Phyllis Gill - DIY Decoration and Design: Simple, Fun and Creative Projects to Add Zing to Your Living Space

DIY Decoration and Design

Simple, Fun and Creative Projects to Add Zing to Your Living Space

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I f you think that you can only learn decorating tips and tricks from glossy, over-priced magazines, please stop reading right here. If you only want the vision that a super fancy and even more highly priced designer would cook up for your house, this is not the book for you! But, if you are ready to wave goodbye at the glossy magazines and the pouting designer, leave all of your preconceived notions and social conventions behind; if you are ready to agree that rules are for fools and that you are not one, then this is just the book that you were looking for.

Let me tell you this story and hopefully you will be hooked: At one point I was living in a wee bitty mobile home with two small children and an equally small income. I still wanted my home to be pretty but I was stuck by the fact that this was a rental, very small and of course, being broke. I say stuck but not stopped, you see. I found the most perfectly sized table and chair set for this small place and divided the small kitchen from the small living room area with a long antique buffet. I had made friends with the woman at the local antique/second hand store and she gave me a serious bargain on this piece because the back was water damaged. Not only did I get a nice piece of furniture (even with the damage) I created two distinct areas and scored some extra storage potential in the process. I didnt have enough curtains for all of the windows so I made some. I bought butter yellow towels at the discount store and I stitched them a few inches down so that I would have some nice gathers at the top. You could only tell they were towels if you were right on top of them.

Will everyone be happy with towel curtains? Probably not but the point is simple: you can decorate with what you have or what you can afford so that you have a nice home. Let me be your low water mark- if I can do it, you can too. Trust me. I have limited sewing skills and limited patience with really complicated concepts but there are plenty of magical things that you can create with just a flick of the paintbrush or a few quick stitches. And of course, there are even faster ways to do things that require neither of those. So come on. Lets have some fun and decorate the world, one room at a time.

I n this chapter, you will learn:

• How to give everyday items a new lease on life
• Your first simple project: creating an elegant window topper with a surprise start

E verything in your home has a new life just waiting to be discovered. With very few exceptions, you can make a simple move and make an item become something different. You can forego all of those boring old rules that tell you that a bed sheet must always be placed on a bed. Skip the titles of things that tell you that your bookcase must only be used to hold books. Your first step in changing any room is to look at the potential in everything that you already own.

Lets take the metal bakers rack for example. Usually sold at a wide variety of price points they can be either wholly metal or a metal and wood combo. You can find them in many sizes and colors and you may even find one with some embellishments. If you were one to stick to the rules and titles of things then this rack would only sit in your kitchen holding pans and maybe a cookbook or two and in the case of the larger sizes, maybe your microwave. Sure, that is perfectly fine but what you need some shelves in another room? Your bakers rack could do just as well as a bookcase in the living room or a shelf for games in the family room. You could move it to the bathroom to hold towels and bath essentials. The wire shelves make it an excellent choice to group plants and plant growing items. You see the point, right? But, just because we are shedding some of the rules does not mean they are all going out the window. There are a few things that you should keep in mind when giving items a new purpose:

• Consider the location and the environment before you make the move. Dont move an antique piece somewhere that gets a lot of rough and tough activity.
• Food and stain sucking materials do not mix. You can use a bed sheet as a makeshift tablecloth with great results but you might be a bit more reluctant to use something more delicate.
• Measure twice and move once. Please dont rely on the eyeball method here especially for complicated to move or heavy pieces. Its not worth the heartbreak.

Other than that, the sky is the limit here. Imagine that you are throwing an elegant dinner party. You have selected some very lovely dishes and are in the setting the table. You do not have candle holders, a centerpiece and your only real tablecloth is missing in action. You can save that party and your sanity without even stepping foot outside of the house. A flat bed sheet is the perfect size for most tables and can quickly become your tablecloth. As an added bonus they tend to wash up quite nicely and if not, are fairly inexpensive to replace. If your sheet is too small then throw it on the table at an angle and let some of the bare wood show through on the corners. If it is seriously too small then fold it in half (or in thirds) lengthwise and use it down the center of the table as a table runner instead.

Next, find a pretty bowl- whatever you have on hand. Fill it with something seasonal like pine cones for fall and winter, fresh greenery for spring and bright, beautiful lemons for summer. You could choose to fill it with lovely fruits which can double as a dessert option for those who are trying to eat with more care. If you would like to add sprigs of flowers in between the fruits, you can.

Do not let yourself get stuck thinking that this item only goes in this room- be creative. Let your inner designer free!

F or this project you will need one window and one scarf, table topper or similar sized material. Here is what you do. Decide what type of window topper you want- for a fancier appearance drape the scarf across the curtain rod and then fold up the hanging end in the middle, poofing it out as you go. (To get more poof start with a larger scarf and then fill in the middle with inflated balloons or pieces of scrunched paper.) You can also fold the scarf on a diagonal and drape over the rod to form a triangle topper. Play with the folds and the angles until you get the look you wanted.