain one on a dimmer will last until she picks her own at fifteen. Three settings, one fixture, and a clip-on she controls.
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Eighteen-inch nightstands and a lamp base I knocked every night reaching for the phone. Plug-in sconces, an hour for both sides, ten months: sconces win for most bedrooms, and here's when they don't.
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I bought expensive sheets and the bed still didn't look like a hotel's. The linens were a red herring; the formula and the technique are free, and the throw fold takes fifteen seconds.
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The entryway is the first impression of your whole home. Here's how to light it properly.
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Checkerboard samples on the floor for a week and a nine-year-old asking about a milkshake machine. The proportion, the materials, the light, and the wood that keep black and white from going cold.
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Bare bulb, builder white, wire shelving from 1987, a floor drain I ignored for four years. Three weekends and $1,280 later it's where I go to listen to podcasts.
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