Yup, I’ve gotten sucked in to Pinterest again. This time it was in search of ideas for my ugly and suffering indoor plants. I’d like to boast that I have a green thumb, but the truth is I kill the hardiest of plants. So, when I saw images of gorgeous hanging terrariums, I groaned with envy. I have the perfect spot in my house for that, but there was no way I’d keep them alive with my track record.

After a few day of chewing over it in my mind, I decided to make a faux terrarium with paper mâché and $20 worth of stuff from Michael’s!

Rustic Hanging Terrariums DIY

Step 1: Find a design idea to inspire you – you can google hanging terrariums or find one on Pinterest – or, of course see images of my own creations.

Step 2: Collect materials. I used 3 latex balloons (use as many or few as you want, but I recommend an odd number) only slightly inflated, a recipe for paper mâché (half flour and half water) newspaper torn in 1 – 2 inch strips (enough for 3 – 4 layers on each balloon), moss from a craft store (or collect your own if you live near woods – which I do), packing peanuts (I’ll explain later), string, tacks, glue, brown paint, a screw for each pot, real or fake plants of your choosing. I’ve purchased real succulents here and they all turned out great.

Step 3: Assembly. Paper mâché the balloons leaving a hole for the flowers at the top (or paper mâché the whole balloon and cut the hole later). Let dry for a day. Paint the outsides brown and pop balloon then pull it out leaving the shell/pot. Glue moss to the outside of the pot. Wrap string around the pot at random then tie it off. Stuff pot with packing peanuts then stick your plants down into it to secure them. Use moss to hide the peanuts on top.

Now for the tricky part…

Step 4: Hanging the terrarium. I ended up pushing a long screw into the middle of the plants and tying the string to it then wrapping it around the tack and pushing it into the ceiling. The pots are fairly light, so the tack seemed to work for me. I’m sure there are many ways of hanging them… Find what’s best for you!

Voilà! A beautiful, inexpensive, and maintenance free terrarium that your friends and family will love!

Written by Jaimè Bell

Would you be put off by the sight of a crumbling, weed-infested, desecrated building? It may have been someone’s residence in a bygone era but it certainly wouldn’t fit many people’s idea of home. It doesn’t have to remain like that, though. A run-down building may, in fact, be your ideal opportunity to seize upon an existing structure and touch it up just the way you want it.

The good people at Chic Furniture and Gift, a UK-based online retailer of shabby chic furniture, have put together this fantastic house restoration guide for anyone thinking of giving some love to a neglected property. While it is the perfect way of letting your interior design mind run wild, it also takes plenty of thought, money and patience to get it exactly how you would want. Just as you wouldn’t simply sit an exam without studying for it first, you can’t click your fingers and say ‘Hey, I’m gonna restore this old house’ without giving it the necessary consideration.

As well as knowing what work needs to be done, you’ll also need to ensure that you have the budget for undertaking a house restoration project. Any interiors expert will tell you that whatever amount you think you’ll need, add 20% to it and that’s what you probably will need. How much it will cost will depend significantly on how much work you’re willing to invest – in this case, it is almost always a case of ‘you get what you pay for’.

Restoring a home is no laughing matter, but once you carefully map out precisely what you want and what you need to get it, plus how much the entire project is going to cost, it has the potential to be incredibly satisfying. Don’t just take a wrecking ball to a dilapidated old house; put your stamp on it and turn it into a place that you would be proud to call home.

To ensure that everyone who visits your house ends up providing you with huge compliments for your Christmas decorations, you actually have to come up with some out of the box Christmas decorations ideas, which can force people to say ‘WOW!’. And that sort of excitement can only be generated through, ‘Do It Yourself’ or D.I.Y light decorations.

Lights which are specifically designed for the decorative purpose have the unbelievable potential to enhance or adorn the appearance of your house. Yes, that’s right, at a time when you feel like giving importance to every corner of your house, strings of lights prove to be really helpful for you. You always have some or other sort of options to put these twinkling little lights wherever you can, for example, you can deck your garden, porches, patios, interiors and backyard with them, which eventually allow you to give special attention to every nook and cranny of the building.

Make the use of following D.I.Y light decorations ideas this Christmas:

Drape your mailbox with strings of lights

Let’s start preparing your house for Christmas right from your mailbox, that mostly stays right in front of your house, from where the street begins. All you have to do is pick the small size lights and drape it thoroughly. If you want to remain simple yet aesthetically stunning, don’t drape it too densely instead of that, try to highlight its shape by putting the light strings only on its edges.

Deck your main gate with a garland

Use Christmas greenery and lights to decorate your main gate, which allow your guests to enter the front yard. Stick a bunch of green twigs at the center of the gate and hang a garland that is made up of both greenery and lights in such a way that it highlights the gate effectively.

Create your own decorative lights with Mason jars

You can decorate your walkways amazingly with the assistance of Mason jars and candles. And in this case, you don’t even have to do any hard work, apart from putting the candles inside the jar and placing the jars beautifully on the walkways. By lining up the jars along the walkways, you will be doing nothing but creating a bold decorative statement.

Give some life to the bare trees in the garden

Bare trees are symbolic of the winter season, and in this way they become an important part of Christmas, which is one of the greatest Christian festival that’s is celebrated during this season. So, it’s a great idea to give these trees a vibrant look by decking their branches with decorative lights.

Decorate with homemade wreaths and vintage lanterns

Your front door remains a highly crucial part of your house, so it must be decked by you with all the enthusiasm. Show your guests that you want to welcome them with an open arm and then deck your front door like never before. Put a lot of attractive things in front of it which can talk loudly about the festive season, for example, you can put the gift boxes, vintage lanterns, Christmas candles, and Christmas ornaments all around your front door. In addition, to that deck it with a nicely developed Christmas wreath.

Deck your windows with plastic cup lights

Well, it is quite simple to develop plastic cup lights, for which you need medium size plastic cups that you can easily find in the market and strings of lights. For creating a plastic cup light garland, all you have to do is make a small hole at the bottom of the cup and then insert the bulbs within the cup through that. In other words, hang the plastic cups upside down from the LED light string and let them hold the bulbs inside them.

Decorate dining table and stairs with greenery, centerpieces and candles

When it comes to your interiors, you must make it sure that you use a lot of greenery (pine twigs or other fall greenery), Christmas candles with candle stands, vintage lanterns, garland and holiday ornaments, and innovative homemade centerpieces. All these holiday decorative items can be used creatively in order to deck dining tables, stairs, sideboards, and center tables etc.

So, if don’t have any creative ideas in your mind, you can easily go ahead with the ideas mentioned in this post. Marry Christmas!

Written by Jaimè Bell

My latest foray into DIY Christmas decorations is as a lovely rustic centerpiece for my dining table. I was surfing Pinterest (just using Christmas decor as keywords) when I found an image of a reclaimed wood trough with three mason jars containing votive candles trimmed around with pinecones and holly. I used this as inspiration for my centerpiece project.

How to Make a Rustic Christmas Table Centerpiece

Step one: find or make a trough.

If you don’t have a workshop in your garage and a handy husband like I do, you can always buy a wooden crate or box from a craft store that may work. I had my husband whip up a trough of scrap wood about 7x18x3 with a thick bottom and dark stain and a reclaimed look with chunky bolts that button up the sides.

To get the reclaimed look, you can beat up the wood with a hammer then wipe the dark stain off before it dries to make it look weathered.

Step two: mason jars.

Most people have mason jars in their pantry, but if you don’t, you can use any old jar… an empty coconut oil or jam jar would do fine. They don’t even have to match size or shape… Be eclectic! You can also buy empty jars at the grocery store. I put decorative ribbon around the jars, but you can add whatever you want. Instead of going out to buy ribbon, just look around your Christmas decor in your home to see if there is anything that you aren’t currently using or could up-cycle into this Christmas centerpiece.

You can fill them with sand as I did or with cranberries, or pebbles, or nothing except the votive candle. I used three mason jars, but you can use as many or as few as fits your box.

Step three: decorate!

This part was easy for me. There are so many options and you can spend as much or as little as you want. The cheapest option would be to find pinecones and branches in your own backyard if you can. I bought one pine branch at Joanne fabrics and two small branches of red berries. I used a few pinecones I found in my yard. I also included fir scented Sensi-sticks to make it smell like the real deal.

The great thing about this trough DIY table centerpiece is that you can redecorate it for many seasons: small gourds and leaves for fall, fake branch of cherry blossoms for spring, overflowing wildflowers for summer.

With the real estate market being what it is, more and more people have decided not to sell their home. Instead, they have chosen to stay put. With housing prices increasing, now is the time invest in your home to capitalize on its value. Before commencing any major building work on your property however, it is vital that you attain any required planning permissions. It’s important to think about what future potential buyers would like to see in your house. Do you know who you would target? A professional couple? A family? A retired person? These days, buyers will consider the energy efficiency of your home. By being prepared to budget for modern levels of insulation, you will be increasing the value of your house. Fitting double or treble glazed windows will allow you to maximise the value of your property.

Did you know, many home improvement projects don’t add value to your home, especially in a down market? In fact, some improvements can even reduce the asking price when you do decide to sell. Keeping all of this in mind, you shouldn’t spend too much money on the wrong improvements. Increasing the number of bedrooms at the expense of other rooms, such as living rooms may be a mistake. As far as possible, buyers should be given the freedom to decide the use of the rooms. There are some projects that can add significant value to your home.

Not only this, but they also improve your quality of life. By working on these projects now, you can enjoy the benefits and updates even if you aren’t selling. So which home improvement projects should you invest in, and which projects should you avoid? Bass Windows have created the below infographic with some helpful tips for home improvement projects that increase the value of your home, and home improvement projects to avoid altogether.

DIY home décor projects can breathe new life into your living space and provide an exciting and rewarding experience. Regardless of your skill level or years of experience, you can always find an inspiring idea that you can work on. The projects provided below can be done during the weekend to give your home a fresh look. Here are four interesting DIY home décor ideas you will love to try out.

Give Your Hallway an Instant Makeover

You can paint a runner to transform an entrance-way or any other high traffic area. This is a low cost alternative to carpeting. Use blue tape to map out the area where you want to paint the runner. Create a strip that has an 8-inch border on all four sides. You may also use the seams of the floorboards as your guide if they run lengthwise. If the floor has a polyurethane or vinyl finish, sand it and wipe it off with damp microfibre cloth. Then apply at least two coatings of acrylic-latex paint within the borders you made earlier with the tape. Allow the paint to dry for about 36 hours. Then seal it up with two coats of acrylic polyurethane.

Create a Professional Style Gallery Wall

You can create an eye-catching professional style gallery on a wall to create a visually appealing space. This project will fit perfectly into different types of home designs. To get the best out of this concept, you should endeavour to blend various gallery components into a cohesive whole. For instance, you should select frames that are basically the same colour or use the same type of mats. For instance, you may also choose two kinds of frames: silver frames with white mats and black frames with white mats. Purchase the frames first and them print the photos or images to fix inside them. You may also choose to map the final arrangements on your wall with paper and tape and confirm that the arrangement looks good, before you hang the frames.

Max Out An Alcove

When you have an alcove next to a window or a closet that you do not use, you create something new by adding a window seat, nook or desk area that increases the functionality of the area. If you have an empty closet, you can take out the doors and remove the hanging rod then apply some neutral paint and install shelving. Let the upper section be used for storage and then turn the lower part into a desk area. Similarly, you can create an illusion of a large space by placing a small table against a large mirror installed on the wall.

Give Your Sofa A New Look

Use a pre-made slip-cover to give your sofa a fresh look when you not ready to change its upholstery. To achieve a tight fit, you can apply some of these tips: Make use of a spatula or wooden spoon to work the slip-cover fabric into crevices of the couch. If you discover that the sofa’s arms are too narrow for the covers you bought, increase their size with comforter batting or foam quilting. To stop the slip-cover from sliding off on a leather sofa, pad the seat cushions with non slip carpet.

These DIY home décor ideas are affordable and easy to do. They can be done within a few days on a relatively low budget. As you try to use these ideas, be creative and feel free to add other things that can improve the final outcome of each project.

The Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate, learn and how we live every facet of our lives. There is a Jupiter-sized bucket of free information for anyone who has wifi and the willingness to Google it.

There’s a marvelous digital world out there but sometimes it can be a little difficult to explore. Kinda like wading through a thick brush of bamboo where the only way you can see past five feet ahead is to go five feet ahead.

As a purveyor of digital knowledge (my fancy way of saying my day job as a content marketer) I want to help you find those tips, best practices and home improvements how-to’s that will make life simple and better for you.

DIY Home & Health will hopefully become your go-to source for DIY crafts, home improvement projects, health tips, fitness routines, home decor ideas, or simply just to get a kick from some of the life lessons we share. (Read more about us!)

But as you may have noticed…we don’t have much on this blog for you to learn from yet. So in the mean time, here are some of my favorite DIY home blogs.

1) Young House Love

Sherry and John write about their lives in regards to fixing up 3 of their homes on Young House Love. They have over 3,000 projects you can look to for inspiration or to do to your own home. They also have Pinterest-worthy galleries and home tours on their blog where you can get lost browsing their DIY home improvement ideas for weeks!

2) Remodelaholic

Have you ever wondered what you could do to spruce up your space? Maybe it’s a tiny studio or perhaps you have too much space! Don’t break a sweat, Cassity has totally found your solution and has posted about it on Remodelaholic.

3) Bright Green Door

I love colorful front doors, but that’s not why Bright Green Door made my line up of top home blogs. Jess has a knack for making what would-be complex renovations cheap and simple.

4) The Ugly Duckling House

If you’re looking to laugh while learning to DIY, Sarah’s home improvement blog is the place to go. You’ll find everything from home decor to cleaning to recipes on The Ugly Duckling House.

5) DIY Network

Ok, so maybe this is more site than blog (fine line there these days!) but I would still count the DIY Network as a top home blog to visit for easy-to-follow projects and to get inspiration. There videos are also super helpful when trying to understand a more complex DIY renovation.

6) Today’s Homeowner

Type just about any DIY home project question into Google and Danny Lipford’s site is bound to pop up in the first few results! Danny has an amazing amount of beautiful and handy DIY projects and tips on Today’s Homeowner. I have about 10 of his projects tucked in my ‘someday DIY list’.

7) Thrifty Decor Chick

I love a good bargain. And if you’re interested in DIY, I imagine that you do too! Good thing Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick has been recording her budget-friendly DIY home projects for several years.

8) DIY on the Cheap

Another great affordable-yet-adorable DIY home blog is DIY on the Cheap by Erin Spain. I lover her sophisticated style and I always seem to get inspiration when sifting through her project gallery.

9) Live Love DIY

Doesn’t that just say it all 🙂 While I haven’t gone as far as naming my furniture pieces, I do find Virginia’s classy style on her home blog absolutely gorgeous. Truly, it’s a gift.

10) The Inspired Room

On the far out stretches of the Internet, you’ll find some amazing places like Melissa’s blog The Inspired Room. Learn how to decorate from an amazing designer and home blogger. She never seems out of ideas…I think the ‘room’ must truly be the source of her inspiration.

Well, what are you still waiting over here for? Go exploring! I’ll see you back in a few days with hopefully a few DIY projects of my own that can inspire your creativity and transform your house to a home.