Decor & Accessories

For Christmas one year, the very stylish Suki gave her daughter a renovated vintage dollhouse. First off, the dollhouse itself is amazing, with what looks like real plaster walls and a brick chimney. Suki tore out some of the old materials, repainted, wallpapered and re-filled the house with tiny furniture and fixtures.The after is so charming, colorful and full of fun details. I would move in tomorrow if I could.  So amazing Suki!

For years IKEA’s EXPEDIT has been a ubiquitous storage solution for homes everywhere. But recently the Swedish furnishing giant’s VITTSJÖ has been showing up more and more on my design radar. It doesn’t scream IKEA, and you’d never guess the system starts as low as under $50. The black metal and glass shelving system has a nice industrial quality on its own, but it seems to really shine when it’s given a bright coat of paint.

Inspired by the striped light fixtures at Schoolhouse Electric, I wondered if there was a way to dress up my basic sconce with a few fun stripes. I wanted the process to be inexpensive and easy, and I wanted it to create razor sharp paint lines. After a bit of experimentation, I think I got it.I painted 2 coats of green acrylic paint onto a strip of electrical tape and then stretched it around the fixture. For the black stripes, I cut thinner pieces down the length of the tape.

While Anna’s mid-century house has a fair share of closets, they weren’t exactly outfitted to store much stuff. Faced with the predicament of storing two young boys’ clothes and other belongings, Anna decided to build out the closet herself.A lot of us have faced a similar problem with our own closets — one measly shelf and a long hanging clothes bar do not exactly make the base for an organized closet.

When Terry’s neighbor offered her this piece to redo, she knew she had a challenge on her hands. This sturdy little cabinet had already been altered by a previous owner who removed doors and the bottom to create a mini-desk, adding odd triangular trim pieces for support. Terry knew those pieces had to go if this cabinet was going to get a new lease on life.Terry removed the V-shaped trim and lined the inside of the cabinet with painted bead board.

Though I’ve been doing this a long time, the power of paint to transform things still astonishes me. Take this lamp (or lamps, since it’s part of a pair) for instance. They’ve been moving from room to room as I’ve tried to work their weird green base into my home’s neutral color scheme. But it wasn’t working.

Janel had an old round table that was just crying out for a makeover. After some careful thought and consideration, she decided to cover the entire table with Rub’n’Buff. At that point the table took on a beautiful burnished gold tone, but Janel wasn’t finished.Janel decided to cover the top of the table with a compass rose, and she decided to create that pattern herself rather than using a stencil!

This dresser is a telling reminder that DIY efforts to improve older furniture are nothing new — though viewing this wallpaper application as an improvement may be a stretch! Despite the poor finish, the waterfall dresser itself is a solid piece, one Sarah knew deserved a makeover.Sarah stripped off the green patterned wallpaper only to discover thick layers of paint underneath.

My philosophy about technology in the home is akin to a strict private school headmaster’s opinion about children: technology should neither be seen nor heard until required/requested. Even though Apple’s Airport router is fairly benign aesthetically, I prefer to keep the wireless router tucked inside a floating shelf, next to other blinking light culprits like the cable modem and home security system, a trio of otherwise mismatched clutter if left out all together.

This month we’ve been focusing on how to make your outdoor space look and function best for your family. If you’re in need of a super cheap outdoor rug fix, we’ve got a solution for you. This bright and cheery burlap rug is easy to make and cost us less than $15!Materials: • burlap • acrylic paint• painters tape or stencils• clear acrylic caulk Instructions:Step 1: Spread out your burlap (fabric.

Many years ago a teacher told me that you could steam out a dent in a piece of wood (one where the wood fibers had been compressed, not where they had been removed) using a wet rag and an iron. This technique was meant for unfinished wood, but unfortunately, most of the wood we deal with in our homes has some sort of finish on it. With some research I learned that this technique can work with finished wood but it depends greatly on the type of finish you are dealing with.

Though this thrift store dining table was missing a leaf and had obviously seen some hard use in the past, the classic lines and solid wood construction were just crying out for a little TLC to become a showpiece in someone’s home. Priced at only $15, this table was a steal despite the problems with the fininsh on the tabletop. Though this makeover does involve some paint, the wood purists among you should also be happy with the final result.

For those of us who didn’t take plastics class in High School, working with acrylic might be a new skill to learn. It isn’t as tricky as you might think and this is a great project to get you started. It only required a few supplies, all of which are easily gathered from your local hardware store.We checked in with Shelly Leer over at Mod Home Ec and she’s been busy whipping up this acrylic side table project for Indy Star.

Wainscoting is common wall decor in many traditional homes. However, it can so easily be used homes of any style if you’re willing to be a little eclectic.Installing your own wainscoting can certainly feel like a daunting task but if you’re patient and have a week (or few) to dedicate to it — you’ll be wiping your brow and cracking a cold one in no time.

Repurposing hand-me-downs or flea market finds is so incredibly fun and the options are endless. Sometimes giving a piece of furniture a face lift is as easy as visiting your local hardware store.Most of us have an item in the home that used to have a purpose but now it’s just sitting around with no particular place to go. For Sam, a broken down bench with no purpose was re-imagined into a beautiful rope bench.

Who among us can’t empathize with Joy, who found a fabulous pink chair at the thrift store and convinced her husband that of course she had the necessary skills for this reupholstery project? Though the initial chair is one anyone might easily bypass, the end result is a reminder that good things come to those who invest the time and energy to give new life to an old favorite.For only $35 (!), Joy bought this wonderful chair with slightly less than wonderful upholstery.

Remember when you were a kid how magical it was when the summer sun finally set at the end of the day and the fireflies came out and you never wanted to come inside even though your older sister told you your house was built on a graveyard and the zombies would come out at night? Well, here’s a super quick craft to help your kids feel a little bit of that magic. These fireflies are super easy to make. Just pop a flameless LED tealight into a plastic Easter egg.

Cold weather is right around the corner and that means the grill will be getting a lot less use. If, like me, you don’t have any place other than the balcony to store the grill over the winter months why not make a DIY cover for it? Oilcloth, which is available in an impressive array of patterns and colors, will make a cute little hideaway for your grill while it’s not in use. And with this how-to, you’ll have it together in no time!

Hi! My husband and I just made a faux fireplace on our new loft. The top piece is sustainable salvaged maple from our local re-use shop. We cut it in half (going to make a coffee table out of the other piece) and stained it with a clear coat for protection.

You’ve seen the Sun Jar and you love it. The trouble is the price. You can’t just fathom paying $45 for each solar light. You’d be paying almost $500 to light up your garden and your rooms. That just doesn’t make any sense! Thankfully, here at Unplggd, our readers were quick to point out that you can easily assemble your own Sun Jar for a fraction of the cost.We love the Sun Jars, but they are a bit too expensive for what they are worth.

Ever since Ikea made glass desks really affordable, they have been popping around everywhere. We bet that you know quite a few people who have glass desks. Do they like them much? One thing is for sure, if you are using a glass desk as you computer desk, you may hit a problem or two when you try activating your mouse. Modern optical mice work almost anywhere. It’s kind of strange to realize that they don’t work on glass.The thing is that glass desks look so good.

Why settle for a plain Jane Hallmark greeting card when you can put a little of your own effort (aka blood, sweat and undoubtedly a few tears) into making your own greeting cards.