Crafty Home Improvements You Can Do

 

 

This is the perfect time of year for giving your home a fresh look, inside and out. For creative people, discovering new ways to solve old problems provides a sense of adventure and accomplishment. Let’s take a look as some of the more inventive ways to make simple, but interesting improvements to your home without making huge financial investments.

 

Create Storage Space

Homeowners with plenty of storage space are a very fortunate lot. If your home is lacking, you can create additional space by thinking creatively. Old book cases or dressers from the thrift store can help add in space for those items that don’t have a home.

Look for bookcases with deep shelves. Take measurements of the inside area of the shelves and find the right size baskets to use as “drawers.” If you don’t like that idea, you can also use plastic bins. These have the added advantage of allowing you to see the contents. If you’re on a very tight budget, sturdy shoeboxes painted bright colors, or covered with patterned paper, will do the job while adding interest.

Old dressers make the perfect storage for linens, if you don’t have a linen closet. You can also store your best dishes and other seldom-used items in the drawers. When storing dishes, or anything breakable, be sure to wrap or cushion them. You also get added surface space with a dresser; perfect for displaying family photos. Add a fancy vase of silk flowers for an everlasting splash of color.

You can paint the bookcase or dresser to match your room décor, or you can go completely whimsical, which would be perfect for a kid’s room or your craft area. Check out the finishing kits available to create an interesting look. Kits allow you to give your piece a woodgrain, speckled, distressed, or marbled look and you can do it in any color you choose.   

 

Refresh with Paint

Sprucing up a room with a new coat of paint is nothing new. However, getting creative with painter’s tape to do it may be new for you. Create a wall of interest using different colors of paint or different painting textures. Use painter’s tape to tape off the different sections. Designs can be as simple as stripes. They can be uniform or varying widths, you get to decide. Maybe you only want stripes on the bottom half of the wall and the rest of the wall will be in a coordinating solid color.

For the more adventurous painter, experimenting with designs such as diamonds, geometric shapes, or freehand turns your painted wall into a statement. Don’t be afraid to try something unique. Start with a design on paper to get an idea of what the finished project may look like.

Not everyone is willing to go bold. If you are the more conservative type, but sill would like to add interest to a boring solid colored wall, you can do so by applying a coordinating shade of paint to the trim. If your room lacks trim boards, you can use painter’s tape to paint an eye-catching border as a substitute.

 

Floors with Interest

If you have non-carpeted floors you have a blank canvas to work with. Old, boring floors can be rejuvenated and updated with splashes of color. Whether you paint a bouquet of flowers in each corner or decide to carry the design of the wall art down to your floor, adding interest with color and design will give your floors personality.

Old wood floors have a look all their own and you may be reluctant to cover that look with paint. Area rugs are fine but maybe you want something with more pizazz. Using a large cut of canvas, you can paint a picture or design to give your floor a very unique vibe.

Your work space should be an area where you can leave your canvas for a few days. First, wash the canvas to shrink it then hem the entire piece. Prime it with white or off-white acrylic paint. Let it dry for 24 hours, then paint your picture or design and let that dry for at least a day.

Acrylic paint may feel dry to the touch, but it actually takes a few days to cure completely. The longer you leave it to dry thoroughly, the less likely it will develop cracks. Once it’s dry, finish it off with 3 coats of clear polyurethane. Allow the floor cloth to dry at least 12 hours between each application and be sure to cover all painted areas completely.

You can give your home new personality by adding your special crafty touches. With colour, textures, and imagination you can easily turning boring and ho-hum into fun and exciting. Happy crafting!

 

About Joanne Aubuchon

Joanne is a resident writer for SERVIZ, an on-demand home services company offering everything from Plumbing repairs to Carpet Cleaning across the US. Joanne is a writer by day and reader by night. Joanne loves writing about saving money, raising kids and improving the quality of our lives. When she is not writing, you can find her trying out new salad recipes, playing ball with her kids, or cheering in the stands at her son’s soccer games.

 

 

 

 

 

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