Your own home makeover

The living room and dining area at Jang Young-eun’s apartment

By Kim Bo-eun

A corner of Jang’s dining room

With housing prices sky high, getting a new home in Seoul is not an option for everyone. But that doesn’t mean you have to live in a rat hole. Thanks to books and blogs introducing the latest do-it-yourself (DIY) renovation techniques, more and more people are moving into dingy living quarters and transforming them into beautiful homes.

Jang’s 20-year-old apartment

From the outside, Jang Young-eun’s apartment building in Hwajeong-dong, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, looked dilapidated. It was the typical ’80s-style apartment building – half a dozen homes along each corridor with a shared elevator.

A pleasant surprise, however, awaited beyond Jang’s open door. The home was a charming little place with cream-colored walls, warm lighting and Scandinavian-vibe furnishings – no traces of the building’s age were visible.

Jang and her husband moved into the 19-year-old apartment three months ago, when they got married. She initially wanted a brand new apartment, but all the buildings in the neighborhood were at least a decade old. Going to a different neighborhood was not an option if she wanted to be near her workplace, so she had to compromise.

“I figured if we put in the effort, we could make the place a lot nicer,” she said. But it required a lot of work. “I was appalled when I first saw the house – the doors were a shade of emerald green that was trendy in the ’80s, and there was even one of those ancient sliding doors,” she recalled laughing.

Jang’s bedroom with wooden furnishings

In line with the rental contract, the owner modified the home to suit the couple’s wishes. With a new kitchen sink and shoe closet, as well as new wallpaper and white doors, the house looked much better, Jang said. The rest was all Jang, with a bit of help from her husband.

They changed the lights and the light fixtures, put up shelves, and arranged the furniture to make the place look more spacious. The result was a simple but tastefully furnished home with an entirely modern look.

“My favorite spot is this table – this is where we eat, have coffee and chat after coming home from work. My husband and I also watch movies here – see, if you hang a screen on the curtain pole this place becomes our own little theater,” Jang said. “My friends also come over quite often – this dining area serves as a sort of restaurant and cafe.”

The newlyweds cut down on wedding expenses so they could use it to renovate their new home. Jang and her husband forwent the expensive convention of having a professional photo shoot before the wedding. Opting for a smaller, older apartment also saved them a substantial amount.

“I think we made the right decision,” Jang said with a smile. “A home needs to be a place you look forward to coming home to for comfort and rest after a long day of work, and that’s the exact feeling we get coming back home.”

Lee’s bedroom on the third floor

Lee’s tiny four-story house

Lee’s living room on the second floor

Lee Je-ha, a 30-year-old office worker, moved into his home in the Seochon neighborhood in Jongnogu in Seoul exactly a year ago. His house – although old and barely 60 square meters – is remarkable enough to have been a filming site for a TV drama series.

According to Lee, when he was seeking a place to move into last year, he wanted either of the following: a spectacular view or an unconventional layout. His Seochon home satisfied the latter condition, and Lee went for it. It didn’t really matter that the house was old and full of mold – those were things he could fix.

Before he moved in, he spent weeks renovating the house after work. He would often work through the night and see the sun rise the next day. Without a single fan or any air conditioning, he worked away the sweltering nights finding solace in bottles of cold beer. He ripped off the moldy wallpaper, got rid of the mold on the walls and painted the walls and the window frames.

In a room on the first floor, he smashed away the plasterboard ceiling to make it appear more spacious. He then transformed the space into a home bar furnished with a small wine refrigerator, draft beer machines and all sorts of hard liquor.

The first floor of Lee Je-ha’s house made into a cafe/bar

The second floor – which became directly accessible from the first floor via a hole and a ladder he installed – is the kitchen/living room area, with a warmer and comfier ambience. Liquor bottles line one whole wall, making the area an extension of his home bar on the first floor.

Lee’s bedroom, on the third floor, exudes an entirely different vibe. The monochrome interior – with dark grey walls and black and white furnishings – gives off a sharp, modern ambience. For Lee, it is the comfiest space, featuring a pulldown screen where he can watch movies and TV.

A world map drawn by Lee covers an entire wall on the fourth floor of his house

Lastly, Lee made the rooftop floor into a sort of travel-themed book café. This is where Lee sinks into his reading chair and immerses himself in books. On one side, a world map drawn by Lee covers an entire wall. Opening the screen doors, there is also a small terrace with a parasol table and hammock, where Lee hosts barbecues.

Lee, who happens to be an avid traveler but whose job forces him to cut back on his travels, wished to make his home a place where he could find solace in a life he sometimes finds mundane.

“The home is no longer merely a place where you sleep and eat,” he said. “I think a person’s home shows who that person is and what that person values – as you can probably see from my house.”

The multi-purpose room at Heo Eun-jeong’s home

Heo’s ancient house

The Korea Times W had a hard time finding 30-year-old freelancer Heo Eunjeong’s home. Even when the team arrived some 20 minutes late at Heo’s front gate in Hwayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, they doubted that it was the right place. Heo’s home was supposed to be the second floor of what looked like a century-old deserted house. Even as the team made its way up the separate stairway leading to the second floor and knocked on the door, no one could believe it was Heo’s place. But it was.

As Heo opened her checkered curtains, a cream-toned living room came into view. It wasn’t one of those plush homes one would see in interior design magazines, but neither was it like any conventional home in Korea. The slightly cluttered but cozy home had a distinct exotic ambience.

“This is my first house. And that’s why I was so determined to find an affordable place that I could renovate and decorate myself,” she said. In order to be able to do so, she deliberately asked realtors to show her the oldest houses available.

“I don’t know exactly how old this place is, but I haven’t seen any house in this neighborhood with sliding doors and an oil-fired boiler and veranda like this house has,” she said with a laugh.

Heo’s cream-colored living room area

Heo had to redo almost everything. The walls and floors were a given and the kitchen especially required work. Luckily, she had her boyfriend to help her out.

The blue room next to Heo’s bedroom serves multiple functions. This is where she listens to music, watches movies on a pull-down screen, plays the keyboard and guitar as well as games.

“As a freelancer who spends a lot of time at home, it was important that I make my home a cozy place of my own,” she said. “It took about six months to complete the whole house. The work was really tough, but I am really happy with the outcome.”

“People are increasingly developing affection toward their homes. When you become attached to your home, you want to keep making it better. I think that’s what’s happening among younger people these days,” Heo said.