Practically anything can be transformed into a style statement with just a bit of innovation. Self-made decor elevates the looks of a home, rental, or office and provides a nice opportunity to reuse household stuff.
It’s not hard to get started; ideas come from everywhere, you just need to catch some. This list is a nice place to start!
Plastic “Trash”
There’s a lot of plastic all around our homes, and, sadly, it ins’t good for nature. Plastics take hundreds of years to biodegrade, and sometimes that isn’t even possible.
Since they’re going to stick around, we might as well make them into something useful and fashionable.
Light Up the Back Yard
- Soda Cans in to Lanterns
Empty soda cans, can be converted into some beautiful outdoor decor.
Spray paint soda cans cheerful colors or coat them in glue and roll them in sparkles. Slice the sides into strips, and squish the can to make the strips bell out in the middle–and you’ve got a cute, fire-proof lantern! These are great for decorating your yard on festive summer nights.
- Plastic Bottles:
There’s a lot you can do with old plastic bottles–from garden sprinklers, to homemade terrariums, to wind chimes. If you don’t want to put open flames in your yard (or you don’t drink soda), cut holes in the sides of old water bottles and then paint them inside and out. Dipping them in the paint is a great way to get even, solid colors.
For a cute house shape, cut out the middle quarter of the bottle, and then glue the top on to the bottom half. Because these won’t be exposed to much heat, you can also break out the glue gun to add all sorts of animals, flowers, ribbons, and more.
Used Household Goods
You average American household offers a lot more to work with than just old beverage containers. Stuff like used powder-bottles, toilet paper or paper towel rolls, empty shoe boxes, and old forks and spoons are particularly versatile.
But paper towel tubes might be the craft favorite, especially if you have kids. They can be converted into nice pen stands or flower vases. (Although empty beer bottles work better for real flowers.) For something a little more ambitious, take two or three tubes and make an animal. All you need is little paint, some straws or pipe cleaners, scissors, and something dynamic for the eyes.
How Do I Get Started?
These DIYs (Do It Yourself) crafts are the best place to start for the new home-crafter; they’re as flexible as the person working on them, and supplies won’t cost much at all. Lean into your imagination; there’s no wrong way to make any of the projects listed here. The only thing you need is a little bit of time.
Rushing through anything isn’t a good idea, and the same goes for creating new decorations. Take your time choosing a project that you’ll enjoy and that will fit with the feel of your home.
Everything has the potential to be converted into something useful, even when its usefulness seems to be over. Just look up and around, and you’ll get tons of ideas to start with. Before throwing anything away, wait a minute and think, could it have another life?
