My top tips for using DIY projects to inject personality into your home

Disclaimer: Although this post contains lots of my own content, under ASA regulations it’s considered an AD.

How do you feel about DIY home decor projects? I’m a fan personally, and whilst I appreciate that DIY, or ‘upcycling’, may not be for everyone, I wanted to share some simple tips on how you can get started if it’s something you are interested in developing.

One of the reasons I enjoy DIY projects, is that I get a huge sense of pride in creating something unique and bespoke for my home. It’s a great way to inject personality into a space and each piece you create will be talking point for when people visit your home. In this sense, DIY gives your interior style a unique touch you can’t get anywhere else. With a little bit of care and sticking-tongue-out concentration, you can turn your everyday furniture and items into something new and individual. Here are some of my past projects/ideas:

Revive an old piece you love

One of my first ever DIY projects was repurposing an old footstool that doesn’t suit our lounge decor. The footstool was actually being thrown out by our neighbour and when I saw it, I knew instantly that I could paint the legs and recover the top of the stool with some fabric that I had pretty easily. So I did! I used a staple gun to adhere the fabric to the stool but you can also reupholster small items with hot melt glue sticks. In fact, there are lots of DIY projects you can complete with a glue gun and so if you don’t own one, I’d recommend a trip to Hobbycraft in order to pick one up! You can read the full DIY post for my footstool project here.

Mass produced but unique furniture

It doesn’t matter how unique you want your interior to be, it’s likely that there’s some standard IKEA units in your home! Whilst it’s fair to say that your IKEA interior might lack some originality, the reason why most households trust the Swedish manufacturers are because the units are functional, practical, ergonomic and surprisingly easy to personalise. You can safely paint your units – either before assembling them or afterwards. I took a Malm chest of drawers and up-cycled them before we adopted our son (who was 21 months old at the time), so that we had a piece of furniture to store his clothes in that was toddler friendly and bespoke for him. It was a very easy DIY to complete – you can read my post on how I did it here.

An accent wall in an afternoon

Everybody can paint a wall. However, creating an accent wall is a different kettle of fish. Despite this, you don’t need to be a professional painter to make it work but you do need painting tools you can rely on, starting with quality brushes and rolls. The easiest way to design a patterned wall is to use sturdy painter tape. Frog Tape is a reliable brand for geometric accents. You can create shapes at random with the tape, as seen in this video tutorial. You can also design a regular pattern for the tape, such as diamonds, squares or even parallel lines. With the right paint, you can be done in an afternoon, as long as you’re careful to wait for the last coat to be completely dry before removing the tape. This is an idea that I haven’t tried out for myself yet but I’m hoping to create a geometric feature wall on the wall of my son’s playroom when we move to our new house. (There will be lots of interior projects to share with you once we move, so be sure to keep checking in with the blog!)

I made it myself

It’s fair to say that there’s a form of pride and excitement in the DIY craft that you can’t get from anywhere else. It feels good to have created something and made it from your own hands. You can focus your attention on little things that can go a long way. Quilts are accessible even to beginners, for instance. You can also easily sew a few cushion covers for the lounge. You can check out my sewing tutorials for bedroom cushions here and for a personalised memo board here.

Get that recycled look

Finally, if you love the industrial style, pallet furniture may be the thing for you. You can build your pallet furniture in a few hours. A pallet sofa is a great addition to a patio, for instance. You can also make a cosy and fun-looking coffee table by piling a couple of pallets together.

What are your thoughts? Are you a DIY-er or up-cycling fan? Be sure to leave a comment below to let me know your favourite project. Also don’t forget to leave a link to your blog/website if you have any of your own DIY projects to share.

This is a collaborative post