DIY How To Make a Table Lamp from a Glass Bottle

Crafting glass bottles into amazing things...

DIY How to Create Space in a Small Kitchen

Finding space in a small kitchen can be a big problem, Bon Richter shows you how you can easily create space with wall mounted objects.

DIY How to decorate a small apartment and create an entryway

With 3 roommate sharing an apartment and one common living room, it's hard to keep their home organized with the front door leading directly into the living room without any formal entryway. And to make matters worse, there is no closet to hang coats. The solution is to build wall panels that can be painted any color and customized to include DIY coat racks, a DIY charging station and lighting with integrated wall sconces. There's even an IKEA notice board incorporated to act as a home command center of sorts for the roommates to leave messages for each other. You'll see how easy it is to decorate a small rental apartment with color and at the same time add the functionality of an entryway even if all you have to work with is a big blank wall.

DIY How to renovate a bathroom

It's the smallest room in the house and yet it can be the most expensive to renovate: the bathroom. Tara's going to show you how to get the modern look for much less.

DIY How to Fold a Scarf for Window Decorating

Even something as simple as a scarf can make for a great window decoration. Fold a scarf for window decorating with help from an award-winning, celebrity interior designer and design psychology expert in this free video clip.

DIY How to Decorate your bedroom on a budget

Quick and easy tips to decorate your bedroom without spending a lot of money.

Use the rules of 3,5 and 7. Use symmetry to define a focal point. Spray paint is a budget savvy decorators best friend!

DIY How to fold t-shirts

Here's a quick video on how to fold t-shirts to make them "look/appear" as if they are folded perfectly while making it easy to see what you have and maximizing space inside the drawer. I've mentioned before in previous videos that I realllllly don't like to fold. However, folding isn't as bad when you use a magic tool to help you get the fold right! In fact, it can actually be fun and the end result is a beautiful drawer of perfectly folded t-shirts.

DIY Beautiful Crayon Candles

Fall into crafts, & learn how to make a crayon candle! Use your colorful candle for home decor.

DIY How to design a nautical outdoor room

Tara will show you the tips and tricks to giving your deck a total make-over on a limited budget, by turning old into new, up-cycling and refreshing.

DIY: Bookshelf in a door

Who wouldn't welcome more storage into their home? 

Rob has come up with a super smart and super effective idea. 

Build a bookshelf into a door.

DIY How to build a storage chest

Join Peter as he shows you how to build a basic storage chest.

How to Make a Bench Cushion

How to Make a Bench Cushion Video demonstrates step-by-step how to make a long bench cushion without boxing. Perfect for built-in benches in mud rooms or for window seats, this cushion features a stylish, piped edge. A bench cushion is easy to construct and makes a great project for beginners. 

DIY How to make a slip cover for a chair (Simple Sewing)

Refresh your furniture. Make your own customized slip cover for a chair.

DIY how to organize clothes in your dresser

How to organize your dresser drawers and fold clothes

We would love to have neat, organized drawers, if only we knew where to begin. And now we do, thanks to Linda Koopersmith, The Beverly Hills Organizer, whose folding and storing techniques will have your drawers organized in no time.

Keywords:
fold clothes
how to fold clothes
how to organize clothes
how to organize your dresser

Creative ways to pruce up your home with wall painting - Geometric Art Wall Painting

Geometric Art Wall Painting

This bar code pattern with pockets of gold is a zany way to give a dramatized look to picture hangings on the wall.

You will need:
Ruler
Pencil
Masking tape (1cm width)
Small paint brush
Paint - white (base coat), light blue (stripes), Gold (square)

Painting Methods:

1) Alternatively mark out 1cm lines, 3cm apart, parallel from the picture frame to the end of the wall. Mask off the 1cm spaces.

2) Determine where you want to apply the gold paint and apply masking tape horizontally to create a square. Apply paint.

3) Using a small brush, tap on the gold paint, so there is some texture when it dries.

How to paint Terra Cotta pottery

For generations, terra cotta pottery has been used widely as outside and indoors planters for growing houseplant or young herb. Low-cost pottery with their boring looking will turn great with style when you add some attractive colors.

Maybe it sounds easy, but you have to know how to paint terra cotta pot properly if you want your decorative painting efforts to last. Here are a few simple instructions that guarantee your painted technique will maintain to look attractive for years.

To paint a terra cotta pottery, you will need:

1) Terra cotta pot
Choose any size of terra cotta pot of your preference.

2) Pottery sealant spray
For pot that will be used for planting, use oil or water based polyurethane. Both of them will work great but oil based polyurethane will last longer.
For pot that will not be used for planting, use water-based polyurethane or craft acrylic sealant.

3) Acrylic or latex paint
Choose two or three colors of your preference. Most hardware stores able to scan just about any color you may bring to make a color match, therefore you do not have to try and mix yourself.

4) 2 inch wide foam brush

5) Masking tape

6) Clear acrylic coat spray

7) Sheet of self-adhesive laminating sheets and scissors (optional)

8) Fine grit sandpaper


Instructions:

Wash and rinse the terra cotta pot with warm water and let it dry completely. Next, sand the pot with fine grit sandpaper to remove any rough spots or loose clay particles.

Spray inside of the pot with pottery sealant as recommended above. Let the pot dry thoroughly. Once it dried out, spray inside the pot with pottery sealant again and let it dry thoroughly for about 24 hours. This process is necessary to ovoid the outside finished from peeling and bubbling consequence of moisture that coming through the pot's interior.

Paint outside of the pot with your first preference color with foam brush. Allow the pot dry thoroughly for several hours.

Once the pot is dried out, wrap masking tape around the center of the pot. Apply your second color and allow it to dry thoroughly for about several hours.

If you want the pot finished in variation with circle or square design, draw circles or squares on a laminating sheet, and then cut out the stencils carefully. Once the pot is dried out, peel off the laminating sheet and set the stencils on the pot where you want it. Apply your third color and allow it to dry thoroughly for about several hours.

Remove the stencils. Spray the whole pot with clear acrylic coat. Allow the pot to dry the thoroughly.

Once the pot dried out for several days, plant any houseplant or young herb with a sufficient amount of soil.

Now you have spent a good amount of time and effort painting your terra cotta pot. It is great for making a stylish look of indoor or outdoor, and also great for gift.

How to decorate a dining room on a budget

Dining room is the best part of the house where everyone loves to be in as the aroma of the nice meals being prepared is inhaled from the kitchen. It is a major attraction sight which should be tastefully decorated and not out of place.

This is a place where guests come to eat, though working with limited funds, one may think that it isn't possible to take that shabby room and turn it into something new and fresh, although this is a myth. With a limited budget, what you are left with is using the imagination to create ways to make the room look better, and it is only a matter of practice until you can indeed use your imagination creatively and effectively to style the dining room into a fresh look that makes your guests feel welcome, and you as a homeowner, feel proud.

There is definitely a thing about home decorating and costing some personal fortune. Knowing the best ways to save money and decorate under budget is an exquisite art. It does not take a lot of thinking to discover the numerous tricks involved.

Inexpensive accessories like candles and candleholders will help to add a nice glow to the dining room and change its appearance. Table cloths do a fabulous job in hiding any ugly surfaces. These new colors can be used as the color scheme for the room. See if you may have a local furniture bank. You can exchange your old furniture with any items of furniture at the bank that may be of use to you.

Try moving the furniture around in an artistic way. Make sure whatever you do leaves you with enough space to move around.

You could do some DIY jobs in the dining room, like building a fold-down shelf. These could hang off one of the walls of the dining room. It enhances entertainment and buffet pleasures. A mirror can be used in order to create light and space in your dining room.

The cabinets can be repainted to the new color scheme. Painting is one of the simplest DIY jobs around. While at that, you could completely repaint the room. By the time you are through, you might not recognize your own dining room.

DIY Loft Bed Conversion Kits - Are They Worth It?

A recent project of mine was converting my oldest daughter's queen bed into a loft type bed. We had searched online for the best deals in loft beds, but the selections that we liked were all out of our price range. Upon further research we discovered DIY loft bed conversion kits.

I admit I am not the most mechanically inclined person in the world. Usually if it has a difficulty of more than 4 out of 10, I can expect to struggle with the project. Regardless I really liked the price on the DIY loft bed conversion kit and ordered it. Once it came in, I carefully unpacked the pieces and read the instructions.

I was very pleased with how well it went together. The instructions were very easy to read and all of the holes were pre-drilled making the installation a breeze. I converted our daughter's traditional bed to a loft bed over a two day period, working a couple of hours each night once I got off work.

It has been assembled for a few weeks now and she absolutely loves it. We would not have been able to afford a queen size bed if we had not found the DIY kit online. We found it to be a very economic way to have a loft bed, saving space and giving her the fun and excitement of having to climb a ladder to get into bed each night.


If you are on a budget and are looking for beds like this, I would recommend looking into the DIY loft bed conversion kits.

DIY Foyer Organization

When you walk into a fancy hotel or home, you get your first impression from the foyer. This entrance area of many homes is often ignored and can become cluttered, messy and neglected. There are some things that you use daily that are just more easily kept near the front door. The problem is that these things are not necessarily attractive and they don't necessarily have anywhere specific to go.

Look at your foyer and figure out what your biggest problem is. It could be coats, umbrellas, school work, mail, pocket contents, cell phone chargers and more. Coats often become a problem because you want to shed them as soon as you come in the door. If you don't have a coat closet nearby, then the problem can compound very quickly.

To solve the coat problem, you can install a hanging bar from the wall. You may be able to make an attractive hanging area out of a dowel rod and two brackets. You can paint, stain or decorate this bar however you would like. Use decorative or wood hangers to keep the area from looking junky or unattractive. Another option would be to utilize coat hooks. Make sure that you buy them large enough to hold your coats. If you have nicer wool coats or suit coats, they should always be hung on wood hangers or cedar hangers shaped to fit their design, or you risk damage to the garment.

Another common problem for the foyer area is mail. You come in the house with mail, paperwork, flyers from the door or school work. A vast majority of these paper products can be trashed almost immediately. The problem is that we sift through the stack, pick out what's most important or interesting, and then toss the stack on a table near the door. You can solve this clutter problem by using bins for sorting mail, putting a small trash can near the desk or even keeping your shredder right there by the front door. Conceal it in a cabinet so that it is not an unsightly addition to your foyer. You can come in, throw important mail in one bin, things that you might need to look at later in another, shred personal information and throw away opened envelopes and junk mail all within seconds of walking in the door.

We like to empty our pockets when we come in the door. We need to keep cell phones, wallets, keys and purses near the door so that we know where they are the next time we leave the house. Make sure that you have specific hooks for purses, a charging station to keep cell phones, PDA's and MP3 players charged, and a piggy bank for all that change. When you're ready to go, everything you need will be neatly organized instead of crammed in with all of your other junk.

Whether you use hooks, wood hangers, a cabinet containing your shredder or charging stations, every little step you take helps to keep your foyer organized. When it all has a place to go, your life will quickly run more smoothly and your home will become more inviting.

DIY Last Minute Halloween Decoration

Don't panic, I tell myself. Yes, there's less than one week to go before Halloween, and I haven't prepared anything for my party yet. Just don't panic ... oh, I'm afraid I actually DO panic!

If you are like me and tend to leave things to the very last minute, you might be in desperate need for a Halloween decoration that

- is easy and quick to do,
- doesn't strain your budget too much and
- will earn you some admiring 'Ohs' and 'Ahs' from your guests.


Here comes the 'Spooky Bouquet' to the rescue! For one bouquet you'll need:

- four high quality 11" latex balloons, preferably with Halloween design, but if you can't get those, three plain black and one plain orange balloon will do as well,
- color matching curling ribbon (5mm wide),
- a plastic or ceramic pumpkin for the base (or any other small item that fits the theme and to which you can attach the ribbons) and
- a small flask of helium to fill the balloons.

How to make it?

You start with inflating the first of your black balloons with helium. Before you tie the knot you should make sure that the balloon is fully inflated to its 11" size. This is important as the bouquet will only look good if all balloons are blown up to the same size. There are two easy ways to do this: you could make yourself a simple 'balloon sizer' by cutting a circle of 11" diameter out of a piece of cardboard or you could set up two chairs back to back, so that the distance between them equals 11".

So, before you knot the balloon, pass it through your sizer and if necessary, deflate or inflate the balloon until it fits. Now take about 1m length from your curling ribbon and tie it to the balloon neck, leaving ca. 30cm loose for curling. Then attach the other end of the ribbon to your base. The overall height from the base to the top of the balloon should be about 80cm.

Repeat these steps for the other two black balloons. Position all three balloons at the same height.

O.k., just one more step to finish your Spooky Bouquet. Take the last balloon, in our example that would be the orange balloon, inflate it as described above and attach it to the base, so that it floats in the center of the three black balloons and just above them. You found the perfect position, when the top balloon just slightly touches the three black balloons.

Congratulations. You're done! Now stand back and admire your floating bouquet. There are so many Halloween themed balloons, both latex and foil, that you can easily create variations of this basic design. For example, you'll get a nice effect, if you replace the top latex balloon with a foil balloon - it could be a crazy pumpkin, a flying witch or a ghastly ghost ... whatever you prefer.

One special tip: as this is a last minute decoration idea, it might be too late to order a helium tank from a specialised balloon supplier. Maybe you know a small corner shop in your neighborhood that sells balloons. They probably have helium too. If it's not for sale, ask them to inflate your balloons on the spot and take the inflated balloons home with you. Of course, you should go there prepared and take the curling ribbon and the balloon sizer with you.