Weekend Money Tip: Decorate your home the DIY way to save money!

This weekend, get creative and save money with a DIY home decor project!  

Do you have some old piece of furniture that needs some new life breathed into it?

Need to spruce up your picture frames?

Have a blank wall that just needs “something”, but you don’t want to spend the money?

Any extra lumber or pallet wood laying around begging to be turned into a wall hanging?

You don’t have to be an expert craftsman or a professional decorator to create some fabulous, unique pieces to spruce up your home decor. With a little paint, stain, and sandpaper, you’ll be amazed at what you can do. Use your imagination and get creative.

To give you a bit of inspiration, I’m sharing a few of my projects below. Also, be sure to check out Pinterest for a boatload of ideas and how to’s.

My DIY Home Decor Projects

I have a certain taste in home decor. Anything I put in my house as “decor” has to meet three requirements. It has to:

• Be cheap or free
• Have meaning (I have to love it and it has to bring me joy)
• Be rustic, unique, or resemble nature in some way

That said, I’m pretty minimalist when it comes to decorating. I like cleared tabletops and have very few (if any) knick knacks on shelves. But I do like wall hangings, pictures and the look and feel of wood in my home.

One of my absolute favorite hobbies is to DIY home decor projects. I love the money savings, but also like the ability to make projects exactly how I want them. Here are a few of my creations that may help spur some of your own ideas:

Pallet wood picture frame holder 

We had a blank wall in the living room that seemed an odd place for a horizontal picture. I wanted something to fill the blank space, but I wanted it to be vertical, so I came up with the idea to use pallet wood and create a display for the family photos.

We simply used a piece of plywood for the back and screwed different lengths of pallet wood to the plywood. The shelves were a little tricky, as we attached them from the back with longer screws. I used square dowels on the front of the shelves to keep the picture frames from sliding off. I didn’t even sand the thing, just threw a bit of stain on (15 minutes) and hung it. (It is heavy – we had to screw it into the studs.)

Coasters

Pallet wood was used to create these coasters. My parents got a set for Christmas and I made a couple for our bedside stands as well. I cut pallet wood to my desired size, sanded, stained or painted the blocks of wood, and painted simple trees on them.

Pallet wood wall hanging

We had a corner of our bedroom that needed something, so I just took some small squares of plywood and attached pieces of pallet wood with screws, sanded, stained, and, once again, painted some basic tree limbs.

Chairs

I wanted rustic farmhouse chairs for a farmhouse table my husband built, but didn’t want to spend much. I purchased old chairs on craigslist for $10 each. The chairs were sanded, painted, and then sanded again where I felt chairs would get natural wear, like on the seat on the edges. I then applied a light coat of stain and wiped it off to create a more rustic look. The chairs were finished with a sealer (I admit, these took me way longer than I thought they would and, though I’m happy with them, I wouldn’t repeat the project!)

Trees on mantle

Have you noticed the tree theme yet? The fireplace mantle needed a little something. I cut some extra pallet wood, stained it and painted trees on it. I just stood them up on end on the mantle. This project took less than 30 minutes.

Framed prints

I use all of our own photos in our house. My favorites are close ups of flowers and pretty landscape photos from vacations. My mom gives me her unused frames or I pick them up at the thrift store and order poster prints in the desired size from Costco.

Shelf with pulls

We have an abundance of scrap wood at our house. I just took two boards and attached them with screws at a 90 degree angle. The shelves were painted white, sanded a little for a rustic look and finished by dry-brushing green over the white. Drawer pulls were added for necklace holders. This is in my daughter’s room. She painted the letters in her name to put on the shelf and it looks oh so cute!

There you have it….my DIY home decor projects of late. Hopefully your creative juices are flowing and you’re ready to tackle a project this weekend!

Do you DIY home decor? Share your best DIY home decorating projects!