Sometimes it’s the overlooked spaces that can inspire the biggest and most gratifying transformations. Take the basement stairs in Melanie Schantz’s home, which started out pretty low priority. “The stairs were really worn looking. Both the stairs and walls around it were painted a terrible yellow. Every time I walked down them, I would always think of how I would redo them,” Melanie says. “The thing is, your basement stairs are always on the bottom of your list when you have projects guests are more likely to see.”

But social distancing at home gave Melanie some extra time to rethink the space. “Honestly, being quarantined right now made me want to take on some bigger projects—projects I wouldn’t necessarily take on otherwise,” she says. “I usually work with my mom redoing other people’s