This DIYer’s Home Is Packed with Her Own Custom Furniture Creations
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“Anything can be painted” is the slogan that greets visitors to Camille Kurtz’s website, The Kurtz Home. An accomplished DIYer with a day job and kids, Kurtz has spent the last three years turning her builder-grade house into an expression of individuality. From her first big furniture build in her outdoor space to her current favorite, a Facebook Marketplace cabinet flip, Kurtz is giving every last square foot of her surroundings her own DIY stamp.
As you scroll through her Instagram feed, it wouldn’t be unusual if you thought: With a home that looks this good, where does Kurtz actually roll up her sleeves and break out the nail gun? The quick answer is that Kurtz is moving through her home tackling one space at a time, and each project often takes shape within the actual room where it will live. And while she’s there, Kurtz also tackles paint, wallpaper, molding, and all of the extras that make her designs get double-taps.
But, behind the scenes, there are two spaces in Kurtz’s home where miter saws and fan decks rule. Here’s a sneak peek at a DIYer’s backstage — the place where wood cuts, construction adhesive, and fabric planning meet.
A Garage Workshop for Furniture Flips
Kurtz’s garage is her workspace for furniture flips, small builds, and anything that may require more of a “woodshop” approach. In her garage, Kurtz knocks out the beginning stages of a project, like wood cuts and adhesive work. Then she’ll assemble the piece in the room where it will actually end up.
This space isn’t fancy or ready for a curated Instagram reveal. Instead, it’s all about function. “My garage is in a raw state, the kind people actually still work in,” Kurtz says. When she first began DIYing her home, she made a makeshift cart with tiers. It held all the basics, and is still her trusty storage partner to this day.
“My go-to that I use for literally every furniture flip or small build is my miter saw,” she says. She also stores adhesive, paint, paint brushes, and small tools like a nail gun, staple gun, tool kit, and drill. She notes that she’s seen a trend on social media of jaw-dropping workspace transformations, but she likes how this space gets the job done. For now, she doesn’t need a styled place to store her saw.
A Home Office for Planning and Design
In her office, which is also her workspace for her 9-to-5 job, Kurtz dives into planning or knocks out smaller, more decorative pieces late at night after her kids have gone to bed.
“I do all of my sketching and color boards in my office, which doubles as my in-house design studio,” she says. This creative haven holds all of her samples, color boards, and fan decks, and it also gives her room to sketch out her bold ideas. “I’m a big sketcher, and I do all of my drawing in here,” Kurtz adds.
She’ll often take on small assembly projects in this room, as well, particularly if the piece is going to live upstairs. As one example, Kurtz assembled the cane doors on her daughter’s bookcase in this room, using her desk as a flat workspace, then attached them to the bookcase’s frame in her daughter’s room. This decorative staging area allows her to tackle printing, framing, small painting projects, and even DIY upholstery without disrupting other rooms (or family members!) before relocating the projects to the rooms where they belong.
Most of all, her office is the place where she lets ideas flow. “This is where I pin pieces on the wall — furniture I’m inspired by, color palettes, or even fashion items,” Kurtz says. “This is where I gather inspiration.”