17 Dramatic Before-and-After Reveals From This Year’s REAL SIMPLE Home

It’s our seventh annual ideas home and it’s our biggest and best yet! It started with a near-total renovation, as we worked with developer Adam Dahill and architect Alexandra Burr of AlexAllen Studio to reimagine the 1890s brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. We tore down walls, replaced windows, redid plumbing and electrical, and restored original woodwork. When all that messy stuff was done, we called in some of our favorite interior designers to do the fun part (read: the decorating). The entire project took months and, honestly, we weren’t entirely sure we’d finish in time. Some of these “before” photos were taken just days before the photoshoot for the October issue of the magazine. But as you can see, it did indeed get done! Keep scrolling to take a look at the oh-so-impressive before-and-after photos. And if you’re a local and want to come tour the space IRL, you can buy tickets here.

Center Room

Look closely and you’ll realize this is the exact same room. A wall blocked off the gorgeous staircase leading to the second floor, so Adam took it down and reworked the first section of steps—opening up the room and giving the gorgeous woodwork a chance to shine. Now it’s a sophisticated lounge designed by the Brownstone Boys and covered in botanical wallpaper. It’s got a fainting couch and everything!

Living Room

This living space was already nice and bright, thanks to the windows and vintage mirrored console that reflects natural light. The Brownstone Boys leaned into the antique woodwork and added subtle, similarly hued pinks and reds. 

Dining Room

The home’s bay windows count as one of its most stunning features (never mind that gorgeous stained glass!). With the floors and wood trim refinished, the Brownstone Boys added a neutral dining table and cane-backed chairs to make a nook that’s bound to be a hangout space.

Kitchen

It’s a dream kitchen now, but it didn’t start out that way! Adam and Alexandra completely reconfigured the space, filling the wood alcoves with Fisher & Paykel appliances and building a massive marble island to create a more modern gathering space. Those boarded-up windows you see? They’re now Pella doors leading to the lush backyard. 

Powder Room

Powder rooms have become the place to go big on style, and the Brownstone Boys didn’t disappoint when they designed this jewel box of a space right off the kitchen. They added wainscotting to give the room some of that architectural detail you see in the rest of the home and painted it a deep burgundy, then they papered the walls in a Morris & Co.–inspired print from Spoonflower. The pièce de résistance: the floating Calacatta Viola marble sink.

Den

This third-floor room could have been anything (a bedroom, an office, you name it), but Jessica Davis saw it as the ideal space for a cozy den. She coated the walls in a golden yellow and the ceiling in a light blue reminiscent of the sky, then curated a fun and funky gallery wall. 

Primary Bedroom

Even in its original bare state, this room clearly had great bones and serious potential. What it needed was some major floor refinishing and a few coats of Valspar paint. Designer Mikel Welch painted the walls beige and chose a red-brown for the ceiling to make the whole place feel inviting. He filled it with lots of textured pieces, like a bouclé bed frame, sheepskin rug, and wicker lamps. 

Primary Bathroom

Of course, a stunning primary bedroom also needs a stunning bathroom. Mikel started with, well, what’s less than a blank slate?! Eventually he got to add Fireclay tiles, a double sink, mirrors, and vanity storage.

Bedroom

The bathtub did eventually move to the actual bathroom next door, but for a while it was this third-floor bedroom’s only occupant. Inspired by Funny Girl, Hema Persad coated the walls in a sophisticated mauve and added layers of deep pinks and reds to the room with velvet bedding and pleated curtains. She finished the look with lots of sculptural brass accents, like the lotus pendant light and a snake table (can you ssspot it?).

Bathroom

The final resting place for that misplaced bathtub! While this narrow space didn’t look like anything special at the start, Hema had a vision. You might be thinking, Where did that archway come from? We built it! Hema then had floral details painted around the perimeter to really make it a focal point. She also created her own mosaic using four shades of Fireclay tile. It’s a great way to get a custom look without a custom price tag, she says.  

Guest Room

The second-floor guest suite has a bedroom, bathroom, and private patio, so designer Jasmine Roth had her work cut out for her. First up: She created a soothing sleep area by painting the walls a light blue and wallpapering one wall to serve as a fun accent and focal point. The low-hanging chandelier over the nightstand adds an unexpected dose of drama. 

Guest Room Balcony

That private patio we mentioned? It started as a grimy rooftop. TimberTech installed decking and railing here to totally transform the unused area into one of the home’s finest features. Jasmine added a sofa, a café table, and a couple bottles of bubbly.

Guest Bathroom

Jasmine went for soothing colors in the bedroom and wanted the bath to be the fun color moment. She wallpapered one section in a trellis pattern that’s reminiscent of the one used in the bedroom, creating continuity, and decked out the walls with red tile.

Kids Room

Jessica had the idea to turn this narrow room into the world’s cutest kids room. To make it feel a bit bigger, she created two zones: a platformed section for the bed and nightstand, and a getting-ready area. A custom scalloped valance along the ceiling holds a curtain to divide or unite the two spaces.

Cellar

This dank, dark cellar was once a graveyard for leftover lumber and building supplies. Until Kate Pearce came along and turned it into a cool speakeasy. Builders installed sheetrock on the ceiling and filled in gaps in the stone walls to make the space feel more polished. Then Kate coated the whole thing in a deep brown to really conjure that sultry vibe. The space has zero natural lighting, so she layered in plenty of sconces, chandeliers, pendants, and cordless table lamps. It also had zero bars, so Kate had one built.

Laundry Room

While laundry rooms don’t typically have a reputation for being much fun, designer Amber Guyton was determined to change that with a cool laundry lounge. She wanted to showcase the room’s skylight (because how many laundry rooms have a skylight?), so she papered the ceiling around it in a giraffe print of her own design. She added plenty of cabinets to hold laundry gear and even cocktail supplies. Cheers!

Backyard

As you can see, this yard needed some serious work. Luckily, the team at Brooklyn Grange was ready for it! They removed the weeds and debris that had taken over the lot and created a more intentional space using metal edging and TimberTech decking. Now there are pea gravel pathways, multiple seating areas, and lush garden beds filled with native plants.