When it comes to interior design, there’s always room for improvement. Design puns aside, if you’re feeling creative and want to spruce up your home’s interior, there’s no shortage of ideas, trends and examples to draw inspiration from. But that can make it rather difficult for you to know where to start. Plus, the thought of spending a large sum of money on home upgrades might further dampen your enthusiasm. Many of the items and materials needed to improve a home’s appearance are often expensive as is working with interior designers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be an interior designer and you certainly don’t have to hire one either to make your home look better. A bit of patience, a dash of imagination, a touch of dexterity (optional) and some craft supplies, many of which you probably have around the house already, is all it takes to give your home a facelift.
Besides, undertaking DIY home projects and creating decorations or making modifications around the house with your own hands is not just a great way to transform your space for less but can also help you make your home uniquely yours and have a lot of fun in the process. So, if this sounds like something you’d enjoy doing, here are some simple and effective ideas to get you started.
Jar it up
There’s a lot of potential in those old jam jars that are gathering dust in your cupboard. So, instead of piling up on used mason jars, you can repurpose them and give them a new life. Since they’re probably occupying space in your kitchen anyway, you can label them and use them as spice and herbs containers. But they can also serve as rustic vases or cute planters for your indoor garden.
You can simply wrap jute twine around them or apply a light coat of paint and you’ll have new pots to add to your plant display with minimal effort and expense. If you’re not a green thumb, another idea is to use mason jars as pencil holders or to store your office supplies.
Treat your window treatments
Curtains do a lot for our homes. Apart from blocking the sunlight, keeping heat out and muffling noises, they also add to the visual appeal of the space. Unfortunately, this hard-working addition often gets overlooked in the grand scheme of things and a lot of people miss out on the opportunity to use curtains to their full potential.
So, if you have some plain curtains that you’ve almost forgotten about, it might be time to give your window treatments the treatment they deserve. A good trick is to add a thick trim to them that will instantly add dimension and make them look more expensive. You can use any type of ribbon you like and attach it to the material with an iron-on mending tape. Dressing up your curtains with accessories like rods, classic tiebacks and holdbacks or tassel trims is also a quick and easy way to elevate basic drapes.
Turn textile into décor
Leftover pieces of fabric don’t look like much but if you hate to throw stuff away and you have a creative mind you can turn even the tiniest scrap fabric into something special. Patchwork quilts are the first idea that comes to mind when it comes to repurposing leftover textiles, but there are many other craft projects that you can use them for.
Some of the most creative examples include creating fabric bookmarks, sewing lavender sachets to hang around the house, personalising your picture frames or even changing the look of your mousepad. Most of these projects only require scissors, glue, needle and thread, and some imagination.
Play with plywood
Plywood projects are quite popular among DIYers, but they do require a bit more time and deftness, as well as some specific tools and materials, depending on what you have in mind. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a try, but you need to be aware of the time and effort investment it involves.
That being said, you can create all sorts of items for your interior using plywood. Our suggestion is to start with something simple like a plant hanger. For this type of project, you’ll need a plywood block, a scroll saw, a drill and a cord. You’ll have to cut a hole the size of your pot in the centre of the wood and drill holes in all four corners to pull the cord through. Then all you have to do is place your plant in it and hang it in a spot of your choice.
Lift your mood with mood boards
Mood boards are great for planning your interior design project, organising your ideas and bringing together different sources of inspiration so you can have a clearer image of what you want to achieve. But they can also become décor pieces in their own right.
So, you can start building your mood board with photos or magazine cuts of things you like or inspire your design style, fabric samples, colour palettes and so on. You can also add small decorations to make it look more visually pleasing.
Wrap it in wallpaper
Using wallpaper has always been a very popular practice in interior design, but you can decorate more than your walls with it. If you happen to have a leftover wallpaper roll around the house, you can use it to beautify different décor elements or home features.
For example, you can line the inside of your drawers with scarp wallpaper, create book covers and add some colour to your library, and cover old lampshades so you don’t have to purchase new ones or breathe new life into your headboard.
Do it your way
There’s no right or wrong approach to styling your interiors. So, forget about rules, trends and guides, and let your inspiration flow freely as you decorate your way.
