Ten Favorite DIY Projects to Try!

With all of us spending so much extra time at home lately, it’s a great time to knock out a DIY project or two! I thought it would be fun to share ten of my favorite DIYs from over the years – everything from stenciling our bathroom walls almost five years ago to my recent DIY of dressing up my girls’ bathroom cabinets with paint.  If you’re a long-time reader some of these will be familiar to you but I bet you’ll still find at least one or two that you missed along the way! (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})

1. DIY Painted Tile Floors

One of my all-time favorite DIYs is also one that I thought was probably going to be an epic fail – I painted the ugly tile floor in our powder room! Our powder room originally had custom cut carpet (kinda gross for a bathroom, right?!) that was covering this super dated red floor:

I took a risk and painted it thinking it would be a temporary measure until we saved up to replace the tile but it turned out so well that we’ve kept it as-is for years now:

Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop My Powder Room:

Check out my painted tile floor step by step tutorial {here} and also my follow up post {here} where I share how it’s held up after using it for a few years.

2. DIY Stenciled Bathroom Walls 

While we’re talking about our powder room, I’ll share the other DIY I did in this space that makes my top ten cut. Along with having dated carpet-over-tile flooring, our powder room had some pretty ugly yellow wallpaper:

I was on a tight budget for prettying this bathroom up so instead of re-wallpapering I tried my hand at stenciling instead, painting the walls a dark gray and then stenciling a light gray damask pattern on top:

It was pretty time intensive and not without some mistakes but I ended up with the look of wallpaper for about 1/10 the price:

You can check out the before and after transformation of our bathroom and info on the stencil I used {here} and my stenciling tips and tricks {here}.

3. Simple Custom Bed Skirt from a Flat Sheet

When I made-over my youngest daughter’s bedroom soon after our move to CT, I couldn’t find a bed skirt I loved that went with her bedding. But then after lucking upon some cute polka dot sheets at HomeGoods, I decided to give a DIY bed skirt a go. I used the finished edge of the sheet as the bottom edge of the bed skirt so there was hardly any sewing involved and I got a custom sized bed skirt for a song! 

You can snag the step by step of my bed skirt DIY tutorial {here}.

4. DIY Framed Bulletin Board (with a pocket!)

Looking for a quick and easy DIY using a favorite piece of fabric? This is it! This DIY framed bulletin board with a bottom pocket is a go-to spot for holding coupons, letters to mail, receipts, and anything else that would otherwise be cluttering up your kitchen countertops. Depending upon the fabric and frame that you use, you can create one in a style anywhere from modern to farmhouse chic:

You’ll find the full DIY and supply list for my framed bulletin board {here} and the DIY for a similar bulletin board project with burlap fabric and the cutest chalkboard clips {here}.

5. DIY Shiplap Walls

When we moved into our home, the master bedroom had blue faux finished plaster walls that were highly textured and cracked:

so instead of spending a lot of time and money to repair and smooth them, I decided to add shiplap to the walls! By using 1/4″ plywood sheets I was able to do it on a tight budget and am so happy with how it turned out:

Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop My Master Bedroom:

Get all of the details on how I DIY’ed our master bedroom shiplap on the cheap in {this post}. 

6. DIY Painted Bathroom Vanity

Most of you will remember this one because it’s my most recent DIY on the list! My girls’ bathroom was looking really tired but a complete makeover wasn’t in the cards so I decided to paint the walls and their worn vanity:

It made such a big difference (and is so much more do-able than you might think):

Get my how-to guide for painting your bathroom cabinets {here}. 

7. DIY Headboard

Part of the tween room makeover that I did for my daughter when we first moved to CT included making her a simple upholstered headboard. It’s one of my favorite projects to date because I was able to make it the exact size, shape, and color I wanted and I can always recover it with a different fabric in the future if I want to. Luckily when we did round 2 of her bedroom makeover last year, it still worked beautifully with all of the other changes we made:

Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop My Daughter’s Room (pillows are no longer available):

It’s actually an easier project than you might think – check out the step by step of her DIY headboard {here} to see. I also used the DIY skills I gained doing the headboard project to help DIY our kitchen banquette – I created the tall back of our banquette just like I did the headboard but added upholstery nails to it as a final step:

Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop My Kitchen Eat-in:

You can check out the step by step of how my DIY kitchen banquette was created {here}. 

8. DIY Fabric Book Covers

This is a super simple DIY that anyone can do! Using a favorite fabric remnant, your iron and some Stitch Witchery you can get online, you can make cute and stylish fabric book covers:

Such a simple way to add some seasonal color and pattern to your home!

Just follow the easy steps to knock this DIY project out {here}.

9. DIY Refinished Table

For years I had been holding on to a scratched-up, darkly stained end table for sentimental reasons:

I refinished it by sanding it down and re-staining it with a gray stain which transformed it into a beautiful new piece:

If you have a piece of furniture that needs some TLC, check out my post {here} that walks you through the refinishing process step by step!

10.DIY Dressed Up Flat Closet Doors

While we have typical six paneled doors throughout most of our house, our closet doors used to be flat slabs that looked pretty cheap. I didn’t want to spend the money to replace them with new doors so I dressed them up with molding instead. My youngest daughter’s closet doors that started out looking like this:

Had a whole new look after I added molding pieces to the front in a decorative pattern and replaced the hardware:

You can find my DIY tutorial for adding molding to flat doors {here}. 

My oldest daughter’s closet door started out with the same flat profile:

Along with some simple box molding, I added cork boards to the top two boxes so she’d have a spot to pin things:

You can find the step by step tutorial for my cork board closet doors DIY {here}. 

Enjoy your weekend,