cost
$3,000 (including new furniture and accessories)
time
1 (long) weekend
difficulty
★★★★
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We’ve all dealt with awkward room layouts before, and designer Jason Martin’s guest bedroom in Los Angeles was no different. Determined to overcome the room’s less-than-desirable layout, Jason placed his desk at the end of the bed so he could make the most of the space and have the room do double duty as guest bedroom and office. To bring color to the room, Jason covered the back wall with inexpensive curtains from Ikea. To finish the look he added furniture from his own design studio, Jason Martin Designs, and inexpensive accessories from Crate and Barrel that matched the room’s palette of warm browns.
cost
$40 plus wallpaper ($7 per square foot)
time
8 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Like many of our homes, Design*Sponge editor Amy Merrick’s apartment doesn’t get as much light as she would like. Looking to create an urban oasis reminiscent of the flowers surrounding her at Brooklyn floral studio Saipua (where she works), Amy decided to center her office makeover around a reproduction C. F. A. Voysey wallpaper pattern. Originally created in 1926 and now produced by Trustworth Studios in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Apothecary’s Garden wallpaper Amy chose fills her office with playful images of flowers, birds, and insects. While she may not have a garden in her backyard, Amy comes home to one in her office every day.
cost
$80
time
1 day
difficulty
★★★★
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Few patterns give the look and feel of freshness quite like a good stripe. This bench makeover from Diana van Helvoort utilizes a bold striped pattern to give an old bench a new look. As the owner of a ribbon and crafts shop in Munich, Diana has an eye for great design, and knew that this bench, left on the side of the road, had the type of good construction that would never feel outdated. After hauling it home, Diana sanded the bench, primed it, and gave it a coat of bright white paint. Once the paint dried, she covered the seat and back in a colorful striped fabric and added grosgrain ribbons from her shop for extra detail.
cost
$600 (for hutch and supplies)
time
2 weekends
difficulty
★★★★
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Sometimes it doesn’t take much to transform the old into the new. Barb Blair, owner of Knack Studio in Greenville, South Carolina, understood this concept when she transformed a worn hutch into a sleek new piece with a coat of Ebony paint by Ralph Lauren, and fresh new hardware. “All it took was a few small changes—like removing the gaudy hardware and replacing it with something more sophisticated—to bring this piece into the modern day, and hopefully into a new home.”
cost
$200
time
4 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Though I’ve shown my home on Design*Sponge before, I’ve always managed to cleverly leave out one part of the apartment: my closet. With our limited amount of space it had sadly become a stash-everything-and-run spot where shoes, clothing, office supplies, and crafting materials were piled up when company came. Determined to turn my closet into a tiny jewel box of color and pattern rather than a dark hole for clutter and trash, I used a roll of Whoot, from Trustworth Wallpaper, to cover not only the door and walls, but the clothes bar as well. Treating the closet like an extension of my personal space—and less like a place to hide clutter—made me more careful about what I kept inside and how I chose to store it. Now, rather than throwing myself up against the closed door when guests come, I open the door proudly and show them my tiny woodland-themed closet.
cost
$55
time
4 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Artist Lucinda Henry of Shakti Space Designs in Portland, Oregon, decided to get her blog audience involved in her makeover project by taking a vote on which finish she would use. When the polls had closed, the voters favored using Kittrich Walnut Woodgrain contact paper as the final decoration. After painting the body of the dresser white, Lucinda designed a floral pattern and cut each flower shape from the woodgrain contact paper, applying it to the front of the dresser. The stick-and-peel contact paper gives the illusion that a luxe dark wood is peeking out from underneath—but it’s really just an everyday cabinet.
cost
$650 (including dresser and supplies)
time
9 hours
difficulty
★★★★
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Decorative paper can be one of the most affordable—and fun—ways to update an old piece of furniture. Barb Blair of Knack Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, used a vibrant floral paper from Papaya to update the panels on this dresser, after painting the frame with a peachy milk paint finish. If a full paint job isn’t in the cards for your furniture, consider an update like Barb’s using gift wrap, colored stationery, or wallpaper—you can buy small sizes and keep your budget low, but still give your furniture a high-end, decorative look.
