Recycle Inspiration for your home!

We all have those items at home that we can't seem to get rid of, even though they don't seem useful any more. This is where repurposing/recycling comes into play to give them a new life!

Repurposing/recycling is so much fun, just because it is SO worth going into the effort of creating something fun yourself to suit the space and color palette you want. The end product gives me such an adrenaline rush!

Below are some photos of items I have recycled at our home. Maybe it will be the inspiration you need to get you started (trust me it's addictive) and once you get an eye for it, you are always on the look out to recycle!

Here's a list of all my recycle design ideas together for you to browse.

1. Recycled Coffee Bean Sack Cushion - DIY

2. DIY Pantry Door Upgrade

3. DIY Coffee Table Makeover: IKEA hack

4. DIY Powder Room Refresh

5. DIY Easy Spray Painting Makeover

6. DIY Rug Makeover

7. Upcycled Thrift store find: Altered spoon

8. Upcycled Thrift store find: Craft storage caddy

9. Upcycled Thrift store find: Kitchen caddy

10. From trash to treasure: DIY Scrapbook paper jewelry tray

11. DIY – How to make pots look like expensive stone planters!

12. DIY Decorative Diwali Candle/Tealight/Diya Floor Stand with supplies at home!

13. DIY Industrial Laundry Sign

14. Recycled wall planter

15. DIY Patent Wall Art using Recycled wood 

Maybe this will give you just the inspiration you need to get you started at your DIY project!

Love,
Divya

New addition to my Faux Copper Patina wall!

Today is the day. Yep, it’s the day for the reveal of my Coffee room Faux Copper Patina Wall Art! So, my DIY Faux painted wall had been begging for a wall art to make it look alive, and husband and I had been searching for the perfect little thing. We had been looking all over the home decor stores and the online websites for something quirky and unique without breaking the bank. I even thought of painting something fun, but the wall cried out for something out of the box!

So without further ado, here is what we finally ended up with! *drumroll please*

Ta-da!

I love it to pieces. I think I even dream about it at night!

And believe it or not, we found this dilapidated Penny-farthing cycle planter at the The Amazing Mill Markets of Daylesford! I admit that when we bought it, it looked filthy and ugly. You wouldn't want to touch it! It had dilapidated rubber tyres on both the wheels, and had a stand making it a floor planter.Husband was skeptical about my plans, but I knew this would be perfect for my Faux Copper Patina wall.

After dumping it into the car and bringing it home, we cleaned it with a pressure washer to get rid of the superficial dirt. The rubber tyre on the big wheel was hideous, so we removed it, and cleaned it again to get rid of all the in-lying cobwebs over the years. We bought a metal cutting tool to get rid of half of the handle to hang it close to the wall , and a few trips to Bunnings later, voila!

I decided not to repaint it to leave the character on it.

These pots are from Bunnings, and the plants in them are from IKEA. 

I love how the black metal of the cycle goes so well with the industrial table fan lamp. 

Can you tell that this is my favorite room in the house? This also gives the illusion of a higher ceiling. I love it!

Love,
Divya

DIY – How to make pots look like expensive stone planters!

Every time I walked through the Garden section of Bunnings, I would dream about concrete/stone planters instead of the giant ugly plastic pots in my alfresco. That is when I thought of giving them a makeover.. What if I could give my existing sad plastic pots a new life as funky fake stone planters?

The pots were old and scuffed, but as they were in sound shape I thought it was a great idea to give them a new life versus buying new and expensive pots.




I remembered I had some Dulux Design Stone Paint lying around from our house painting back in February. So, thought it would be just right for the makeover. Do not have the Design stone paint? Fret not. I have jotted down steps that you can use to recreate the look with items that are readily available.

So, here is how I refreshed the pots.

Supplies needed:

• A plastic pot to upcycle
• Sanding block/ Sandpaper
• Dust Mask for protection 
• Paint brush
• Container for mixing paint
• Disposable rubber gloves to protect hands
• Drop Sheet/Newspaper for protecting the floor
• Dulux Design Stone Paint
  OR
  Grey paint (or you can mix White and Black paint) - You could use regular wall paint.
  If using regular paint, you will need the following additional items to recreate the effect:
• Plastic bag for shading 
• Plaster of Paris

Directions:

1. Place the drop sheet on the floor, and start with sanding the pot with a sanding block or sandpaper. Wear a dust mask to minimize intake.
   
   
2. Wipe dust away thoroughly with a piece of cloth.
3. Take the paint out in a disposable container. If mixing colors to make paint, then do that here.
4. I straight away used the Dulux Design Stone Paint on the pot using a criss-cross pattern to get the realistic look.
   
   
   
   If using regular paint,  give the pot one coat of Grey paint. Work in criss-cross motion to get some texture. Don’t forget to do the internal ring of the pot too.
5. For the stone look, mix Plaster of Paris powder in one batch of paint and slap on the pot. Make sure you work with batches. Get details on this procedure in my DIY Copper Patina wall tutorial.
6. Use a plastic bag to scrunch out a lighter shade of grey to get patches like concrete. 

Large real stone/concrete planters retail for more than $150, so I’m thrilled that these ‘stone painted’ pots look close enough to the real thing! Just look at the transformation:

Love,
Divya

DIY Industrial Laundry Sign

I hate laundry. Anyone else with me on that?

It’s that task that I always put off to do. And don’t even get me started on the pains of ironing.

Our laundry room has been empty since we came into our home. A brand new washing machine and dryer did fill the floor space, but the walls have been empty ever since. We would like to add some storage cabinets on the walls, but that’s one of those snowball projects that is pushed to "some day".

So, I decided to add some decorative stuff on the adjacent walls at least, and what better way than to create a hand painted, industrial LAUNDRY sign. (Just in case no one knew what was going on in this little area.)

Here’s what you need to make a vintage rustic Industrial LAUNDRY sign. Or you could use the idea to make something similar for any room!

Materials:

• A piece of wood - I used some recycled wood I had lying around the garden of our home.We used a hand saw to cut the piece to the size we wanted.
• Sandpaper/ Sanding block
• Computer print out and a pencil
• Wax crayons
• Clear timber wax polish 
• Metal bits: 

1. Kinetic 15 x 150mm Galvanised Pipe
2. Kinetic 15mm Galvanised Flange
3. Kinetic 15mm Female Galvanised Tee

Instructions:

1. First we cut the piece of wood with a saw and sanded the entire piece of recycled wood along with the edges. I used a cloth to wipe away the fine dust.
   
   
   
   

   

   
   
2. After the wood was sanded, I printed out the word LAUNDRY on my computer to the size I needed. I used a regular font as I only wanted an outline to give me some idea of the size and placement.
   
   
3. I used a waxed crayon to color the back of the printout, placed it on wood, and then with a pencil, I traced the outline of each letter onto the wood where I wanted it to go, but the correct way. This rubbing effect transfers the pencil outline via the wax crayon from the back of the printout onto the piece of wood.
   
   
   

   

   
   
4. After transfer, I painted them in with black acrylic paint. I didn’t fill in the letters perfectly going for the vintage look.
   
   
   
   
5. I took some sandpaper and sanded off the paint in some spots as well. You can see I smudged the letter "R" a little bit, but that seemed to vanish after sanding and waxing.
6. Then I finally finished it off with a good wax to seal it up and add some sheen and finish.
   
   
    
   
   The clear wax works like magic! Look at that gorgeous wood grain and color coming through!
   
   
   
   

   

   
   
7. Next step is optional, but hubs helped me attach the fun metal bits to the wall to give it the industrial look. (Now it goes with the industrial pipe lights in the dining room, and the pipe fittings on our entertainment unit!) A trip to Bunnings got us all the tidbits we needed. It is so much fun when we share the madness of home decorating!

Here’s my fun industrial LAUNDRY sign hanging on the wall. I think I'm addicted and will make lots more!

I love how it looks! What do you think?

Recycled Coffee Bean Sack Cushion - DIY

I purchased some coffee bean sacks from a warehouse in the middle of nowhere awhile ago. I had made some table runners for my craft stall using a few, and still had some sitting in my garage just waiting to be transformed.

Ever since my folks got us a (mind blowing!) Breville Coffee machine, I wanted to transform our formal living room to make it an informal fun place to hang out! My transformed pallet wood IKEA tables already added so much character to the place, but I knew I wanted to make some recycled coffee bean sack cushions to add to the couch (in the process also transforming some existing sad-looking cushions I had bought ages ago). Here is how they turned out.

These recycled burlap coffee bean sack cushions require only one coffee bean bag, simple stitching (but thank God mum and dad helped!) and can be made in no time!

DIY Coffee Table Makeover: Ikea hack

Shifting into a new home brought lots of shopping for new furniture pieces. However, this did not mean we could throw out every piece of old furniture we owned. Hence, I decided to transform the two IKEA Lack tables we owned without breaking the bank.

IKEA furniture is just so cheap and functional, but also a little boring at times.


I figured we could just use recycled pallet wood and glue it right on top. I wanted to go for a rustic, reclaimed look to match the rest of the furniture in the house, and I’m really happy with the way this turned out.


What you need:

• IKEA Lack coffee table (the one we have measures 35 3/8″ X 21 5/8″). We also did the IKEA Lack side table (55cm X 55cm).
• Wood Pallets 
• Clear Timber Varnish
• Sandpaper/Sanding block
• Adhesive (e.g., liquid nails, wood glue, construction grade glue)
• Screws & Hammer/ Drill
• Tooth Saw/Electric saw

Easy DIY Spray Painting Makeover

DIY spray paint makeovers can turn anything into a fun gorgeous quirky piece! Paint can help you create a unique look, style and can add a little pop of color to a dull design.

Here's a quick before and after:

DIY Rug Makeover

Do you have a dingy sad-looking rug sitting somewhere in your house? Instead of tossing it or hiding it, you might try giving it a new look with the help of painter's tape and acrylic paint.

Here's what my rug looked like before the start of the project. Sad, faded, and crying out for a refresh:

Since my rug had a crisp contemporary pattern, I did not have to remake a design with the painter's tape, but instead filled in the existing design with paint. Instead of spending the money on a brand new rug, painting it was a good solution.

See the difference between the painted and the non-painted areas:

Using standard acrylic paint in cobalt blue and black, I gave the rug one coat of paint. 

It took me only a few hours to finish this project, but love the pop of color! 

And, here is how it looks in its original space. What a massive difference!

Are you going to give your rug a makeover? Let me know if you decide to give this a shot!

Upcycled thrift store find: Altered Spoon (Tutorial)

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful week. Today, I'm going to share how I altered this vintage spoon I had picked up at the Lost and Found Market. It had so much character that I just couldn't let it go.  

To get started, all you need, other than basic supplies, is an old silverware piece (which you can usually find at thrift stores):

Upcycled thrift store find: Craft storage caddy

So, I love vintage finds, and I found this beauty at the Lost and Found Market, Melbourne. I am going to admit right now that I love thrift store shopping for random items with lots of character and unique designs. This was a steal at the price so I brought it home, but I hated the color and the vintage decals. They just did not work for me. So, I decided to upcycle it to fit my craft table.