Home DIY projects: 15 brilliant home DIY make ideas for indoors and outdoors
DIY bars, outdoor cinemas, budget kitchen transformations… get inspired with our ultimate round-up of fabulous home DIY projects
From tiki bars to driftwood accessories, enterprising Brits have been proving that you can transform your space for little to no cost. If you're looking for a fun and useful way to spend a weekend, why not try one of these easy DIY projects - we've got everything from creating a home bar to transforming your kitchen for £100!
Read on for our round-up of the best DIY projects, or head to our DIY page for more at-home transformation ideas! Love a wooden pallet project? Check out our pallet wood project ideas here too!
Glammed-up kitchen for less than £100
HomeStyle reader Santa Palermo got in touch with us to share a truly inspiring budget kitchen makeover, created using just three pots of paint. 'I started by cleaning everything down with sugar soap. I applied two coats of multi surface paint with a built in primer on the cabinets,' she says. A coat of a tile paint on the backsplash and brilliant white paint to refresh the walls gave the final touch! Total spend? £90!
Want to have a go? Here's how to paint kitchen cabinets
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Outdoor bottletop bar
This unique outdoor bar was created using 1,000 bottletops and 5kg of resin from Amazon, simply poured on top to give it a shiny finish.
The rest of was made using old wood and pallets - amazing! Pallets can also be used for a wide variety of projects. Find more Wooden pallet project ideas, from shelves to home bars
Don't want to go to the trouble of making an outdoor bar yourself? Check out our favourite garden bars to buy
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Boutique coffee table
We often fork out hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, on unique items for our home. The maker of this coffee table treated the wood himself before adding the hair pin legs, which cost £15!
You can easily create your own, bespoke coffee table using a surface of your choice and hairpin legs like these. For a truly impressive transformation, why not stencil on your own design or add some trendy terrazzo print?
IKEA hack: Create your own chevron wash colour drawers
Fireplace makeover
We couldn’t believe it when we found out that this jaw-dropping transformation was done using a bit of stove paint, new tiles and peppermint grout!
If you want to recreate Megan’s drab to fab fireplace makeover, all for under £100, she’s shared her makeover secrets below:
What you’ll need:
- Johnstone’s Interior Wood & Metal Quick Dry satin plain in Brilliant White
- Topps Tiles Marble effect metro tiles in Matt
- Grout from Topps Tiles - colour: jade
- Tile adhesive
- Tile separators
- Tile cutter
- Grout Spreader
- Wet cloth
- Small paint brush and roller
- Masking tape
- Rust-Oleum Black Matt a stove paint (for the metal surround)
How to do it:
- Put dust sheets down, tape the walls around the fireplace to catch any paint and remove the metal fireplace inner ready to spray
- To spray metal surround, remove and place all parts on a dust sheet outside, make sure they’re clean and spray evenly following the instructions on the can. Once they are dry to touch, bring inside and leave to dry properly overnight.
- Prepare the wooden fireplace surround by giving it a clean with a wet cloth and sand lightly with sandpaper
- Remove excess dust and use small paint brush/roller to give the surround two coats of white paint. Leave to dry overnight
- Start tiling from the bottom up (take a look at our easy tiling tutorial here!) Stick tiles to the surface with tile adhesive keeping straight horizontal lines, using the tile separators to create an equal pattern
- Once the fireplace has been tiled and the adhesive has dried overnight, remove the tile separators and prepare to finish by mixing the grout (we went for a jade colour to compliment the room colour).
- Apply the grout with the spreader. Leave to dry overnight.
- Once the grout has dried, use the wet cloth to clean the excess grout off the tiles.
- Remove all masking tape, fix the metal fire surround back in place.
To complete the look, Megan gave her walls a brand new look with a coat of Valspar’s Trailblazer. What an incredible transformation!
Outdoor cinema
Miss going to the cinema? Then create your own! One family transformed their old fire pit area into an outdoor cinema, equipped with a projector for spontaneous movie nights under the stars!
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They already had the wood and paint so only needed to spend around £125 on the projector, blind, screws and hardware. If you're looking to recreate this at home, why not add blankets and cushions for an extra cosy feel?
Panelling transformation
HomeStyle reader Abi (@allbacktonine) created this incredible, luxury look panel transformation in lockdown using nothing more than MDF, adhesive, decorating caulk and sealer!
‘I started by deciding the height and width of the battens, then marked out their position and width apart on the wall’ explained Abi. ‘I used a marginally wider piece for the horizontal batten, finished with a square moulding.
‘For the timber I used 9mm MDF - bought at B&Q and cut to spec using their fab timber cutting service. I then used No More Nails adhesive to attach the battens to the wall, filled in any gaps with decorating caulk and sanded this down once dry.
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Abi then primed the timber with Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer/sealer before adding a coat of paint. ‘I went for was Farrow & Ball studio green, and to add that extra colour, opted for Cole & Sons fun animal theme wallpaper, called ‘Savuti’, above the panelling!’
Inspired? Here's a step-to-step guide on how to make and install wooden panelling for a period look
Find more wooden panelling ideas and inspiration
DIY luxury bathboard
Bath boards are on-trend right now, but can usually cost between £20-£40 to buy brand new.
But, did you know that you can create one yourself with a few space pieces of wood and a holesaw? You can even paint yours to match your bathroom scheme - just add some luxurious bubblebath and a glass of your favourite tipple!
Inspired? Here's a step-to-step guide on how to make your own rustic bath rack
How to freshen up your bathroom on a budget
Clever kitchen makeover
This homeowner got creative with panels, paint, vinyl wraps and stick-on-tiles to give her kitchen a makeover, costing just £130 in total! Want to give vinyl wrapping a go? Here's how to vinyl wrap a worktop surface
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Why not transform your own kitchen with these budget tricks?
Garden patio makeover
This homeowner changed the whole look and feel of her garden by painting this quirky geometric triangle pattern!
She already had the masonry paint in so the only cost was the sealer, showing just how easy it is to make home improvements on a small budget!
Tiki bar
Fancy bringing a bit of Hawaii to your home? This Tiki bar was created by painting an old bench and adding a self-adhesive checkered plate to the top, bought from eBay.
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The homeowner already had the Tiki sign, so this project only cost a grand total of £13.99!
Pastel Wendy house
A splash of pastel pink paint, windows and decorations were all this shed needed to give it a new lease of life!
The paint cost around £40; the windows were made from mirrored shutters which were £15 from eBay. Fancy recreating this transformation at home? Why not check out our guide on how to paint your garden shed in three easy steps.
Create your own terrazzo print table top
Space saving bar
If you’re wanted to build you own bar but don't quite have enough floor space, this is the solution for you!
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This hide-away drinks station is guaranteed to be a talking point when friends and family come to visit. The maker already had everything they needed in for this project so it didn't cost them anything, but you could easily buy the pallets from your nearest B&Q!
Check out more home bar ideas
Upcycled drawers
This chest of drawers has been transformed with nothing more than a tin of mustard paint and a roll of wallpaper.
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Its owner, an upcycling enthusiast, had everything she needed in for the project, but spraypaint can be purchased for as little as a few pounds in your local budget store!
Driftwood heart accessory
This ‘lockdown love heart’ is the perfect way to remember the lessons learnt during this strange period of our lives.
The sticks were glued into position and spray painted, before the finishing touch - a note saying’ made with love lockdown 2020’ - was added. Make it your own with coloured spray paint or even a shimmery gloss sealant, and add any message you like - lockdown related or otherwise!
Billy bookcase IKEA hack
#IKEAhack alert!
When the third lockdown hit, Christine, otherwise known as @thepinkfrontdoor on Instagram, decided it was time to give her IKEA billy bookcases a brand new look.
She first painted the outer panels with a coat of fresh white paint before stapling some hessian fabric, purchased for just £8.99 on Ebay, to the inside of the doors. She then added some new wooden handles – also found on Ebay – et voila! An on-trend storage unit for under £20, perfect for hiding away clutter.
All images courtesy of ERF Electrical except project number one, courtesy of Santa Palermo.
Feeling inspired? Why not view the rest of our household hacks or have a look at these real home makeovers!
There's also a plethora of upcycling ideas in our DIY and craft sections
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