When a design editor and curator came to Sweeten to renovate the kitchen and bathroom in her 1910 Greenwich Village industrial loft, we were psyched to see what she would do with the remnants of a 1970s condo conversion and eager to see how a design professional would (presumably) breeze through her own renovation. We most definitely did end up with a beautiful new kitchen and bathroom after we introduced this homeowner to Sweeten Expert Aleks, but we also landed some especially insightful lessons learned along the way. We’ll keep our source secret because she works in the industry, but here a ..read more

Last year, Brooklyn resident Jane posted to Sweeten, a free service matching renovators to vetted general contractors, hoping to find the right contractor to remodel her condo’s cookie cutter kitchen. Not only was she bored with the kitchen’s aesthetic, she was also frustrated by its lack of functional storage. Most importantly she told us, “the stove is not vented and sets off the smoke alarms” –yikes! While we’re all used to making certain sacrifices in New York City, there comes a limit. So, Jane was eager to meet her Sweeten matches & give her home the kitchen it deserves. After meeti ..read more

Last month, we shared the first-hand renovation story of Lisa Law, a Brooklyn Heights homeowner who used theSweeten to update her crumbling kitchen, and today, we’re excited to share our 2nd homeowner guest post — coincidentally, this story also comes from a Brooklyn homeowner named Lisa who used theSweeten to renovate her kitchen! Lisa B., who works in the architecture & interiors industry, and her husband Brian, a media studies professor & author, had lived in their Kensington apartment for 8 years before taking the leap to renovate their kitchen. The couple posted to Sweeten to ..read more

Last week we met Lisa Law, the Brooklyn Heights homeowner who recently finished her budget-friendly kitchen renovation with tS member NYC Pros. Now that you’ve heard the backstory, as documented by Lisa herself, this week Lisa reveals the outcome of her fully-updated kitchen, along with a very helpful rundown of her anticipated budget & the actual cost of the project.  I love my new kitchen!  Although I had picked every element of the new kitchen, I was concerned that the finished whole was not going to be equivalent to the sum of all the parts; would it ..read more

Today, we’re sharing a special look at this recently Sweetened kitchen. Brooklyn Heights homeowner, Lisa worked with tS member NYC Pros on her budget-friendly renovation; we stopped in to see the progress & take photos along the way, but the rest of this story is told by Lisa herself. This week we’ll look at the processes behind planning & renovating, and next week we’ll look at the project budget and final results of Lisa’s fully-updated, eat-in kitchen.  When I first moved into my apartment a year ago, I knew I wanted to renovate the kitchen.  I wouldn’t say the place is a ..read more

No New Yorker wants to leave a rent-stabilized apartment, so when a family of three came to us to help create beautiful space in a bigger place, we had to make sure they got an upgrade that made the move worthwhile. Read on for Sophia’s take on this family’s Upper West Side kitchen renovation, and check back next week to see what they did with their bedrooms and bathrooms! Guest post by Sophia, Manhattan homeowner For five years, I had been parked in a 400 square foot rent-stabilized apartment at a great location on the Upper West Side. As a single person, I felt like it was spacious. When my ..read more

Prepping to pick kitchen countertop materials? Let these 9 Sweeten-remodeled kitchens inspire you Just because kitchen counters get a lot of use in the home doesn’t mean they can’t also look beautiful! But where should you start when picking kitchen countertop materials? Well, there are a few things you should know about each type of countertop material before making your final selection. Here’s a rundown of our favorite kitchen countertops from Sweeten renovation projects: gorgeous photos and material descriptions. Quartz Countertops Quartz is a type of engineered stone, made from a combinat ..read more

Here on the Sweeten blog, we aim to translate insight from NYC renovators and contractors into information you can use to make better decisions about improving your home. One surprising lesson we’ve learned from more than a few great kitchen renovations is that appliances don’t have to fade into the background of a beautiful space – they can play a starring role. The stove, in particular, is a workhorse fixture that can double as the centerpiece of a thoughtful kitchen, sometimes even worth designing around altogether, and a big signal of a newly-renovated kitchen for anyone who ..read more

Here, we have one of those before and afters that is a bit hard to believe at first look. Lee Hoffman, the CEO and founder of the photo-sharing app Memoir, bought a 1+ bedroom, 1 bathroom co-op in Midtown East last year. The original kitchen and bathroom were beyond a little forlorn; the kitchen was hidden behind a walled entryway – more of a hallway than a room. This might have been initially helpful given its 1978 vintage, but not ideal in an apartment that depended on the kitchen window for extra light in the living room. And we can only assume that this bathroom had seen better days ..read more

This week’s Before and After brings a little Christmas-in-July cheer for a family of three in Brooklyn’s Columbia Waterfront District. Robyn, Alejandro, and their daughter Bianca stopped by a cavernous, dark two-bedroom condo on Christmas Eve, hoping the new year might bring a new home for their family. What they found was an apartment in total disrepair – more than a little TLC would be required to update the space, but the square footage and bustling location seemed promising. Robyn and Alejandro prepared for everything short of moving walls and came to Sweeten with a long list of updates ne ..read more