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Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Tips From the Pros
Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Tips From the Pros
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WhenErin Kestenbaumsettled on a whimsical chinoiserie-inspired mural for her new home office, it sparked a chain reaction of creative projects. “The space needed something that was going to be the star,” says Kestenbaum of the temporary wallpaper. After settling on the print, the Connecticut-based designer reupholstered a Louis XV–style chair with $40 Schumacher fabric scored on eBay. Then there’s the IKEA Besta cabinet in the corner, which she reconfigured to include drawers.
The whole makeover came in under $3,800 and took 13 weeks to pull together. While the changes she made were largely cosmetic, the reality of making tough choices set in. Picking the perfect paint color is one feat—selecting the right desk chair is another challenge entirely. Here, Kestenbaum walks us through the pieces she brought in to transform the plain white room into a WFH haven.
The Statement Wallpaper
After Kestenbaum and her husband gave the room a surface-level facelift with a fresh coat of paint and new crown molding, she zeroed in on the accent wall. The designer found herself drawn to classic prints by luxury wallpaper makers like de Gournay, but was justifiably nervous about committing. “Knowing that this probably isn’t our forever home, I didn’t think it was the appropriate place to splurge on that,” she shares.
Tempaper’sGarden Metallic print in champagneproved to be the perfect workaround. “It was shockingly easy to install,” says Kestenbaum, though she notes it’s definitely a two-person job since the panels have to line up perfectly. All the designer and her husband had to do to prep the surface was cover it with a semigloss paint so the paper would adhere. It took them an hour and a half to hang the entire piece.
The Eyesore Radiator–Turned–Eye Candy
Homes built in the 1970s come with their fair share of quirks, sad radiators among them. Luckily,hiding a hideous heating systemis easier than you’d think. Kestenbaum and her husband ditched the metal cover that had previously hidden the grills and built a new and improved box out of scrap wood from past projects. “We just kind of winged it,” she says.
The Modified Besta Cabinet
Rather than banishing her pens and planners to a lonely junk drawer, Kestenbaum scoured her own home for an all-encompassing storage solution. The couple’s IKEA Besta media cabinet, which had lived in the living room of their apartment three years prior, was the obvious fix. The piece was too deep for the tiny office, so Kestenbaum reworked the configuration to be narrower and added drawers, plus a sleek glass top for a clean finish.
The Craigslist Light Fixture That Steals the Show
“Everything looks better with a coat of black spray paint!” is Kestenbaum’s motto heading into most design projects. For proof, look no further than the matte black flush-mount light she snagged for $10 on Craigslist before sprucing it up. The budget-friendly upgrade cleared the way for her biggest splurge: an antique desk. She tracked the piece for weeks on an online auction and eventually got into a bidding war over it. “For me, it was all about the history of the desk,” she says. “I love investing in items that are vintage and well-crafted—and that I know no one else is going to have.”
This story was originally published on March 22, 2019; it has since been updated.
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Lydia Geisel
Home Editor
Lydia Geisel has been part of the editorial team at Domino since 2017. Today, she writes and edits home and renovation stories, including house tours, before-and-afters, and DIY projects, and leads our design news coverage. She lives in New York City.
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