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Condo Renovation Ideas for 2025: Room By Room Guide
Condo Living Room remodeling ideas
Think Light With Living Room Walls
Condo walls welcome design, but don’t overwhelm the space. Instead of darker paint colors that close in a room, let the living room breathe with lighter tones and choice touches of color via bold accent walls that tastefully stand out from the rest of the room. Consider muted browns, blush pinks, or deep neutrals, all of which are making waves in timely design palettes. Go a step further and feature wallpaper for an exclamation point of added design.
Living Room Flooring Trends
When clients ask for recommendations on living room flooring in a NYC condo, hardwood is almost always our answer. Carpet requires too much upkeep for a main thoroughfare and tiles are relatively uncommon in living rooms. All while hardwood remains a timeless flooring choice that’s more durable than almost all alternatives, whether laid in a traditional chevron or classic herringbone pattern. If your home already has hardwood floors and they simply need some love, always opt to refinish them. Finally, adding an oversized area rug atop hardwood floors offers an unlimited array of complimentary color splash options, plus an added touch of comfort.
Maximize Your Lighting
Does your condo have large windows? To create a more breathable interior design, accent them with decorative mirrors and shiny accessories to help more natural light bounce throughout the room. If your condo lacks light, consider adding new steel-framed windows, which offer a modern touch to the design and are a more sustainable, green-friendly alternative to vinyl windows. Alternatively, if you’re looking for unique ways to reduce sunlight, consider smart windows, which dynamically tint based on preferred settings.
Multi-Use Room
If your condo is on the smaller side, consider adding a dining table in the living area, opposite the couch setting, helping to create a more open floor plan that maximizes space.
Storage For More Space
Add high shelves near the ceiling to create an illusion of added room height, like the ones we added in the Upper West Side pre-war co-op renovation. Or, built-ins along the floor can add more true storage that’s out of site and out of mind, which was a specific request from our clients in this Carnegie Hill full condo renovation.
Condo Kitchen Renovation Ideas
Living Kitchen Wall Space
Kitchens are meant to create, so consider adding some visual inspiration to the space. As noted in our recent Interior Design Trends blog, unique kitchen backsplashes are a great way to add personality, while hanging pots/pans or cutting boards on the walls is a practical way to decorate the room while also conserving precious cabinet space. FInally, consider light or even earthy tones for paints or wallpaper to bring warmth out of the sharable atmosphere.
Foundational Kitchen Flooring
When choosing kitchen flooring, there are two main considerations - durability and aesthetics. With so much traffic in and out of the space, kitchen flooring materials need to account for decades of traction, while also complimenting the look and feel of the space. While traditional wood flooring is an evergreen solution that accounts for both, other options like custom tiling or even a more eco-friendly option like linoleum offer an array of options that can accentuate the foundation of your kitchen.
Kitchen Appliance Overhaul
Upgraded appliances make an immediate impact in your kitchen space, but make sure to research options before buying. Depending on your budget, getting state of the art stainless steel appliances will always be a reliable option, as they offer timeless style and durability. However, one trend taking over the kitchen space is smart appliances, which use timely tech to enhance everyday appliances. Refrigerators now offer recipes for connected cooking, faucets are touchless, and ranges have pre-set cooking options that can be adjusted from your phone. Learn more via our 10 Smart Home Remodeling Ideas blog.
Another way appliances can enhance your kitchen is leveraging panel-ready appliances, which are designed to seamlessly match your cabinetry and create a more streamlined look.
Cabinetry Is Key
Since many NYC kitchens are on the smaller side, cabinetry is vital to maximizing space. Walls of shaker cabinets have long been appealing to our clients, offering tasteful and tactful design that matches most aesthetics but still accounts for maximum storage. Alternatively, open shelving can add a contemporary touch to the room, allowing the colors from your collection of kitchenware to shine en route for easy access. Click for more ways to maximize space in a small kitchen.
Everlasting COuntertops
When considering countertops, durability is in. Aim for more durable kitchen surfaces, such as quartz, which provide a natural balance of beauty and practicality to ground a kitchen design. As you’ll see in this Brooklyn kitchen renovation we did for a professional chef, quartz countertops contain no grout lines, making them extremely easy to maintain over time.
Material Mix-Up
Instead of sticking with one palette, think about mixing up materials to create a more personalized combination. Don’t hesitate to mingle wood, stone, metals and ceramics for a truly engaging multi-material condo cooking space.
Touch Of Texture
Take the previous tip on materials a step further and aim to incorporate textures throughout your interior design to add depth in priority areas of your home. Think hammered metal on the kitchen bartop for a hint of brutalism, textured tiles on the bathroom walls for a textured sculptural look, or a perfectly contrasting blend of marble and wood lighting for an elegant modern touch.
Condo bathroom Remodel Ideas
Bathroom Wall Trends
Bathrooms should be comforting, offering natural tones that encourage relaxation. Bring that organic warmth into your bathroom with natural materials like stone on the walls or even a wood-looking porcelain. You could even consider a more transient option like the floral wallpaper we implemented in the stunning powder room of our Upper West Side pre-war renovation.
Elevated Bathroom Flooring
Flooring for your condo bathroom needs to be welcoming. To keep those feet pleased and still offer eye-catching flooring, large-format tiling is an ageless approach that offers easy upkeep with sustainability in mind. Another option is checkered flooring, which is equally clean but offers a more classic appeal. If you’re really looking to add a truly comforting touch, consider heated floors like the ones we installed in this Manhattan condo renovation.
Boosted Bath Fixtures
Another area where smart tech is adding ease to homelife is in the bathroom. By adding smart fixture options like touchless faucets, smart mirrors, and luxury bidets, bathrooms immediately become more luxurious and comfortable.
Free-Standing Bathtub
There’s been a shift away from traditional alcove tubs for free-standing alternatives. Whether white resin, marble or metallic, freestanding tubs sit directly on the floor of the bathroom with no feet or platform underneath. Due to their more traditional, transitional look, they can help small space bathrooms appear larger by offering a tub that consumes less space. These contemporary tubs can be used in a variety of design styles, varying from vintage aesthetic to minimalism, depending on the client’s preference.
Shower Seating
Create a sauna-like atmosphere in your bathroom by adding seating directly in the shower, similar to this stone bench we installed amidst this Tribeca ensuite bath renovation.
Patterns & Textiles
Add casual splashes of patterns and texture into your condo bathroom with colorful and complimentary textiles, which are also an easy way to add a luxe touch.
Condo bedroom Remodel Ideas
Darker Tones
While lighter colors may be optimal throughout your home for various reasons, the exclusivity of bedrooms allow us to experiment with bolder, more moody colors that create depth and inherently relaxing qualities. Indigo blues, deep purples and even cranberry reds are strong options, especially when contrasted with lighter accents and decor.
Cue The Curtains
When looking to spruce up bedroom walls, curtains create an immediate impact. Not only are they a necessity in most NYC condos, curtains offer a variety of style options that can compliment any design scheme. Think overlong lush linen curtains in open, flowing bedroom settings, or more practical black-out shades to dampen drowning sunshine.
Bedroom Built-Ins
Another option to bolster your bedroom walls is with built-ins. By adding custom millwork like built-in shelving or desk space, you create aesthetically-pleasing storage options that compliment most interior design lay-outs. One client on the Upper West Side hoped to add a more formal office space in her spare bedroom without sacrificing the spare bedroom. Our solution was a custom built-in Murphy Bed with added storage and custom desk and shelving. View the full renovation before and after.
Closet Makeover
Since there’s never enough bedroom storage, don’t sleep on making the most of your closest space. Whether the closet is a full walk-in or relatively small, this is another area where custom millwork can go a long way, allowing you to leverage every inch of available closet space to create a proper home for all your clothing.
Ceiling Enhancements
Breaking up the monotony of a bedroom design can be simple as leveraging ceiling space. Adding details to a bedroom ceiling, such as bold painted beams or a coffered ceiling will add perceived height and immediate interest to an area you spend plenty of time staring at. See how adding custom soffits in this Manhattan renovation allowed us to create enhanced lighting for the space.
Find A Reliable Contractor To Guide Your Condo Renovation
If you own a condo or will be buying one that needs an upgrade, consider the NYC condo and co-op renovation experts at Gallery. We’re a full-service design-build firm who handles every aspect of our residential renovations, from architectural services and interior design to permits and project management. Ready to renovate? Contact us for a consultation or browse our full condo renovation portfolio.
