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As a team of DIY-enthusiasts, we’re constantly looking for inspiration: we could all spend HOURS sifting through TikTok and Instagram looking for the next fun thing to try out. Olga’s a big fan of house DIYs and has taken it upon herself to redo her family’s home one room at a time, and I’m a craft maven – I’ve got three different projects within eyeshot as I type! Social media has become a veritable fountain of ideas as well as an incredible way to find community with likeminded individuals – so this week we’re doing our first round-up of DIYs and trends that are living in our brains rent-free right now. Keep reading for a bunch of incredible ideas that will inspire you to take to your tools and spruce up your space!
THE POOL NOODLE HEADBOARD
You read that right. A headboard. Made out of pool noodles. And, unless you’ve seen it, you have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how much it can absolutely slap.
It’s actually a trend that has taken the DIY-o-sphere by storm. Pool noodles, cut carefully in half, affixed to a backer board, and upholstered with the luxe fabric of your choice create a headboard that has texture and visual appeal and absolutely elevate a space to hotel-level proportions. Creators have cleaved to this trend, creating all kinds of unique takes on it. Brady Tolbert’s Youtube tutorial has been a major inspiration for quite a while now, but with people finally taking more time to curate their space during the pandemic, it’s definitely making the rounds again.
The headboard that’s been giving us major goo-goo eyes these days is by Margaret Wright, who put her own spin on the trend by creating a dramatic arch with the pool noodles. She’s got a super specific highlight on her Instagram (@margaret.wright) where she goes through the process and even ‘fesses up when things did not go to plan (we always appreciate a bit of honesty)!
Margaret does say that this is a DIY to achieve a look that doesn’t exist elsewhere as opposed to one that saves you money, so if you’re thinking this will get you luxe for less, think again. Discount DIYs aren’t always the point, though – and a splurge in the room where you spend the most time is a no-brainer for us! This trend has a TON of space for personalization – with the shape of the headboard, the fabric you use, the texture. I’ve even seen one on TikTok where the arch is a rainbow – talk about a new way to let your pride flag fly!
WALLS
As the canvas of the home, walls offer a ton of opportunity for fun DIYs. Nothing is off bounds – paint and wallpaper are the baseline, but after that, consider: stencils! Decals! Texture! It’s just a matter of how much visual interest you want, and how involved a process you’re willing to take on.
Laura at @knapptime_crafts recently used one of our Refuge recycled paints in an office makeover that used wood trims to create rectangular wall mouldings. She documented the process from the brainstorming to the purchasing to the actual execution on Instagram, taking us all along for the ride and serving major inspiration. She’s the first to use our Moonstone recycled paint, and the super soft grey is totally perfect for an office – beautiful and soothing without being too busy or distracting!
We were also absolutely bowled over by a faux brick wall created by Ebony, @brownskinbeautiful. Exposed brick was once the main fixture of my domestic dreams, so finding her incredible tutorial on how to achieve that look with a few simple tools (and some very diligent measuring) was beyond exciting. She carefully measured out the bricks on her wall, sketching them in with a pencil and then taping over the lines, after which she applied joint compound to the wall – and peeled the tape off while the compound was still damp to achieve the brick structure. After that – paint. Just paint. And finito! It’s an absolutely brilliant idea that takes a lot of attention, but is otherwise super achievable.
One of our favorite creators, Katie over at @sprucedesign_nyc, recently did a darling makeover of a bedroom for twin girls that had so many incredible details we could go on for days. The main wall behind the beds featured nameplates for the twins (another great way to add texture and interest to a wall) as well as a smattering of rainbow decals. She shared a story of each arch being painstaking stuck on, one by one, but the pay-off is huge.
And we couldn’t forget to mention another heavy-hitter – stencils! The possibilities with stencils are endless, and go way beyond walls. Did you know you can even achieve a faux tile look with a stencil, and that’s on floors, too? It’s been incredible exciting to see the wide variety of what’s available now, from small simple patterns to intricate designs. Trish, an interior designer from Atlanta (@thegeorgiangoose on Instagram), is a master of texture, with designs using wallpaper, molding and, you guessed it, gorgeous stencils. Check out the cute spotty pattern she used in a powder room below!
KNICKNACKS
Handcrafted goods like ceramics have exploded in popularity in recent months – but, for those who don’t just happen to have a wheel in their garage, never fear! Get ready to sink your fingers into some clay. Did you ever make beads out of Sculpey, that clay you mold and bake? DIYs with clay are like that, for adults! You might know by now that we’re big fans of Letitia Kiu, and she recently bought herself a big chunk of clay and got to some making. She created some incredibly cute little jewellery holders – a dish and a wavy, whimsical stand, with very few tools that look organic and rustic and incredibly cute. She's got a whole Youtube video about the process: you can check it out here!
We’d also like to introduce you to Corrie Beth, a creator whose main claim to fame is her incredible paper plants and flowers, who has taken TikTok by storm with PAPER. MACHE. DISHWARE. It’s mainly decorative or for display purposes, of course, but the visual appeal alone – not to mention the fun factor of paper mache – makes this a DIY to definitely consider adding to your arsenal. You can check out the video that made us go ga-ga on TikTok, here.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Geneva Vanderzeil’s #trashtoterracotta hack – mixing baking soda with paint adds a grain that, once applied to the item of your choice (dollar store vessels are perfect here) creates a very effective faux terracotta look. You can use either baking powder or baking soda for this; the former creates a thicker but smoother paint mixture, while the latter has more texture but a little less coverage.
IKEA
My family used to be big fans of Ikea trips, the highlight of which was usually the Ikea hot dogs at the end of said trip. I loved wandering around the store, picking out textiles and furniture for my imaginary home (which always, somehow, needed to have several kitchens and bathrooms to accommodate all the styles I was interested in). With my innate affection for Ikea, it’s been of especial interest to me to see people taking the bare bones of Ikea fixtures – book cases, consoles, things like that – and turning them into something special and unique.
There are examples upon examples of handy DIY-ers taking to nighttables and consoles and adding interest with fluting. Affixing small dowels or tiny planks to drawers and doors adds a ton of personality and increases the aesthetic appeal – and then it’s up to you whether you leave the wood look the way it is, or add a new coat of paint. Since Ikea furniture comes finished, if you want to repaint, you’ll need to sand your piece so that the paint coats it efficiently. #ikeahacks is a great hash tag to mine for inspiration in this vein – it brought me to Kristine of @extra.ordinary.home, who tricked an Ikea Besta entertainment unit out with trim and changed the entire profile of the piece.
One of my FAVORITE Ikea hacks was executed by Jess and Rick of @thehousethatcolourbuilt, who took this trend and took it to a whole new level by creating an entire wall of built-ins with Ikea’s Billy bookcases (and a whole lot of modification by Rick). The wall is asymmetrically vaulted, so this was no mean feat, and the final product is painted with the sunniest, most saturated of all yellows. It’s visually stunning, the final form of built-ins if I ever did see one!
Being surrounded by all this creativity is one of the best things about about the DIY community – it’s surpassed only by getting to know so many incredible creators and building relationships and friendships. We’re looking forward to doing this every couple of months and getting to highlight the incredible work of our friends and colleagues. Be sure to let us know if any of these ideas strike your fancy, and show us your takes on the trends!
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