Every time I get an email from Tara Mangini and Percy Bright of Jersey Ice Cream Co., my heart skips a little beat because I know it’s going to be something good. The couple runs a vintage shop and design business here in Brooklyn where they do custom work, carpentry, wall finishes, etc. Last summer…
When lighting designer Sophie and her husband moved from Sydney to a small farmer’s cottage in Wagga Wagga, Australia, the last thing they expected was that their new home would become totally uninhabitable within just five weeks. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened when, in early 2012, flooding ravaged the New South Wales region of Australia. Along…
I love camping. By which I mean, I love the idea of camping. It isn’t an activity I’ve engaged in for about a decade, and I have no imminent plans to take it back up. But there are so many things about it that are appealing, at least conceptually: cute little canvas tents, a crackling…
When I was in the midst of my second apartment hunt in Manhattan, I had a good idea of what to expect. I’d traipse through a couple dozen apartments, and in each I’d shed a little tear over some kind of obvious, aggressive renovation work that had rendered the unit short on prewar charm and…
Living in an old apartment building and populating my life mostly with vintage stuff that’s seen better days, it’s easy to become a bitter person. Resentful, even. Living this way means that I am in the constant company of ghosts of bad decisions past — of tenants and owners and of several landlords whose interests…
To continue with our New Year, New Start theme, I invited my furniture makeover guru, Daniel from Manhattan Nest, to join us. Daniel is my go-to guy for home renovation and furniture salvaging advice and knows more than anyone about how to turn something scary into something absolutely loveable. He’ll be joining us all this…
For the past five years, Design*Sponge has been all about makeovers. Every week we’ve chosen our favorite reader-submitted makeovers and posted their photos. We’ve seen everything from side tables and floors to cabinets and outdoor spaces go from boring to beautiful. Rather than plowing forward with the same old same old, I thought the New Year…
I’ve really been enjoying Max’s dorm DIY posts; they serve as an excellent reminder that even if you have a small, single room, you can still transform it with creativity and make it a completely different environment. This Before & After project was based on exactly that task: Take a single room and make it…
The holiday break is almost upon us, and I am ashamed to admit this, but I have been so busy with work and battling a cold that I have yet to hang a single ornament or bulb. My only consolation is that, thanks to this Before & After Holiday Contest, I’ve been able to vicariously…
Over the years, we have featured a few sophisticated and modern nurseries that I would happily live in myself, and today’s project is no exception. When redesigning this small room for her newborn son, Anna Weaver decided to choose a rich, dark navy for the walls and bring in plenty of warm, bright colors for…
When a home is so beautiful to begin with, such as this large-scale period house in Cognac, France, it can be hard to envision the right way to renovate. Deterioration and decay can be quite beautiful, especially in photographs, and we often wonder why anyone would want to remove them, but living in a decrepit…
I’ve never lived with a bathroom that has basin sinks, but it’s a look that I’ve always loved. I’m thrilled to share this bathroom renovation from Charlotte Turtle, as it features a unique take on the basin sink: two large painted ceramic bowls that sit atop a rustic barn-wood surface. Sometimes basin sinks can look…
This is an exciting bedroom makeover for me. You know I love a good DIY project, and there are almost too many homemade solutions in this room to count! To keep costs low and achieve the look she envisioned for the space, interior designer Shannon Kaye made many of the elements herself: She painted the…
I think a lot of us share a dream of buying and fixing up a little cabin in the woods, but I’m sure that if that dream became a reality, the process of renovating a full home would not be without its stresses or struggles. Long before I pursue such an undertaking, I want plenty…
As a relatively indecisive person, gut renovations terrify me. It takes me so long to settle on one throw pillow or floor lamp that I doubt I would make it past the first stage of planning an intensive project like this full-home renovation from designer Jayme Guokas. From top to bottom, Jayme scraped down and…
One of the best vacation experiences of my life was the time my family and I stayed in San Luis Obispo at a beautiful inn called the Sanitarium. Anyone who has spoken to me for about five minutes has almost certainly heard about my love of steam showers — it’s one of those odd obsessions…
It is the day of nooks! Earlier today, we posted Lora’s cozy and ethereal window nook, and now we’re ending with a gorgeous bedroom alcove from interior designer Angela Robinson. Angela had the ingenious idea to utilize the room’s angles and wrap a bold wallpaper from wall to ceiling to wall, creating a dreamy undersea effect…
In every house, there are the main rooms (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, etc.), and then there are the secondary spaces — those little hallways, nooks, closets and crannies. These spaces are wonderful, and they certainly make a home unique, but figuring out how to use them to their full potential can be challenging. I love Before &…
I’ve been dreaming of renovating a full home for a long time, and I would hope that when I do get the chance to do this, I would make smart decisions like art director and designer Beth Chapleau has done here. To keep her budget in check, Beth decided to transform some of the existing…
Like the ground outside or the very principles of gravity, a floor is something we often take for granted. It’s solid, flat (hopefully), and covers the whole room…that’s pretty much all we need from it right? But after seeing countless home tours and renovations, it’s clear that floors are a huge part of what determines…
