Nearly four years ago, designer Ghislaine Viñas and her family moved from New York City to the rural upstate village of Tivoli, New York. Soon after, she started encouraging her Atlanta-based brother-in-law to follow them. To help convince him, Ghislaine and her graphic designer husband, Jaime, began browsing real estate listings for a nearby fixer-upper. Only a 15-minute drive from their house was a listing for a 600-square-foot tiny home that needed a little love.

Before: Front Porch

After: Front Porch

“It wasn’t in disrepair, but there was nothing joyful, inspiring, or cool about it,” says Ghislaine of the 1972 one-bedroom kit house with a cramped floor plan. However, its simple architectural form, convenient distance, and lakeside location were appealing. She says she began envisioning how to transform it into a “bright, happy box” where “friends could stay when there was overflow in the Tivoli house”—or family could visit to take a lake swim. The design process turned out to be just as intensive as the projects she typically works on, when tend to be several times its size.

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

“Believe it or not, there must have been 10 different iterations to puzzle together the interior layout,” says the designer. “I wanted it to function not like a weekend house, but as a proper, full-time house.” Appropriate adjacencies, ample storage, and all the daily luxuries desired when living in the countryside (a washer and dryer, outdoor shower, and generously sized bathroom, for example) were essential. Achieving them required an entirely new interior—and moving a few walls.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Originally, the bedroom and small bathroom were separated by a long hallway terminating in a door to the back patio. Ghislaine moved the deck access to sliding doors in the bedroom so that she could shorten the hallway and give the extra square footage over to those private spaces. Reconfiguring the island kitchen into a galley layout opened up the front room, which she brightened up by repositioning windows and removing shiplap cladding on the walls.

Before: Entry

After: Entry

Overall, Ghislaine kept the new finishes neutral—ash flooring by Bjelin, white zellige tiles by Clé, white cabinetry from Ikea—as a subtle backdrop for her sunny decorating. That, she says, was “driven by the furniture that I already had”—and the knowledge that the house would get most of its use in the summertime. In the living room, a bright-blue Ligne Roset sofa, walnut coffee table by Johanna Egnell for David Design and vintage Overman swivel chair upholstered in a yellow pattern gather atop a multicolor rug, by Ghislaine for The Rug Company, near the existing woodburning stove.

Before: Bedroom

After: Bedroom

Yellow is the dominant hue throughout the house, also featured in the hall’s Patricia Urquiola–designed rug, the bedroom’s vintage throw blanket, and tilework in the bathroom and shower. Even the glass front door sports a lemon-hued frame (and a custom numerical graphic by Jaime). “As an interior designer, you do tend to accumulate really great pieces of furniture, so I didn’t have to buy anything new,” Ghislaine admits, which helped keep the renovation’s cost down.

Before: Bathroom

After: Bathroom

The home’s exterior also got a facelift, courtesy of new vertical siding and extended decks. The outdoor shower is set on a new mechanical room, which replaces the dilapidated shed that once housed necessary equipment.

Before: Back Patio

After: Back Patio

The house was built in the 1970s on a former community baseball field—and it stands on the spot that once marked third base. Now, it’s a new base for Ghislaine’s family and friends—and she says it’s an open invitation. “I’ve had people be so kind and generous in my life, that it feels lovely to be able to be on the other end,” she says. “This house is just our little jewel.”

More Before & After stories:

Their Rebuilt Philly Town House Makes a Case for the Solarium—and a Bathroom Fridge

Here’s What It Took to Warm Up a Drafty ’90s Home in Seattle

$24K and a Ton of Broken Tile Refresh a Flat in an Oscar Niemeyer Landmark

Project Credits:

Builder/General Contractor: James Grady, Grady & Sons Construction

Interior Design: Ghislaine Viñas / @ghislaine_vinas

Appears In

Before & After: Ghislaine Viñas Turns a Cloud-Gray Tiny House Into a Little Ray of Sunshine