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Making a DIY Rain Barrel from a Trash Can

May 10, 2019 by Ash 98 Comments

Looking for a way to reuse rainwater without using gutters? This easy DIY will show you how to upcycle a trash can into a rain barrel for under $35!

With summer approaching, Eileen was working hard on her flower garden.

She has a DIY planter box close to the house, but she also has a flower garden out in the perimeter of the yard. As I saw her walking all the way up to the house and out to the yard to fill up her watering can several times in a row, inspiration struck.

Why not set up a type of water reservoir by her garden?!

Not only would this eliminate her water laps to the house, but it would avoid the hassle of rolling and unrolling a hose.

Furthermore, I could use a rain barrel system which would fall right in line with our new organic way of life. We’ve made a lifestyle change this year, opting for organic, non-processed foods, and re-using rainwater was a perfect addendum.

Planning the DIY Rain Barrel

I did some research on how making DIY rain barrel reservoirs and settled on a design pattern I liked.

A rain barrel reservoir is a very simple way to collect and store rainwater for future use. You first need a large container to store the water.

A typical container used is the blue 55-gallon water drums with bung hole caps on the top. In my research, I actually found out that a lot of cities offer water conservation programs and give out these drums for free.

Also, you can probably even check with businesses or food processing factories to see if they are throwing any away.

I opted for a different route though, as I did not need a large 55-gallon container. I shopped around at Home Depot and found a 20-gallon plastic garbage can for $13 that was perfect.

The lid appealed to me because when I flipped it over, it was deep and round. This meant it would serve as a nice water collection basin for the falling rain (as opposed to a flat surface that I would get with a water drum), allowing the water to pool in the center.

Here’s a picture of the garbage can I purchased at Home Depot with the deep upside down lid:

Constructing the DIY Rain Barrel

Making the DIY rain barrel was super simple. Here are the steps that I used:

Drilling Holes in the Lid

The first step of construction was drilling five large drainage holes in the center of the lid. I used a hole saw bit for my drill to make these cuts.

Attaching a Screen Cover

Then I placed some mosquito screen for a cover on the part of the lid that would be facing the water, and secured it in place with some waterproof duct tape.

It was important to cover the drainage holes with insect screen to keep bugs out of the water. If the screen wasn’t fine enough, mosquitoes especially would get in and lay larvae in the water.

Drilling an Overflow Hole

I also had to drill an overflow hole in the top part of the garbage can. This was to allow water to drain out when the container was full to capacity. This hole also had to be protected with insect screen.

Here’s a picture of the 5 drainage holes in the lid, as well as the overflow hole in the garbage can:

Below is a picture of what the lid looked like once the insect screen cover was applied with waterproof duct tape (the screen is a little hard to see, but its covering the holes).

This part of the lid would be facing downwards so would not be visible.

Attaching a Valve Spigot

I needed a valve inserted at the bottom of the can to let water out when needed. I did some shopping online and found a really nice valve spigot with a bulkhead fitting that was perfect for my rain barrel design.

The bulkhead fitting was the piece that let me attach it to the wall of the garbage can without leaking.

To install it, I first drilled a hole at the bottom of the can. Then I inserted the inside part of the bulkhead fitting. This piece came with a rubber ring that would form a tight seal when pressed against the can wall.

Next, I attached the outside part of the fitting. It just screwed onto the inside piece from the outside, and then I used a wrench to make a tight connection.

Finally, I screwed on the actual spigot into the outside bulkhead fitting. I used some Teflon tape on the spigot grooves to ensure a watertight seal.

With the spigot tightly installed, I partially filled the can with water (just high enough to cover the spigot) and checked for leaks. No water came out, so it was good to go.

Here’s a picture of the spigot (left) and bulkhead fitting (right), straight out of the box:

Here’s a picture of the installed spigot from the outside (notice the white Teflon tape around the spigot groove to make a waterproof seal with the bulkhead fitting):

Below is what the bulkhead fitting looked like from the inside:

Securing the Lid

Next, I had to secure the upside down lid to the garbage can so that a gust of wind wouldn’t send it soaring through the air. I came up with a simple technique of drilling 16 small holes around the perimeter of the lid penetrating the can below.

Then I inserted 6 inch U shaped strands of electrical wire into the holes, twist tying the bottoms. The wires held the lid tightly to the garbage can.

Here’s a picture showing the wire strands holding down the lid on the DIY rain barrel:

Building a DIY Rain Barrel Stand

The DIY rain barrel was now finished.

However, the project would not be complete without a proper rain barrel stand. The barrel needed to be elevated about a foot off the ground to allow buckets and watering cans to be placed under the spigot.

I came up with a simple but very sturdy design for a stand using wood left over from my shed project.

It was important to use pressure-treated wood for the stand as it would be in direct contact with the ground and be exposed to bugs. I constructed the stand as outlined in the pictures below.

Cutting the Wood

I cut 2’ lengths of 2 x 4s, 2 x 6s (pictured below) and 1’ length of 4 x 4s (not pictured):

Then, I attached 4 of the 2 x 6s to 4 vertical 4 x 4s:

Next, I attached 2 of the 2 x 4s to the top of the 4 x 4s. These were to serve as the supports for the stands platform:

Finally, I attached 4 of the 2 x 6s to the top, completing the rain barrel stand:

Securing the the Rain Barrel to the Stand

With the stand and rain barrel now complete, I found a good location near to Eileen’s garden and set it up.

I also made sure there were no tree branches above to block the rainfall. At this point, I realized I forgot to properly secure the rain barrel to the stand.

A strong gust of wind would knock over an empty barrel. So I screwed in 2 metal hooks into the stand and tied the garbage can handles to them with some carabiner style bungee cords.

Here is a picture of the final setup of our DIY rain barrel:

Here’s a close up of the hook for the bungee cord, securing the rain barrel to the stand:

Testing our New DIY Rain Barrel

I was excited for Eileen to start using the rain barrel. Now I just had to wait for rain.

Luckily it rained the next day, and I ran out after the skies cleared up to check out the rain barrel.

My simple design worked pretty well. I opened the spigot and water came pouring out. Though, it wasn’t that much water for the amount of rain that fell.

The garbage can lid only has so much surface area to collect water and yielded a small amount of water. So, it would take several large rain falls to collect a usable amount of water. However, it still saved Eileen trips up to the house and back.

So although the basic design for the rain barrel was complete, I was already envisioning upgrades to improve the water collection efficiency.

Updates to come in future blog posts!

As for time and cost, the materials for the DIY rainwater barrel cost $35, and it took about an hour to make.

3 Year Rain Barrel Update

Our DIY rain barrel has been working out great. It has saved us so many trips from the house all the way out to the garden hauling watering cans.

Depending upon how much it has rained, sometimes we need to fill up the rain barrel with the hose, but then the rainwater will continue to maintain it again.

It’s much easier taking the hose all the way down the yard a once a year or so – than every watering.

With a little digging and a lot of stones, you can make your own stone walkway with these easy instructions. We LOVE the one we made and never thought it would get as much use as it did.
Need a little shade in your sunny yard? Install your own sun shade sail. It’s perfect for so many things – from patios to kids play areas.
Make these easy DIY planters in fun shapes for inside or outside use 🙂

Making Sliding Storage Shelves in One Weekend

April 11, 2019 by Ash 74 Comments

Learn how you can turn a 20-foot garage corner into 70-feet of space with stacked, slide-out storage shelves. Plus, see how to create bonus shelving with leftover wood.

My garage was getting a little out of control. Bulky tools from home improvements projects, boxes upon boxes of holiday decorations, gardening tools, piles of landscaping bags – nothing seemed to have a place.

It was hard to get work done efficiently – not to mention, find something when I was looking for it.

It was time to get smart about garage organization, storage, and shelving.

I decided we need a some sort of shelving tower with deep shelves.

One of the ways I maximized was by using sliding shelves in the storage tower. This increased the amount of things our shelf could hold but didn’t compromise being able to easily find them.

It was definitely an easy and practical addition to the garage shelf project.

Determining a Space for the Sliding Storage Shelves

I already had several prefabricated metal garage shelves doing a decent job of garage storage, but they had their shortcomings.

I had been eyeing this corner space next to our garage fridge. The space was 3 feet deep and about 6 feet wide, and it was currently underutilized.

There were just piles of boxes, gardening tools, and other things that had accumulated.

Corner spaces in the garage often become dumping grounds, as ours had become. I decided to capitalize on the vertical square footage, transforming this messy corner into garage storage shelving.

So, after a few days of pondering over garage storage shelving ideas and messing around in TinkerCad (an awesome 3D designing website), I came up with the idea below for garage storage shelves:

Garage Storage Shelf Requirements

I had 3 requirements for the sliding storage shelves project for my garage. My first requirement was deep storage shelves. The area had a lot of depth, and I wanted to make the most of the space.

I went with 3 ft deep shelves; this was twice as deep as the prefab shelves, so twice the garage storage space.

The second requirement (which is not evident in the TinkerCad drawing above) was sliding garage shelves.

Although 3 ft deep garage shelves would hold a lot, trying to reach something at the back seemed very burdensome. You would have to move things out of the way to get back there, which wasn’t very efficient, especially for vertical space.

Therefore, I wanted some of the deep garage shelves to be on drawer slides.

My last requirement was enough clearance at the bottom of the garage shelves to fit some of my taller tools (like my shopvac), and for them to just roll out (without having to drop off a shelf).

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Preparing Space for the Garage Storage Shelves

To start the sliding storage shelves, I first cleared out and cleaned the designated area for the garage shelves.

Then I located the studs in the wall (using my trusty stud finder), and used green painters tape preserve their locations.

The garage shelving unit was going to be bolted to the studs to make it stable.

Here’s the wall with the studs marked:

Building the Shelf Supports

The actual construction of the garage shelves was fairly straight forward. I just followed the design I created to construct the sliding storage shelves.

The whole garage shelf was made of 2 x 4 wood that was cut to different lengths.

Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the construction (it was a pretty fun project to work on), I forgot to take many pictures. Therefore, I’m just going to provide some visuals.

First, I made 3 vertical support structures for the garage shelves. I would install these on the ends and middle.

These supports looked like a 3 ft wide ladder – see pic below:

Next, I used 6 ft cuts of 2 x 4s to connect the 3 vertical supports, and to form a basis for each garage shelf.

I also added 2 extra 6 ft pieces at the back of the structure to bolt into the wall studs.

Adjusting for Sliding Garage Shelves

Before considering sliding storage shelves, I thought about making all of the shelves look like the very top one. However, that was going to be too simple, and I like to make things a little challenging.

Hence, the modifications for the garage sliding shelves.

The shelf slides were going to bear the load of the garage shelves, so it was not necessary to run as many 6 ft planks as the top shelf (which was just a static shelf with no slides). Three connecting pieces per row was sufficient.

Next, I needed structures to attach the slides to. I came up with the design below:

Notice the 4 slide supports on each row (one on each end and two in the middle). In between each pair of slide supports was going to be the actual sliding shelves.

At this point in the project, it was time to secure the structure to the garage wall. If I proceeded any further with construction, the DIY shelving unit would be too heavy for me to carry (not that it wasn’t already really heavy).

Also, there was just enough room for me to squeeze in between the 2 x 4s to get to back to bolt the structure to the wall studs.

Next, I wedged myself in the middle of garage shelving unit, picked it up like superman, and inched my way over to the wall. I used some lag bolts to secure the shelves to the studs.

Constructing the Storage Shelves

After that, I had to build the actual sliding storage shelves. Here is my design for each sliding shelf:

During construction of the garage shelves, I did add an elevated piece to the back of each shelf. I didn’t want items falling off the back as I pulled the shelf forward.

First, I installed the slides on each slide support. Then, using ¼” scrap wood as shims, I elevated each shelf and secured them to the slides.

With the sliding shelves installed, the garage shelf project was pretty much complete. Last, I just had to install some gate handles for each shelf to be able to pull them out easily.

Although, I did make a last-minute design decision though – I omitted the bottom row of sliding shelves and replaced it with a static shelf (like the very top one).

I realized that some of my tools (like my miter saw) didn’t have enough clearance to fit on the DIY sliding shelf.

Consequently, I settled for just 2 rows of sliding shelves, which was still plenty of awesomeness.

I took the pictures below of the completed DIY garage storage shelves:

There is also enough space to pull a car into the garage too – with about a foot to spare.

However, I was a little worried about bumping into the garage shelf with the car, so I got a cheap parking sensor to help (it turns from green to yellow to red as you get within a foot of the sensor).

Bonus Storage Shelving

After I finished the garage shelves, I had an extra 2 x 4 leftover. Still in a shelf-frenzy mood, I turned those into some normal shelves on the wall.

To the left of the sliding shelf structure was a hideous area begging for some DIY garage organization, and a prime target for a storage solution:

Using some shelf brackets, I bought a while ago, I threw together a simple shelf for the garage with the leftovers from the main project.

Below is what I turned the above disaster into – see shelf at the top of the picture.

Using the Sliding Storage Shelves

The sliding storage shelves truly transformed a disorganized corner. We gained a ton of lost space through building the shelf tower.

Storage-wise, the garage shelves hold more than we could have imagined – most of the boxes of holiday decorations (Eileen loves that she can easily access these), tool boxes, and large tools such as the miter saw.

Underneath the storage shelves, I store the shop vac, jaw horse, and snow blower. It’s the perfect height.

Pleased with the outcome of my DIY garage organization, I found building the shelving unit one of the most fun and creative projects I’ve worked on recently.

I also completely impressed Eileen with doing the whole project in one weekend – that was the best part. She was also thrilled that the cost was less than $200.

If your garage is getting out of control and you have underutilized space, you should definitely think about building these sliding garage storage shelves.

The design worked beautifully, and you can’t beat the turnaround time and low-cost.

With phase 1 of “Project DIY Garage Organization” was now complete. Phase 2 of the garage construction is coming this summer – a dream folding workbench with fancy storage solutions.

More Garage Ideas

You know that wasted space in between your double garage doors? We used every inch of it with these easy DIY French cleat storage boxes.
Our garage doubles as our workshop. If yours does too, see 12 things every DIYer needs in their garage.
We just put a DIY screen door on our garage and are loving it! Screen doors are so easy to make and cheaper than buying the premade doors.

6 Easy Things You Can Do to Love Your Home

October 10, 2018 by Eileen Leave a Comment

6 Easy Things You Can Do to Love Your Home Post Preview: You’ll learn six things that you can do to bring you more happiness in your home, emulating that Christmas morning feeling.

You know the feeling you get when your home looks ready?

Everything is in its place, it’s clean and sparkling, and you are surrounded by things that bring you happiness.

This is usually the feeling I get around Christmas when I walk down the steps and see the Christmas tree lighting up the room – I absolutely the holidays.

Since we can’t have Christmas all the time, and we deserve to love our homes year round, I’ve put together 6 easy things you can do to bring you more happiness in your home. (If you need a little more help with your home, check out our room makeover workbook!)

1. A place for everything

One of the biggest issues in our home was stuff. So much stuff. Everywhere.

Declutter

If you are feeling like there’s always toys without a home, or piles of papers laying around, or boxes of pictures that you haven’t hung up, it’s time to find a better way.

Decluttering is one of the best ways to keep your house in check. Grab a box or a garbage bag and start collecting things to donate or trash.

If you are holding onto things that you really don’t need or that you don’t like but keep because of obligation, start rethinking that.

While thinning out your belongings, you can make more space, so everything else has a place.

Make space

If you’re thinking there’s no way that I can thin out my book collection or my spouse is a kind of a hoarder (ahemmm my husband), then declutter what you can – but make a spot for everything.

You can buy under-the-bed boxes to toss extra shoes in, you can buy more storage baskets or bins for toys (heck, you can even make these from cardboard boxes and contact paper), or you can hang shelves on the walls that can store fabric containers. Vertical space is amazing.

Little problem areas

You might just have a few areas in your home that are little problem areas. For us, the top of our washer and dryer becomes a dumping ground for mail and school papers.

It was making me so crazy because things would get lost. So, we are attaching hanging inserts to the side of our entryway piece with eight slots for paper organization (tutorial coming).

So, think about those messy areas of your home that seem to add stress or affect your productivity. Rethink how you have it organized – if it’s something as simple as adding some organizational boxes, you’ll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.

2. Rearrange for a fresh look

When I’m getting tired of a room, one of the first things that I do is rearrange it. In fact, I’m thinking about rearranging my office furniture as I’m typing this. I would love my desk to face the window 🙂

My love for rearranging runs deep. When I was a kid, I always shared a room with one of my sisters. I used to make little floor plans of our room and figure out how I could rearrange my furniture without having to move it more than once.

Rearranging a living room with a wall to wall fireplace

Rearranging this space made me love this room again

Last spring, the family room in our home was driving me crazy. When we moved to the house, the furniture all got placed, and it just stayed that way for years.

We had the TV mounted low on the wall, above the television table, and I arranged a gallery around the TV. Even though it looked nice (and we always got compliments on it), I just didn’t love it.

So, we remounted the TV high in the corner of the room, moved the TV table up to my son’s room for a toy table, moved a couch over to the wall where the TV was, and did a smaller gallery wall.

And, I just love it.

It brought a fresh look to the room.

Plus, there are all these other advantages – like I can now see the TV from the kitchen. Also, with the television mounted so high, the kids can play anywhere in the room without being too close to it.

If a room is driving you crazy, think about how you could rearrange it to make more functional or more enjoyable for you.

2. Do easy DIYs

Did you know that anyone can do simple DIYs? You don’t have to be really awesome with wood or really talented with designing a room. Anyone can watch a youtube video and learn a new skill.

Simple DIYs like updating old drawer pulls or old door handles (goodbye brass knobs) can make a huge difference.

Card catalog drawer pulls and DIY drawers

Loving these card catalog drawer pulls with space for labels

Painting a room can be absolutely huge. When we moved to our house, the entire house was painted stark white. In a few of the rooms, we painted a softer grayish white.

While we knew it wouldn’t be a drastic difference, it feels like one because the entire room feels warmer and more welcoming than that harsh white. Color can make a huge difference.

There are tons of other easy DIYs too – stenciling a wall, using peel and stick tiles, and refinishing furniture with milk or chalk paint (no prep work).

If you aren’t sure where to start, pick one DIY project you are excited about or one space in your home to hone in on.

3. Bring in things you love

I can’t emphasize this one enough – bring in things that you love, things that make you happy.

It’s way too easy to get caught up in the trends. Don’t just buy things or decorate with things because they are popular. Go with the items that make you happy.

If you just adore a print you find or a patterned chair, go with those things! Leave the trendy stuff behind. Unless, you love the trendy things, then by all means, go for it.

Treasure-Hunting

Go to thrift stores for new finds. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve found at thrift stores that I just adore! And the price and the fun of the find makes me love these things even more.

Sentimental Things

Decorate with sentimental things. My grandpop was a woodcarver, and we have many of his wooden animals and Santa Claus figures around the house. I love them because they remind me of him. My son recently asked if he can keep the wooden dog in his room 🙂 He’s learning young to surround yourself with what makes you happy.

Photographs

Photographs are also awesome – print a couple pictures that you love and put them in some picture frames that are on sale at Michaels. The pictures could be family photos, photos of your kids, your engagement photos, some awesome candids, or pictures of your travels. Or even some original artwork.

Make These DIY Picture Ledges with Scrap Wood!

Love these DIY photo ledges – they make it so easy to display tons of photos

Things that you adore

Last, if there are any special items that you love, decorate with those. I totally have a thing for pillows. What can I say?! They make me happy 🙂

4. Get rid of things that you don’t love

If you don’t like something anymore, then why keep it?! Lots of times we keep things out of obligation, just to collect dust in the basement or on the shelves.

Or, sometimes your style changes and you are no longer into the same things.

I used to have a huge collection of gold frames that I really am not so crazy about anymore. Yet, I got tired of the space they occupied in hallway closet boxes, so I went through them. I spray painted a few and donated the rest. I do have to say, it felt really freeing.

I also just got rid of a box of beach-related things that were former bathroom decorations in our old house. I never was really into beach-themed but I wasn’t sure how else to decorate a bathroom.

That box went straight to the thrift store, and I’m sure someone who loves beach decor was excited to find new treasures. (What’s in my bathroom now? Just a simple vase with flowers and a few simple pictures).

Big ticket items

If it’s something big that you don’t like, such as a couch, think about how you can change it.

Could you get a slipcover that would fit? Could you use throw blankets and accent pillows to spruce it up? Could you swap the couch with one from another room? Or, would you rather save up for a new one?

If you don’t like something, think about how you can change it so you do.

But, if you really don’t like something and it’s not a necessary item, don’t keep things around just to keep them around.

5. Find ways to bring more light

You know the feeling you get after a few days of rain and sunshine finally comes out? That long-missed sunshine always makes me smile.

An easy way to bring that happiness into your home is more light!

You can do this by taking down cumbersome old blinds and valances and replacing them with honeycomb blinds or long, flowy curtains, which will allow more light in.

For kids rooms, room darkening shades are great because they work perfectly to block the light for naps and early bedtimes, but they are easy to open to let the light back in.

Bulbs & Fixtures

Another way to bring more light in is through replacing dim bulbs or changing out your light fixtures, for a lighter, more modern look. And, the benefit on this is twofold – more light and a prettier fixture.

6. Work on the areas that need a little love

If there’s a particular room or space in your home that you feel needs a ton of work, you can easily pick a project or two and start chipping away at it.

We had a horrible mudroom, and it’s on our list to do a full renovation to one side of the room (tearing down a closet and replacing with countertops and cabinets).

However, as it was, that room made me crazy. It doubles as our entryway and our laundry room, so you can imagine how much time I spent in there.

Finally, I started chipping away at some projects I could do, independent of our grandiose future plans, and the change is insane.

Mudroom makeover – you won’t believe the “before”

We painted the room, stenciled a wall, added shiplap, added an entryway piece, and switched out a light fixture. Now this room is my happy place. Seriously, it’s the nicest room in the house 🙂

And to think, I almost didn’t touch it because of the future closet-to-countertop plan.

It just goes along with everything I’m saying – create spaces in your home that make you happy.

Don’t wait. You deserve it 🙂

Looking to makeover a room right away? Get our room makeover workbook that will guide you through making over a space in your home.

7 Easy DIYs for Your Walls

June 5, 2018 by Eileen 24 Comments

This post is sponsored by Stencil Revolution. All opinions are entirely my own.

Even though we moved into our home years ago, we still had way too many bare walls in our home.

The walls were my last priority in getting ourselves unpacked and settled. So, picture frames sat in boxes in the garage for months and months.

What I didn’t know in my procrastination was that I could have been using all that blank wall space to our advantage.

Wall space isn’t just for pictures – it’s a gem of versatility! From floating shelves to accent walls to cool wall hangings to easy DIY wall art ideas, here are six easy DIYs for your walls so they will no longer be bare or boring.

1. Build Simple Shelves

One of my favorite spots in our home is my craft room, which is just a sitting room off our bedroom. When we moved in, we had no idea what we were going to do with it. Ha! I’ve completely taken it over with craft supplies.

When I had filled every inch, I moved to the walls.

We built two simple shelves with the dimensions to fit four fabric storage bins on each. That’s eight storage bins – filled to the brim – and not taking up any closet or desk space!

If you’re running out of space in your home, take a look at your empty walls, and see where you could put up a few storage shelves.

2. Make a Cool Wall Hanging

It’s hard to find the perfect wall hanging to go over couches and beds because they need to be so big to look nice. And, art is expensive! So, why not DIY it?

I partnered with Stencil Revolution to create this awesome stenciled world map wall hanging.

They have really cool stencils, and they have more than half a dozen sizes for each stencil. So you can paint a giant wall with a huge stencil or make a custom DIY piece like I did.

To make this, I first measured the area above the couch in the craft room. Then, I ordered the world map stencil size that was a little smaller.

After that, I put together three wooden boxes, painted them white, and then used the world map stencil.

As far as the paints, I used acrylic paint and faded one color into the next.

It looks amazing in my craft room above the couch – it fits the area perfectly and I got to create something exactly the way I wanted. Definitely check out the stencils that Stencil Revolution has 🙂

Rather than have blank walls above couches or beds, think about making a custom DIY piece with cool stencils. This is one of my favorite easy DIY wall art ideas 🙂

3. Create Gallery Wraps

Another way to create wall art is by making your own gallery wraps.

Simply purchase a few canvases from the craft stores, and then find some wall decals that fit the theme of the room. Paint the canvases and then apply the wall decals. I painted some a solid blue and others striped. The striped ones added some extra flair.

You could also use stencils on these gallery wraps too. These are great for nurseries or kids rooms.

And, if the decals come up easily, you can swap out the decals for other ones as the kids grow up.

These canvases are definitely a go-to project for easy DIY wall art ideas.

4. Put Together Scrap Wood Picture Ledges

These picture ledges were free! Yes, you read that right 🙂 We made them out of scrap wood laying around the garage (I love a good scrap wood project) and painted them with paint we had on hand.

The little ledge at the end is perfect for holding picture frames, and I emptied an entire box of frames. The picture frames perfectly took up the wall space in between two windows.

Not only were the ledges free, but it took just a few hours to put together.

5. Spray Paint Frames for an Artistic Gallery

If you’re looking to make a gallery but can’t find enough frames that will compliment each other, use spray paint.

I had an entire gallery of brown wooden frames, but two of the embroidered pictures had frames that just didn’t go.

With a little painter’s tape and some spray paint, the pictures now fit perfectly.

Galleries are a fun way to hang pictures – especially in hallways or staircases. It can definitely add some character to these places.

6. Create an Accent Wall

I love a gorgeous accent wall, and it’s an amazing way to bring character and flair to your space.

There are so many ways to create an accent wall – you can wallpaper, you can stencil an accent wall, or you can paint – a whole wall one color or a simple striped wall.

One of my favorite things about an accent wall is it saves you from painting the whole room – just updating one wall usually is enough.

7. Hang Pegboard for Office or Craft Supplies

This is another of my favorite DIYs from my craft room.

By installing pegboard, I was able to empty my entire desk. In fact, I got rid of my desk of drawers for a much simple table-desk design.

I didn’t know if I would like the pegboard because I would have to put everything back always (something I’m not great at), but I LOVE it! It looks so cool, and I can see everything.

Also, I don’t get asked questions by my husband and kids about where my scissors or markers are because everything is in plain sight. My son has a little spot on the edge, where he stores his markers and paint brushes too.

If you have overlooked wall space in your home, turn it into a fun DIY project.

You can use wall space for storage – floating shelves, storage shelves, pegboard organization, or built-in cabinets. You can use the space for fun décor to add a little style in. You easily update or modernize your home with cool pictures or wall hangings with these easy DIY wall art ideas.

Wall space is undoubtedly a little gem that can be used in efficient or creative ways. If you’re looking to add a little flair to your walls, definitely try one of the above DIYs.

You’ll be loving your wall space in no time.

8 Organization Mistakes You’re Making (and How to Fix Them Now)

October 20, 2017 by Eileen 109 Comments

8 Organization Mistakes You’re Making (and How to Fix Them) Post Preview: Tired of coming home to a disorganized house? Check out these DIY organization tips and ideas for the home, and you’ll have an organized home in no time. Ideas such as wire closet racks, cubby storage, wall storage, kids storage and more are discussed.

With my eyes half open, I sluggishly got out of bed. Making my way across the room, I lost my balance on a toy car that wasn’t put away.

After a loud sigh, I scooped it up along with a few other toys and dumped them in the corner. I head to the closet to grab a towel, where I am greeted by a completely disheveled mountain of linens.

Room after room, the story was the same. The closets were overflowing, toys were strewn, nothing seemed to have a place.

Truth is, if I didn’t start using my space wisely, my home “organization” would remain a mess. In order to keep my sanity, I had to figure out what I was doing wrong.

DIY Organization for Your Home

The following home organization tips will help you add some DIY organization to your home. From using closet space wisely to utilizing wall space, these simple home organization ideas will help you bring more order and less chaos into your home.

Mistake #1 – Not Using Closet Space Wisely

Closet space is gold. I mean, it’s storage space hidden behind closed doors. Because it’s out of sight, it usually becomes embarrassingly sloppy.

In our current home, all of our closets contained only a clothes rod and a top shelf. So as you can imagine, each of these closets became a disaster in a matter of weeks.

In our previous home, we had wall-mounted wire shelving configurations in each closet, so everything was much more organized with wire shelving that already existed.

However, custom shelving configurations for closets can be really expensive.

So to save money, we simply installed a few standalone wire shelving racks for our closet shelving.

Rather than have piles of items shoved into the closet (I had so many of those huge storage bins stacked up), you can neatly slide storage bins, laundry baskets, or other containers on and off the wire shelves.

The wiring shelving was especially helpful in coat closets and kids rooms, where that single clothes rod isn’t always the best use of space.

The closet shelving gave us extra space, and I can easily find everything. Installing some of these standalone wire shelving is definitely one of the best DIY organization ideas for your home.

How to Organize Your Closets with Simple Wire Racks

Save money buying a few wire closet racks rather than a whole closet system

Another home organization idea is to install double top shelves in your closets. Rather than have one shelf running across the top, add another one above it. This is an easy change that doubles your shelving instantly, using more of that high space wisely. If you use wire shelving, it’s easy to install another top shelf.

Speaking of wasted space, I then took a look at our closets to see where else I could utilize otherwise wasted space.

To add more home organization, I hung small racks on side walls and hooks on standalone doors.

These diy home organization ideas for your closet space will have you using every inch wisely, making more space for all of your things.

How to Efficiently Organize Your Home - Use Double Top Shelves in Closets

Install an extra top shelf in your closet and double your space.

Where to Buy Closet Shelving:

Closet shelving sets can be really expensive, so rather than buy a hundred dollar kit, just buy a few wire shelving racks that are right size for your closet and attach them to the wall.

I found a few wire shelves at a flea market for a couple bucks (you could also check out your local Habitat for Humanity Restore).

If you can’t find some cheap wire shelves, home improvement stores have the racks for about $10-$15 plus the hardware, which isn’t too bad for quick, cheap organization.

How to Make Closet Shelving:

If you don’t want to spend but have extra wood laying around, you can install a few wooden shelves instead of the wire shelves. Paint them white and they’ll blend right in, creating a more uniform and organized look for your closet shelving.

Also, look around for anything you can repurpose into closet shelving.

Every time I’m ready to kick something to the curb, the wheels in my husband’s head start turning. His most recent trash-night-intercept was a CD tower that he installed in our pantry as extra side shelving.

By making great use of closet space, you can really up your home organization game. You’ll get more into your closets, which means less laying around the house. With these DIY organization tips, everything in your closet will have a space.

Mistake #2 – Disregarding Empty Wall Space

Closets overstuffed? Attic full? Start using the walls!

Wall space is one of the best space-saving secrets and my absolute favorite of the DIY home organization ideas.

My husband recently mounted a huge shelf to the wall behind my desk. What once was an empty wall is now housing all of my desk and craft supplies!

Corner wall space is the perfect spot to put up some floating shelves or even cubby shelves. You can fill the shelves with baskets and bins of anything – craft supplies, shoes, extra towels, toiletries, accessories, bows, kids clothes, etc.

Putting up a few extra shelves and utilizing empty wall space can easily thin out your otherwise packed closets, making your closets and yourself more organized. 🙂

Using Your Wall Space More Wisely - DIY Home Organization Ideas

Use otherwise overlooked wall space to add tons and tons of wall storage

If you have a little extra floor space – maybe in a basement or garage, you could use it for a vertical storage tower. We did this in our garage with a space about 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and gained tons of storage space. The storage tower holds all of our Christmas decorations (and I have 3 trees!), Ash’s oversized tools, and more.

Ash and I are little storage-obsessed… I mean, half of our DIY projects are about storage organization. Ash goes around tapping on walls looking for hollow space, and I am always oogling at empty wall space 🙂

So, take it from us – look for areas that you could turn into a little extra wall storage and you will be thrilled with the DIY organization that space provides.

Where to Buy:

There are tons of great shelves that can easily be mounted to your walls for vertical storage. This iron pipe shelf holds a ton of items and looks amazing. I also just adore farmhouse floating shelves. Aren’t they charming?! I love the finish on these shelves, and farmhouse style shelving looks amazing in any home.

How to Make:

If you make your own shelves, you can choose your exact measurements, which is beneficial because then you can customize them to fit exactly what you need.

We built two basic shelves for my office and made the measurements to fit four fabric storage bins on each shelf. With two shelves, that’s 8 storage bins that are organized and filled. And instead of taking of space elsewhere, they are on the wall!

The shelves were simple to make and mount, and we have free plans available.

Using wall space is definitely one of the best DIY organization tips I can give you. It has created so much space, where we thought we had none. When thinking about ideas for organization, don’t forget to look on your walls.

Mistake #3 – Not Using Cubby Storage

Cubby storage is an organizational gem. The individual cubbies keep items super organized and in plain sight. You don’t have to dig through drawers, toy bins, or storage bins to find what you are looking for. Everything is compartmentalized in neat little spaces using cubby shelves.

Cubby shelves also make for for the perfect bookshelf (no more books sliding around). Cubby storage is an excellent use of corner or closet space and is perfect for organizing toys, crafts, or office supplies.

8 Organization Mistakes You're Making and How to Fix Them Now

Cubby shelves are inexpensive and make for the perfect bookshelf.

Yet one of the best parts about cubby shelving is that you can stack your items in the cubbies, or you can also use storage bins in some or all of the cubbies.

Cubby storage is also very versatile, as you can arrange them in many ways – vertically, horizontally, stacked, or even hang them on your wall.

Where to Buy Cubby Storage:

We love these cubby shelves from Amazon – they have quite a few finishes and are really nice. We use cubby storage in our kids’ rooms for bookshelves along with the playroom for toy storage and organization.

As far as storage bins, the dollar store is carrying storage bins now as well as lots of other useful containers. You can’t beat that for cheap storage.

You can also get some good deals on storage during back-to-school sales. If you don’t feel like running to the store, Amazon has lots of cute storage bins too.

How to Make Cubby Storage:

Although buying cubby shelves is probably cheaper than making them, Ash made me customized cubby storage for organizing all my craft supplies.

But here’s the best part – he mounted the cubby shelves to the wall, which frees up ground space AND uses otherwise lost wall space.

I was able to empty my entire desk out with cubby storage!

No more digging through my desk or my filing cabinet or those huge storage containers that were in my closet.

Each little cubby holds something different, and I just need to spin my desk chair around to find what I’m looking for.

As far as storage bins, you can also make your own. I made several DIY storage bins for our changing table and coat closets (holding mittens, hats, scarves, etc) from cardboard boxes, contact paper, and knobs.

Using Cubby Shelves to Organize Your Home

Attach cubby shelves to the wall – and gain space and organization

When thinking about how to have more home organization, think about where you could add cubby storage. They don’t take up too much, aren’t too expensive, and they add a lot of DIY organization.

Mistake #4 – Leaving out items that could be hidden

You know that feeling you get at the end of the day when your house is nice and organized – there aren’t toys everywhere, the pillows are back where they belong, and everything is in its place. It just looks so perfect.

Unfortunately, this usually isn’t the case.

However, if you create a spot for everything, you can hide some of those eyesores, keeping your home always looking organized.

My favorite trick, especially for toy storage, is to use pretty boxes to hide otherwise ugly things.

Our toddler has toys in every single room (literally every room except the master bathroom). The biggest problem area was our family room. I mean, blocks everywhere, tools scattered across the room, puzzle pieces wedged between couch cushions.

I was attempting to organize the toy mess with those clear storage bins – the ones that are a little bigger than a shoe box. However, I just didn’t like the way these tacky storage bins looked in our family room. They certainly didn’t complement the Pottery Barn pillows that I spent way too much on. 😉

So, I started buying cute baskets and boxes that were on sale at craft stores. Rather than have tacky storage boxes, I have trendy bins and baskets all around the house.

The great thing is that you can’t see the contents of what’s in the bins. So, you would never know that the boxs and bins contain toy storage.

Even if your home isn’t filled with toys, take a look around and see what you can hide. Cleaning up some of these things and creating a space for them definitely makes for a more organized home.

DIY Home Organization - Hidden Toy Storage Ideas

Decorative boxes make for great hidden toy storage

DIY Home Organization Tips #5 Use Pretty Boxes to Hide Things

You’d never know this box houses the entire Mr. Potato Family 🙂 How’s that for toy storage?!

Where to Buy:

You can get baskets and boxes super cheap at Michael’s when they have end of season sales. I have purchased many of these boxes for just a few dollars at 70% off. Pick things you like to hide those toys or other storage items.

I would definitely recommend checking there periodically because I have gotten so many bargains on end-of-season bins and boxes.

As far as baskets, AC Moore and Michaels have a great selection and you can either use one of their coupons or catch one of their frequent 40% off sales. These craft stores offer so much as far as diy home organization ideas.

How to Make:

To make boxes, you could reuse any box and cover it with contact paper to make it look nice. I have a tutorial on how I DIYed these storage bins. You can usually find decent contact paper at the dollar stores too 🙂

As far as home organizing ideas go, finding a space for everything definitely works wonders. And using pretty boxes to store some of the things that need to be organized is a great home organizing technique.

Mistake #5 – Ignoring Messy Drawers

Who doesn’t have a junk drawer in their home… or like five or six of them? I think every drawer in our house became a junk drawer at some point.

There’s little I despise more than wasting precious time looking for something. Rather than succumb to disorganized drawers, think what solutions will work for your items.

I eliminated my entire desk of office and craft supplies by using cubby shelves and pegboard. At first, I wasn’t sure I would put things back on the pegboard after I used them. Yet, there’s nowhere else for it go, since I ditched my old desk.

I am loving the pegboard organization – I can clearly see everything I have, and it looks really cool.

DIY Home Organization Ideas - Using Pegboard Instead of Desk Drawers

Mount a pegboard to the wall and empty a few drawers

If you don’t have a huge space for a pegboard, it’s no problem. You can use small pieces of pegboard in creative spots, such as on the back of kitchen cabinet doors to hang measuring cups or special utensils.

You’ll be surprised just how many messy drawers you can empty with this DIY organization trick.

Another idea is to use drawer dividers to separate things. I put these in our kids’ bedroom drawers to separate socks, bibs, accessories, and more. I also organized our kitchen junk drawer with bins.

And, as another home organization tip, don’t forget to give your drawers a good ole clean-out, especially those kitchen junk drawers.

You don’t need to keep take-out menus because everything is online. Those extra ketchup and soy sauce packets never get used either.

Lotion, nail polish, and make-up all get old after a while.

So, definitely clean up your drawers a bit as you are organizing, and you will easily gain some coveted space.

Where to Buy:

The Dollar Tree and Big Lots are my favorite places to find storage and organization bins, especially around back-to-school time. You’ll find lots of neat little bins and baskets.

If you like your storage bins to match, buy a few more than you need because it’s hard to find the same bins and baskets again. But overall these stores are great for frugal diy home organization ideas.

If you would rather shop online, these interlocking bins are awesome. There’s eight of them, and you can use them individually or interlock them. Did you know they make adjustable drawer organizers too?! I love anything that can be easily customized.

Last, here’s a great drawer organizing kit for dressers.

How to Make:

Look around your house, or your recycling bin, for things you could use as drawer dividers.

You could use empty plastic or cardboard bins or boxes, such as shoe boxes or cereal boxes. Cut them to size or reshape with some masking tape, and you’ll have yourself free organization.

You could even make dividers from cardboard – and spiffy them up with some cute contact paper.

This DIY home organization tip shouldn’t be overlooked. Handling those messy drawers will make for a much neater and more organized home.

Mistake #6 – Not using doors and walls for hooks and racks

Every time I came home with the kids, I would always drop the diaper bag on the ground. Sometimes it would make its way over to the closet and embarrassingly, sometimes it remained on the ground for a few days.

I don’t know why it took me so long to realize the solution was to buy a $2 hook for the mudroom.

I can now easily grab the diaper bag when I’m on my way out the door, and it doesn’t drive me crazy on the floor for days. If you always have school bags on the floor, add hooks in your mudroom or entryway for kids to hang their bag up.

If your kids are always leaving their hoodies around, put some hooks up for them in a hidden spot.

Simply find the problem areas, and then think about how you can create a spot for it. Don’t disregard your doors and little spaces on the walls, where you can easily add a hook or a rack.

Don’t overlook the organization that hooks provide – they are also an easy DIY project

The back of the closet door is perfect for holding towels – rather than throwing them over a door, having kids leave wet towels on the floor, or cramming them all on the same towel rack.

Closet doors are also perfect for little containers, such as spice racks, to hold toiletries. Pantry doors are perfect to add basket storage too.

Look around your home and identify what is driving you nuts and then create spots for these things.

Where to Buy:

You can buy command hooks to attach easily to walls (no tools involved and easy removal). These provide a solution in just minutes. You could also go for a more classic hook. These hooks are very inexpensive and add classy organization.

I love this hook rack with a cute shelf. It’s so modern-looking, and I love the way three of them look on the wall – it’s like a gallery of home organization. 🙂

If you are trying to maximize closet door organization, this organization rack is huge and can hold so much! You can even attach it to your door (or wall) with command hooks. It doesn’t get easier than that!

How to Make:

You can easily DIY a hook rack with a wooden board and a few hooks from the store. Or instead of hooks, get a little creative and use washers or screws, as long as they have enough length to hold your items.

To DIY racks to attach to doors, use dollar store bins and a few screws to get the same effect. If you have any spice racks that aren’t being utilized in the kitchen or garage, you can attach them to closet doors to hold toiletries.

Attach spice racks (or other containers) to closet doors of panties or linen closets for easy DIY organization

Adding hooks and containers to doors and walls is a great DIY home organization tip that definitely keeps your home neater.

Mistake # 7 – Missing out on furniture storage

Furniture takes up most of the space in our rooms, so why not capitalize on it?!

If you are looking for a new piece of furniture, think about furniture with built-in storage. We were in the market for a couch that converted to a bed, and we found one that had a massive amount of storage under the cushion.

Stools, ottomans, and end-of-the-bed tables all usually have storage space built in too. If you are looking for a kids bed, lots of them have drawers built-in underneath the bed.

You can also buy under-the-bed storage containers to slide under beds. These are great for holding things like kids artwork collections, craft supplies, pillows, out-of-season clothes. Depending on the size of your bed, you can get quite a few bins underneath.

As far as DIY home organization ideas go, using furniture as storage is really underutilized and can offer so much additional storage.

Where to Buy:

Amazon has lots of options for under-the-bed storage – from the plastic containers to carts to clothes storage bags. I am loving the clothes storage bags. I purchased a few of them to store comforters, blankets, and extra throw pillows in and was able to clear out two shelves in our hall closet!

Think about all that storage you will gain by using the space under your bed more wisely.

How to Make:

There are tons of awesome tutorials out there that have storage built-in furniture. You can make a platform bed frame that has tons of storage underneath. I’ve also seen cubby bookshelves built into beds. There also are coffee tables you could make, where the top opens and provides hidden storage.

And, if you are feeling really ambitious, you could make a couch or chaise lounge with storage entirely underneath. We haven’t tackled any of these projects yet. If we do, we will be sure to post them 🙂

Thinking about furniture storage is a great DIY home organization idea that really creates extra space.

Mistake #8 – Lack of using labels

If you have ever felt the frustration of pulling down bin after bin looking for something, then you know the importance of labels. I’ve pulled down many closet bins looking for scarves – only to find shoes, hats, and everything in between.

When you label items not only do you save yourself time when you go to use those things, but you keep yourself and your items more organized. You get used to seeing the labels, so you know where everything is. And, you know exactly where to put things back.

Labels are great for kids too, giving them the tools they need to put their own things away. For younger kids, include a picture of the item, so they can clean up on their own. (The picture label then becomes a learning activity – as kids see the picture along with the word and learn the word.) This will easily help you with toy bins and toy storage.

Additionally, labels are great for husbands too. 🙂 You’ll notice things get put back in the right spot much more easily.

Using labels with pictures encourage kids (and husbands) to put toys away

How to Make:

For extra home organization, labels are really easy to make. Just use masking tape or paper, but I do love the idea of adding pictures for kids to help clean up.

Simply google the item, grab a picture, and paste it into a printable document. I was definitely surprised at how much cleaner my toddler’s toys were when he knew where everything went.

Where to Buy:

As easy as masking tape and paper are for labels, I love my label maker. It makes everything look much more neat, organized, and consistent.

I LOVE this label maker– and it is a dream come true! It has tons of fonts and decorative options, making for very cute labels and of course, easy organization.

You can also find cute labels at the craft stores. I found a bunch of mini chalk boards attached to a clothes pin and used these to label my fabric storage bins. The dollar section at Michaels never lets me down as far as DIY home organization ideas 🙂

Taking Action

Picture a completely organized home. You can walk to the bathroom without tripping on toys. You can reach into your linen closet and easily find a pillow case. You can find a pen in the junk drawer with one swift reach.

Everything has a place. It’s perfection.

By choosing a few of the above DIY home organization tips and ideas and seeing them through, you will start to regain your sanity. Start small – with just one or two items, and you’ll start to see a great change.

You’ll make more space in your home. You’ll create places for things to be put away. And, you’ll use the space you have more wisely.

Above all, you will no longer be stressed out by a disorganized house. Instead, your organized home will be your place of zen.

The Secret to Organizing Home Projects & Repairs – Free Printables

June 29, 2017 by Eileen 48 Comments

While in the paint store the other day, a lady looked at my samples and said to me with a smile, “Choosing a paint color is more difficult than buying a car.”

I laughed, looking down at my dozens of shades of blues and greens.

I was sitting in the paint store with my toddler (who behaves perfectly when he gets to choose his own paint chip at the end) looking through samples of whites and greens, in an attempt to choose colors for my parents’ living and dining room.

Also in hand, I had a sample of the flooring we were putting in, and I was trying to envision the white chair rail running through the dining room. It was a little overwhelming!

You see, my sister decided to redo my parents living room and dining room while they were on vacation, so we were making all of the remodeling choices, leaving my desk looking like this:

Rather than dumping all the paint chips and floor samples in a drawer, I wanted to have everything organized for my parents – so they could see the exact paint colors and flooring sample we used, for their own reference. Thus, my DIY home improvement printables were born!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place to store your paint chips and room samples along with notes on the work you did or had done in your home? Heck yeah! And, I needed this organization for my own home too.

Keep Your Home Improvement Efforts Organized

I created these free DIY home improvement printables that I used for my parents house as well as my home – to store all of the home improvement updates in one, easy-to-access place.

Not only will the home improvement printables keep a reference of paint colors and floor samples, but it serves as a record for all of your house projects and repairs. I divided the worksheets into three categories – interior, exterior, and appliances.

You can keep a log of the home improvement work you or your contractor completed by room (including walls, floors, cabinets, countertops). This serves as your paint color reference too.

You can keep your exterior work organized (tree work, siding, roof, etc), and appliance maintenance (including when they were serviced/replaced and contractor information). The DIY home improvement printables keep all of these records organized in one place.

Also, you can download all of the worksheets in one download, or you can download just the pages you need, but these printables will have you organized in no time!

Simply hole punch them or put the printables in a sheet protector and place them in a binder, according to section. You can also keep contractor receipts and records, stored behind the log of the work done.

No more digging through file folders looking for the contractor that installed your fans. No more searching the garage for that leftover can of paint that may or may not exist.

And, the best part?

Down the road, when you go to put your house on the market, you can leave out the bound home improvement printables for your showings. It will show prospective buyers that you took great care of your home and are leaving them with information that goes above and beyond.

With all of the time you spend updating your home – choosing paint colors, installing new flooring, researching contractors, you owe it to yourself to keep all of this home improvement information in one easy-to-find place.

All of your home improvement updates, records, and files can be placed in this binder, in an organized, seamless fashion.

How to Make a DIY Burlap Banner for Any Occasion

March 8, 2017 by Eileen 70 Comments

Scanning the shelves in Michaels with a 55% coupon in hand, I looked around for something I could make an easy, do-it-yourself banner with.

My eyes landed on a pad of burlap card stock.

There were 24 individual sheets of burlap, backed with cardboard.

Being the worst at cutting straight lines, I figured that individual sheets would save a lot of frustration.

And, I had been looking for an opportunity to work with burlap.

People love burlap – and it’s everywhere. I’ve seen mason jars wrapped in burlap, curtains made from burlap, flowers wrapped in burlap, and entire weddings crafted from burlap.

I even worked with a teacher who covered all of her bulletin boards in burlap.

I had never crafted with this material before – but I do agree that burlap brings a natural warmth and texture – so I was excited to check it out.

So, I got started on my project – which was to teach myself how to make a burlap banner for St. Patrick’s Day from homemade stencils and burlap.

Materials for the Burlap Banner:

Foam brush
Acrylic paint – I used the two pictured below, mixed together.
Burlap – I loved using the cardboard backed sheets from Michaels. Here’s a similar one.
Scissors – A good pair makes a big difference!
Stencil of your choice – You can make these. I made a shamrock. You can use letters or hearts – or anything you’d like! (See below for shamrock template)
Tape – scotch or painter tape (more about this below)
Ribbon – for stringing the letters together
Hot Glue Gun

How to Make a Burlap Banner

The instructions for making this banner are quite simple: preparing the burlap material, making the stencil, painting the burlap, and connecting the burlap pieces.

Preparing the Burlap

First, I simply made a triangular cut on the bottom of each sheet.

The burlap was easy to cut into with the cardboard backing.

Making the Stencil

Then, I traced a shamrock onto card stock – and carefully cut out just the middle. This made the shamrock into a stencil.

I then taped it onto the burlap, making the cardstock as flat as possible.

Painting the Burlap Banner

Next, I used the foam brush (probably should have used a 1/2 inch foam brush – but I like to use what I have) to dab on the green paint.

Be careful to keep your brush straight, so it doesn’t slip under the stencil.

As a side note, I tried this using a regular paint brush also. While it worked, it took a lot longer and didn’t give a consistent coat. You can definitely use a regular paint brush, but the foam brush did a nicer job.

For the stripes, I used strips of scotch tape to create the lines. Then, I just dabbed on the green paint onto the burlap.

Immediately after, I removed the tape and moved on to the next sheet.

I also recommend doing a test with the colors/stencils you will be using. I tried a few different shades of green to see what would work best – and a few different shapes to see how they would look.

Pictured below is the edge of my desk, with my stencil and scotch tape strips. Rather than use a ridiculous amount of tape, I used the same four strips over and over, and I hung them here while not in use.

I also went back and forth with painting a shamrock, then stripes – this gave the stencils/tape a little dry time before more use.

Here are two of the burlap pennants, in the process of drying.

Both the card stock stencil and the tape worked really well. The paint looked very neat, and I had a nice, clean outline on every pennant.

Connecting the Pennants

After the individual pennants were dry (only took a few minutes), I used burlap ribbon and hot glue to connect them into a banner.

I found the burlap ribbon at Michaels during a 70% off sale prior to the holidays. I bought loads of ribbon then, without a use for any of it.

Ecstatic to find the burlap ribbon during this project, I knew I had the perfect use for it. And, I love that I got it when it was a great price. That’s why I love stocking up on craft supplies 🙂

So, I lined up my stripes and shamrocks in the order I liked and flipped them over for gluing.

Then, I used my handy glue gun to do two drops of glue on either side of every pennant.

Before you glue, make sure you have your banner in the right order. I once glued an entire banner in backward order – and let me tell you, I wasn’t happy when my “Happy 40th” banner said “40th-Y-P-P-A-H.”

Also, remember to leave extra ribbon on both sides for hanging.

I LOVED the way the sign turned out – it was so festive and added much more to our mantel than some of the store-bought St. Patrick’s Day decorations.

I don’t know which shocked me more – the fact that I made the banner for less than $5 or that I made it in less than an hour.

It was a total naptime creation, with time to spare 🙂

I shouldn’t have waited so long to start working with burlap. It was easier than I expected, took a small amount of time and effort, and yielded great results!

Making a DIY Planter Box for the Garden

February 14, 2017 by Ash 76 Comments

Tired of spending so much money for organic produce, Eileen and I decided to finally start our own garden.

Most of our backyard was filled with shade, so an elevated planter box would be ideal for positioning the garden in the most heavily sunlit area. We also wanted to use healthy, organic soil, so that was another advantage of using a DIY planter table.

Finally, we thought the raised planter box would help deter some of the wildlife from harvesting our crops. We had been plagued with groundhogs constantly eating up our sunflowers. We also have loads of deer as well as foxes running through the neighborhood – as well as a dog that jumps through the yard like a year.

Thus, we wanted a garden that none of these creatures could access.

So, a tall planter box sounded ideal for our first garden.

Planning the DIY Planter Box

I searched the internet for planter table design ideas since I hadn’t made a garden planter box before. I found a simple but sturdy design on Instructables. This particular design called for building both the DIY planter box and the stand, which made for a garden table.The planter box itself was 6 ft. x 2 ft, stood about waist height, and was made of cedar wood. The planter stand was made of regular 2 x 4s, but stained to protect from the elements. This would be perfect for us.

Except for the cedar wood, I had all the other materials required for building a planter table. Cedar wood was recommended because it is naturally very resistant to rotting.

I purchased several planks of it from Home Depot and quickly got to work in the garage building the elevated planter box.

How to Build a Raised Planter Box

Following the garden planter box plans I found online, I constructed the cedar box. The planks went together with lots of pocket holes using my Kreg Pocket hole Jig.

I recently discovered the world of pocket hole joinery, so this part of the DIY planter table was a lot of fun, and gave me a lot of valuable experience.

Here’s the garden planter box starting to come together:

You can see all the pocket holes used to join the side planks to the base of the planter box.

I joined the base with pocket holes. They are underneath so you can’t see them in the picture.

Wood clamps were a necessity for building a DIY planter box to keep the planks aligned while I fastened them.

Also, the cedar planks from Home Depot were very cheap and warped. I used clamps to straighten them (until the box shape was formed).

Here’s a picture showing one of the end corners of the garden planter box:

Note, all of the pocket holes were used.

I am also using my clamp here as a spreader to force the long end pieces apart. The cheap cedar wood so warped that I could not get the side plank in by hand. I needed the spreader for assistance.

Here’s a picture showing the nearly finished cedar garden planter box:

The pocket holes made the DIY planter box very sturdy. Also, despite all the warped cedar planks I used, the box came out very straight.

The warping was only frustrating during construction. Yet, my clamps and spreaders overcame that hurdle.

The cedar planks sold at Home Depot were not wide enough to create the ideal box depth. So, I had to extend the height of the garden planter box by a little.

It was a bit too shallow for adequate growth of roots. So using more pocket holes, I made another layer and attached it to the top of the box.

Here’s a picture of how I fastened the second layer of the raised planter box. I’m using a face clamp to keep the surfaces flush as I inserted each pocket hole screw:

How to Build the Planter Box Stand

Next up was the stand for the DIY planter box. Construction went along very easily as I followed the instructions.

The stand consisted of a cross shaped base to rest the planter box on, and 6 legs made of 2 x 4s (doubled up to provide the strength needed to hold the garden planter box when full of dirt).

I took the below picture while I was building the stand or table for the elevated planter box:

After the DIY planter stand was finished, I placed some square cedar cuts on the bottom of the legs. These served as feet for the stand up planter table.

They would help to keep the 2 x 4s off the wet ground, and to help prevent it from sinking.

Finally, I applied some stain to the whole planter table to help it’s longevity outdoors. The planter stand required a stain because I used regular 2 x 4s.

I opted not to use pressure treated wood because I didn’t want those chemicals so close to the plants. I used regular deck stain for the planter stand.

Technically, the cedar didn’t need a stain (because of its increased rot resisting abilities) but I chose to stain it anyway to get the most life out of the wood and enhance the durability of the planter stand.

It was important to use a non-toxic natural stain though.

Since we were going to use the raised planter box to grow organic produce, it was important to not use any chemicals in the garden planter box that could be absorbed by the plants. I had done my research ahead of time, and ordered one online.

Here’s a picture of the completed DIY planter box:

Notice the height extension for the box was reinforced by an outer rim. This rim also provided some visual flair.

Next I located an ideal spot for the raised planter box outside.

I decided to put the garden planter box of the way from daily backyard use, yet in a place that received the most sunlight for the amount of tree cover we have.

Unfortunately, the ground there wasn’t perfectly flat. So I dug holes in the ground for the raised planter box legs to rest.

I dug the holes at various depths so that the DIY planter box would be level once I inserted it. It was a trial and error process but didn’t take too long.

Here’s a picture showing the box stand, with the legs partially below ground to make the structure level:

And, here’s a close up of the raised planter box resting in the stand:

Here’s a picture of the raised planter box after we planted everything. We used mostly pre-grown, organic plants for a better odds since this was our first garden.

Fast forward a few months later, and our garden was thriving. We were happily surprised with the number of plants that fit in the planter table.

Tired of buying your produce from the grocery store? Trying to save money on decent organic produce? Looking to start living off the grid?

Think about building your own DIY planter box – you can definitely have a rich, plentiful garden with this box, and the raised aspect of it provides many advantages.

Our DIY planter box has stood up strong through all sorts of severe weather, and still looks the same as the day I put it outside. We had no issues with critters of any kind, and we got to use nutrient-rich organic soil. We later went on to create a DIY rain barrel to water our garden – which has helped our green goals.

In total, I spent around $50 for the cedar planks and natural stain for the planter table project.

The rest of the materials (mostly 2 x 4s, deck stain and pocket hole screws) were lying around my garage from previous projects.

Our garden certainly served us well this year, and we are looking forward to an expansion next year 🙂 This DIY planter box was just the start.

Easy Thank You Cards for Kids to Make

January 1, 2017 by Eileen 47 Comments

With the holidays over and those playrooms bursting with new toys, it’s about time to start sending thank you notes.

I’m strong believer in the importance of thank you cards from kids – when somebody puts the time and thought into buying a gift, they should get a special, handwritten note in return.

With my son still being a toddler, I’m doing most of the writing for his gifts; however, he still helps make the cards – and I try to make the homemade card ideas easy and creative.

Today, I’m sharing four simple kids thank you card ideas.

These homemade thank you cards are easy and always make the fridge 🙂

Also, these homemade thank you cards from toddlers and kids could be used for any occasion – not just for kids thank you cards 🙂

1. Cut-Out Thank You Card Ideas

This type of homemade card is my favorite and the simplest for younger kids like toddlers.

First, use a cookie cutter to trace a few shapes on card stock. We used stars, hearts, Christmas trees, and gingerbread people.

As far as paper, I always use card stock for homemade thank you cards from toddlers because its thicker than construction paper. So when the paint is layered on like the ways kids love to paint, the card doesn’t bend.

I also like the colors of card stock better than ordinary construction paper. They are brighter and more fun, which definitely ups its refrigerator-worthyness.

Then, simply cut the shapes out for your child to paint on. You can then glue these shapes to a folded piece of card stock to make perfectly easy homemade thank you cards from toddlers and kids.

Toddler and Baby Variation: You can also do a variation of this homemade card – which is great for younger ones: Have your child paint all freely over a piece of card stock. Toddlers could use brushes or q-tips. Younger ones could use their hands. Once dry, you can trace the cookie cutters and cut out the shapes.

I did something similar with the below Christmas trees. Using my toddler’s painted paper, I cut out strips and shaped them into trees. It’s his painting, but cut into a pretty shape.

If your child comes home from preschool or daycare with lots of “abstract” freestyle paints, you can always cut them up to make one of these cute homemade thank you cards from toddlers.

After, glue your cut-outs onto another piece of cardstock and fold into a card.

Your child can continue to decorate the homemade card – my toddler used q-tips and paint to further decorate the trees. You could also use stickers or ribbon – or scribbled markers or crayons works too.

These homemade kids thank you cards turned out so cute and were so easy for mama to oversee 🙂

2. Potato Stamped Homemade Cards

Always looking for new sensory play activities, I decided to give potato stamps a try. It was way easier than I thought it would be – and my son had a ball.

This might just be our new go-to card.

First, cut off the top of the potato. Then, press in a cookie cutter of your choice.

I thought only metal cookie cutters would work; yet, the plastic heart cookie cutter (below) went into the potato without a problem 🙂

After that, use a knife cut the excess from around the cookie cutter, slowly moving your knife around the border of the cookie cutter.

You are left with an awesome stamp that’s easy for kids to paint.

I got a little creative and did a double-sided stamp on this potato – with a star on one side and a heart on the other.

This encouraged my son to be more involved – getting messy and flipping the potato to see the shapes. This is great for kids messy play ideas!

This could also be a fingerpaint activity or a paintbrush activity. And, potato stamped notes don’t have to be for kids thank you cards – they could used for any occasion or even a rainy day activity.

3. Painters Tape Lettered Kids Cards

Use painters tape to spell out a word – such as “Thanks” and then have your child paint freely.

When the paint is still a little tacky, remove the tape from the card.

Definitely use painters tape for best results. I lazily used electrical tape this time and it peeled terribly.

4. Fingerprint Balloons Homemade Card Ideas

Handprint, footprint, and fingerprint cards are usually not my favorite. It’s usually too structured for my little one; however, we got a really cute homemade card with a few single fingerprints.

We turned them into letter balloons which my toddler loved.

Simply put a little of each of the colors you are using on a palette or piece of paper, and have your child dip their finger into each color and then make the print.

The number of prints will depend on the number of letters in the word.

Once dry, use a sharpie to write on the letters and draw the balloon knot and string. This balloon card is definitely an easy thank you card to make.

Kids Homemade Thank You Cards Tips…

If you will be mailing the kids thank you cards, keep in mind envelope size – or you might be making an unnecessary trip to the post office. With some of the above cards, you might want to cut the card to size before starting. I always do this so I’m not cutting up my kids thank you card after he made it.
If you feel like your toddler wasn’t as involved as you would have liked during the thank you card making process, have them accessorize the cards with stickers, color on the front, inside, or back of the creation. This preserves the cards refrigerator-worthy quality but also makes it more of their own. Either way – they will be proud of their creation!
More is always better! Even if you only plan to make one thank you card, have your children paint extra, in case they run their paint-streaked hands across the creation just when you were on the way to the sink for cleanup 🙂 Or, if it doesn’t turn out the way you thought, you have a couple to choose from 🙂 Or, when you are scrambling for a birthday card for someone, you’ll have a secret homemade card stash.

My son had a great time making these homemade kid-friendly thank you cards. Arts and crafts is one of his favorite activities, as it’s special time we spend together. He also takes such great pride in giving his homemade cards to his special family members, which is super cute 🙂

Not to mention our family members love the creativity involved and appreciate the time we took to make them something special. If you are looking for some ideas for homemade thank you cards from toddlers and kids, I hope these card ideas helped you out!

I do have to say, the cards definitely make the fridge 🙂

Check out some of our other toddler card ideas too!

Most Popular DIY Projects of 2016

December 31, 2016 by Eileen 54 Comments

The end of year is always so bittersweet – reflecting on all of the amazing memories, but grateful to move on from some others.

One of the best things this year was our blog. We have always loved sharing our home projects with others, but documenting them as been amazing!

We even started including some of our more crafty endeavors.

Creativity definitely inspires more creativity.

My love for organization inspired a few of Ash’s garage projects this year. While, Ash’s constant repurposing “junk” has rubbed off on me.

I love that we continue to inspire each other.

Here are our best DIY projects from 2016. In true New Years Eve style, here’s the countdown:

#10 – CD Tower to Pantry Shelf

This CD tower was ready to be kicked to the curb, until Ash had the brilliant idea of using it for built-in pantry storage.

He cut a hole into a pantry wall, used a cool little gadget to search inside, knocked more of the wall, and inserted the tower.

#9 – Ice Cream Sundae Gift Box

Wrapped in a pretty little box and adorned with ribbon, this Sundae Gift Box was a hit!

Much cheaper (and cuter) than ordering from the store, it has everything you need to make a sundae.

It’s a perfect gift for those who need a little happiness 🙂

#8 – Built-In Bookshelf with a Window Seat

Hands down, this is my absolute favorite of our DIY projects. In just a few weeks, Ash turned a boring old wall into a complete dream.

Not only does this built-in beautifully store all of the books I have collected, but it’s bright, airy, and gorgeous.

Not to mention the window seat, which is aesthetically pleasing and the cabinets below are awesome storage.

#7 – Chalk Paint Makeover

The before and after on this one is shocking! My dad’s jaw dropped, and he is usually only impressed with Ash’s projects.

This was my first experience with chalk paint, and I am sold. 2017 will definitely be bringing more chalk paint makeovers. This was one of our DIY projects with the biggest transformation.

#6 Picnic Table

Ash blew me away with this one too – as he built this in ONE day!

The table top and bench seats are made of composite decking – a durable, safe material that’s easy to clean, and is easy on the eyes.

We’ve had it in the yard for about five months now, and it looks just as great as it did on the first day. If you are looking for DIY projects that are cost-effective and simply, build a DIY picnic table.

#5 – Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

Our kitchen got a major makeover this year, as we gel stained the cabinets, painted the walls, and installed tile backsplash.

Yet as far as cost goes, you can’t beat it.

I was hesitant to take on such a big project, but I started small (with the bathroom vanity) – and went on to completely change our kitchen’s look.

#4 – Building a Shed

When Ash told me that he was going to build a shed, I laughed – I thought he was joking! He only had a few DIY projects under his belt, and building a shed is like building a house!

However, his motivation, attention to detail, dedication, and love of learning resulted in this beautifully built shed.

I am still in awe.

#3 – Wedding Wine Basket for First Year Milestones

This sweet wedding milestone wine basket has been on the trend this year!

It’s a creative, personal gift, and I’ve done all the work for you – as I’ve included all of the printables I used for free!

It’s so much fun to make that I’ve been waiting for more friends and family to marry, so I can make more 🙂

#2 – Green Rain Barrel

After watching me lug gallons of water down the backyard to water my plants, Ash created an eco-friendly rain barrel.

Using a trash can, he made a system that collects rain water to reuse. Thus, eliminating my trips back and forth and saving good water!

# 1 – Folding Workbench

Tired of working on the floor, Ash finally had a chance to build a workbench of his own – which was a dream of his.

Always thinking of how to save space, he came up with a floating design that doesn’t compromise any structural integrity.

Through being featured on sites such as Life Hacker and Make, it brought tons of visitors this year, thus earning our number one spot.

Well, that’s all, my friends.

Wishing you a very happy new year!

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Planning the DIY Rain Barrel

Constructing the DIY Rain Barrel

Drilling Holes in the Lid

Attaching a Screen Cover

​Drilling an Overflow Hole

Attaching a Valve Spigot

Building a DIY Rain Barrel Stand

Cutting the Wood

Testing our New DIY Rain Barrel

3 Year Rain Barrel Update

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Adjusting for Sliding Garage Shelves

Constructing the Storage Shelves

Bonus Storage Shelving

Using the Sliding Storage Shelves

More Garage Ideas

1. A place for everything

Declutter

Make space

Little problem areas

2. Rearrange for a fresh look

2. Do easy DIYs

3. Bring in things you love

Treasure-Hunting

Sentimental Things

Photographs

Things that you adore

4. Get rid of things that you don’t love

Big ticket items

5. Find ways to bring more light

Bulbs & Fixtures

6. Work on the areas that need a little love

1. Build Simple Shelves

2. Make a Cool Wall Hanging

3. Create Gallery Wraps

4. Put Together Scrap Wood Picture Ledges

5. Spray Paint Frames for an Artistic Gallery

6. Create an Accent Wall

7. Hang Pegboard for Office or Craft Supplies

DIY Organization for Your Home

Mistake #1 – Not Using Closet Space Wisely

Where to Buy Closet Shelving:

How to Make Closet Shelving:

Mistake #2 – Disregarding Empty Wall Space

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #3 – Not Using Cubby Storage

Where to Buy Cubby Storage:

How to Make Cubby Storage:

Mistake #4 – Leaving out items that could be hidden

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #5 – Ignoring Messy Drawers

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #6 – Not using doors and walls for hooks and racks

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake # 7 – Missing out on furniture storage

Where to Buy:

How to Make:

Mistake #8 – Lack of using labels

How to Make:

Where to Buy:

Taking Action

Keep Your Home Improvement Efforts Organized

And, the best part?

Preparing the Burlap

Painting the Burlap Banner

How to Build a Raised Planter Box

1. Cut-Out Thank You Card Ideas

​#9 – Ice Cream Sundae Gift Box

Drilling an Overflow Hole

#9 – Ice Cream Sundae Gift Box