4 Creative DIY Home Decorating Ideas

You’ve just gotten the keys to your new apartment, and you can’t wait to get in there and start decorating. As we all know, home decorating can be kind of pricey – the good news is, there are literally hundreds of DIY ideas to implement into your new place. DIYs started out in books and made their way into newsprint and magazines, and now, you can pop online and find infinite DIY projects and tutorials.

These four DIY projects will bring a whole new dimension of you into your apartment or house because they’ll be made completely by you! What better way to bring in some personal style than to make your own home decorations. If you’re worried that these DIYs will require a lot of skill and time to make, you’ll also be happy to know that they are very simple and don’t take a lot of time to create and require NO sewing skills. So grab a cup of coffee, tea or a snack, and check these creative DIY ideas!

1. NO-SEW Pillows

Make your own pillows or pillow covers with just two pieces of fabric.  You can even use an old t-shirt like Kristy from 3 Peppers uses in her Old T-Shirt Throw Pillows DIY tutorial.

Take your fabric or old t-shirt and cut out around the graphic you want on your pillow. Leave about 4 inches or more on all sides.
Cut squares out of all four corners of the larger square, so you have a plus (+) symbol shape.
Then, cut straight, vertical lines on each of the sides of the plus symbol, leading up to the inner square. Space the cuts out about an inch or less wide.  This will make your tassels.
Now you can make double knots in each of the tassels to create your pillow cover. Leave several undone so you can stuff your pillow.
Use the leftover fabric from the bottom of the shirt to line the inside of the pillow along the edges where you created the tassels.  This will prevent the stuffing from falling out.
Stuff your pillow with stuffing from an old pillow to keep in the recycling spirit and double knot the remaining tassels to close your pillow.

2. DIY Framed Art or Photos

Instead of buying the generic reprinted art you find at big box stores, be more original and make your own art. Hit up your local thrift store and find some cool frames, then print out some photos of your own at a kiosk or find some cool photos or art in old books or magazines. You can also go on Etsy or to a local craft fair and buy real artists prints or cards for affordable prices.

3. DIY Painting

Or, grab a canvas and some paint and paint your own masterpiece. Get paint colors that match your decor and use some wood for your canvas.  Check out this easy and cool DIY Dragged Paint Wall Art tutorial from the one and only Mr.Kate.

Kate is the queen of awesome DIY design ideas that keep your home decor affordable and original. In this tutorial she uses a piece of plywood, which you could use a piece of reclaimed wood for to recycle, and some paint. Just use a long drywall scraper or a long piece of recycled wood or cardboard to create some really cool designs. Check out the link for the full tutorial.

4. Get Creative With Your Plants

Instead of spending big bucks on conventional planters, why not use some different vessels to plant your pretty greens in?  Using old casserole dishes, pots, or cool old barrels is a great way to recycle, reuse and save money.  Plus it’ll add some unique visual interest to your space. While you’re at your local thrift store or a garage sale, look at any vessels with new eyes and see if you could imagine a plant looking good in it.

Teacups and teapots are great for tiny succulents, and an old ceramic bowl could be the perfect planter for a fern.  If you can’t drill holes in the bottom of the vessel, be sure to place some stones or gravel at the bottom before putting your soil in, for proper drainage.

These are just a few of the many DIY ideas you can try out in your own space to add a bit of your own vibe to your new place. Check out some more ideas on how to save money and stay green while decorating your space.

Leola's 'Christmas house' will dim its lights this year

It began innocently enough in the late 1960s or early ’70s, just a couple years after Bob and Connie Kunkle moved into their Leola home.

A few Christmas lights and decorations appeared in front of their 202 W. Main St. property, just a little something to help spread holiday cheer.

Things have changed — drastically — in the years since. Since their low-key beginnings, the Kunkles have year by year added to the dazzling collection of lights, expanding from the front yard to the roof, to the garage and shed out back, to the patio, to their yard’s perimeter.

A couple generations of locals have made the couple’s light display an annual pilgrimage. But this year’s display is the Kunkles’ last.

“Nobody wants to help!” Bob Kunkle says, half-jokingly. A daughter does come for a few November Saturdays to help, he says, but it’s still hour upon hour of work — “about 60 hours, one way or the other” — on his own.

Bob Kunkle is the first person to acknowledge that he can’t sit still, and his wife won’t argue that point. He’s “still around, in a roundabout way” at Stump’s Upholstery, the family business he’s been involved with for 56 years.

The top floor of their house is home to a massive train layout; the basement — which they expanded themselves years ago by hand-digging it — is a ’50s room they designed and built, complete with diner.

“This man has so much energy,” Connie Kunkle says of her husband, “and this really gave him an outlet to create something.”

So it’s no surprise that the Kunkles, once they started a light display, would end up with one big enough to draw a crowd. (By now the Kunkles have no idea how many lights are involved.)

Word spread. Neighbor Baron Zimmerman offered his adjacent driveway so there’s more room for visitors to circle through without tying up traffic along Route 23.

Any hesitation they may have had was swept away by, as Connie Kunkle says, “seeing people, especially children, coming in and looking around. Kids can’t wait to get here,” she says, “and some come two or three times a season.”

Work on the display starts in the last week of October, when Bob Kunkle begins hauling the lights out of garage storage and testing them. He’s gotten to the point, he says, “where, if they’re not lighting, I’ll fool with it for about 10 minutes, then out they go.”

Installation begins in earnest in mid-November, with the lights on at 5:15 p.m. every December day through Dec. 30. With one exception — a snowman on the eastern edge of their lawn that Connie Kunkle calls “our mascot” — the angels and carousel and penguin and all the other figures and lights are changed around to provide a new display each year.

Then the whole process needs to be reversed, with the entire display packed away in bitter-cold January.

The preparation, though, really is all year long. The couple always has been on the lookout for new displays and trends, once hauling home a great find from Texas; another time, snagging some unique lights from a gift shop in Oglebay near Wheeling, West Virginia.

People will stop year round when they see Bill or Connie working in the yard to ask, “This is the lights house, isn’t it?”

And it has been, for decades.

But come Dec. 30 this year, the giant display will go dark and the lights — which visitors can reserve now — will be officially sold and picked up.

Bob Kunkle has brought up the possibility of ending the display for several years, he says, until “I figured the only way to do it is to have (professional signmaker) Ronnie Martin make me a sign to post outside the house” announcing the end of an era.

What will the Kunkles — especially Bob, who says of their light display, “I guess I never grew up” — do when November rolls around next year?

“Well,” he says after a brief pause, “we might do a few lights next year. Just in front of the house.”

Beyond useless trinkets: 3D printing extends to home décor

Like replicators on Star Trek – machines that materialise tomato soup and "Tea, Earl Gray, hot" for peckish starship crew members – 3D printing has a distinctly sci-fi feel.

While not a new technology, the process of producing solid, three-dimensional objects sans tool or moulds isn't ubiquitous either. Hence, the fantasy element.

"It's like magic," says animator Dave Lobser in a video for 3D printing company Shapeways, "(It's) being able to take things that only exist on screens and turn them into real objects that you can hold."

Shapeways is headquartered in New York and, since 2007, has provided manufacturing services to thousands of creative types, like Lobser, who upload their 3D designs to shapeways.com, choose from dozens of materials and finishes – e.g., sandstone, porcelain, 14-karat gold and bronze – then wait for their objects to be reviewed, printed and shipped. Not only does the company print items on demand, it also functions as a marketplace. The Etsy of 3D printing, if you will.

It's not all random tchotchkes either (though there are plenty of those). One section of the Shapeways marketplace is devoted to 3D-printed home accessories and décor, many of which are both inventive and useful: from offbeat cookie cutters and chopsticks holders to air plant vases and geometric lamps.

Among the more high-calibre objects are pinhole lampshades by Dutch designer Studio Jelle. These minimalist, grid-like pieces, made of strong white nylon plastic with a matte finish, are right in line with the industrial trend in modern lighting.

Starting at US$81 (RM360), a pinhole shade can be used as either a pendant lamp – fixtures are extra – or positioned on the floor for an even more mod look. If guests to your home ask where you sourced it, just say it was magic.

Going solo helps Richard grow his own home decor empire

Going it alone was a tough decision for Richard Grafton, who worked in the family firm before setting up his own eponymous business.

Leaving Harrogate-based James Brindley caused rifts that are yet to heal but it set him free to put his more imaginative ideas into practice. Now, just four years later and with one of the most successful and dynamic interiors businesses in Yorkshire, he has no regrets.

“It wasn’t easy but I had to do it. I called my business Richard Grafton so my clients would know where I was and their loyalty has been amazing,” he says.

Supported by his wife Millie and their three children, he has just opened a new showroom in Crescent Court, Ilkley. It’s his second and builds on the approach he took with his first in Harrogate’s Montpellier quarter.

It doesn’t look or feel like a shop. Instead, it is a cross between a luxurious but comfy home and a boutique hotel, with room sets, fires, smart lighting and sound system, fresh flowers and scented candles.

There are discreet price tags on everything in the rooms, from the affordable wine glasses and photo frames to the fabric, though not on the bespoke furniture, which now forms a large part of the business.

The storage wall in maple and the walnut vanity unit in the bathroom are by Grafton Freestone, Richard’s collaboration with Andrew Freestone, and are manufactured in their workshop in Thorp Arch, near Wetherby.

The kitchen is a showstopper that has attracted window gazers who drool over the cabinetry. It is all handmade and has been designed with the help of the Ilkley store’s new manager Greg Murray, a cabinet maker and furniture designer by trade.

“It showcases what we can do in a totally bespoke kitchen, from raised and fielded panels to rounded corners and curves that can be helpful if you have young children. We’ve even designed a barista cabinet with a lift-out tray for coffee lovers,” says Richard, who adds that building and developing a team is one of the things he loves best about business.

“I try to employ people who are better than me. Greg isn’t a salesman, he is someone who knows how furniture is made and what’s possible. We don’t do hard sell. The idea is that people can pop in and get ideas and advice in a place that feels comfortable and homely.”

Full of energy and a born entrepreneur, his main role is to oversee the company, though he visits trade shows all over the world and helps with everything from interior design projects to sales. On the day we meet, he is mopping the floor of the kitchen in the Ilkley showroom, which is decorated in what is now his trademark style, which he describes as “classic contemporary, informal but smart”. It’s a look that won’t easily date, though there is a nod to trends.

“Brown is the new grey,” when it comes to backdrops, says Richard, who stresses that it’s not boring beige but a “browny grey green” mix. The sitting room area features this colour enlivened by teal and gold.

Richard’s love of fabric and texture is also obvious with favourites by Mulberry and GP &J Baker in evidence, while the store’s design library contains hundreds of books and swatches.

“We like to mix expensive and less expensive fabrics so you get a luxe for less effect. It’s like wearing an M&S shirt with a designer tie,” he says pointing to a chair that is upholstered in three different materials, including a top-end Mulberry.

Fabric is part of his DNA. His family has a long history of importing high-end cloth and it’s where his career started. After A levels at Leeds Grammar School, his first job was managing a curtain shop in Castleford. It was a success, not least because, along with a creative, can-do attitude, he has always had a good head for numbers.

He moved to the family’s Harrogate store in 1994 when it was selling dress fabric and brought the interiors offering with him. Homeware and interior design gradually took over and he became MD of the retail and interiors section of the Brindley business.

“I tried to buy the family out of the shop as I didn’t have much share in the business but that wasn’t an option so after lots of sleepless nights I decided to leave and do something on my own,” he says.

The James Brindley store has since been sold on but the rest of the business, including the wholesale fabric operation remains.

“It was liberating but frightening going on my own but I love it,” says Richard, who has just taken delivery of new products from America.“I went over there looking for something different and I found some interesting lighting and some great art prints.”

The transatlantic journey allowed more time for dreaming up new ideas “I also keep a notepad at the side of the bed so when I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea I can write it down,” he says. “The plan is to grow the brand and maybe open a third store.”

*Brown is the new grey but not the beige and taupe of yesteryear. Deep “browny grey” will be popular for walls. The Dulux colour of the year for 2017 is Denim Drift, a deep grey blue.

*As Brexit and Trump take their toll on confidence, more homeowners will decide to stay put for longer. This should lead to more adventurous interiors schemes as owners please themselves, rather than thinking of a future buyer.

*House plants have enjoyed a renaissance and we will see more of them next year, along with some interesting pots and planters.

7 Top Online Stores for Home Decor

The leaves are falling and the daylight window is slowly closing, shutting many of us inside where the thermostat can still make it feel like summer. As the weather changes and more of our time is spent indoors, we have the perfect opportunity to create a haven for hibernation within our homes. The following online stores have a unique selection that’s sure to make your home decor dreams come true.

Discount Diva

Affordable and abounding with possibilities in every cut and color, Overstock.com is the mecca for those seeking home decor. Overstock.com offers steep discounts and free shipping on purchases over $45. The website also offers clearance and liquidation sales, with rugs, bath accessories, bedding and other home goods up to 75% off the original price.

Vintage Value

ModCloth is not only a superstar when it comes to selling ‘50s polka-dotted A-line skirts. It also has quite a large selection of time-honored treasures that will transform your space. You can create “Little House on the Prairie” vibes with ModCloth’s old-fashioned duvet covers, shams and pillows.

With most items under $100, free exchanges and free shipping on orders over $75, vintage lovers can purchase statement pieces with staying power without breaking the bank.

Design with a Difference

Novica is passionate about empowering artisans around the world by connecting their products to a global marketplace of socially conscious consumers. Designing your home with the fair trade decor on Novica’s website helps preserve ancient artistic traditions, such as wood carving in Bali and ceramics in Peru.

Novica offers handcrafted furniture in wood, leather and teak. The woven woolen tapestry of Peruvian llamas is sure to warm your walls as well as your heart once you read the story of the brother artists behind the hanging creation. Novica also ships to over 100 countries around the world.

For the Rare Birds

The unique finds at Uncommon Goods are perfect conversation starters for the friends and family you’ll be hosting over the holidays. Each of the unique items on the site includes a background story, and the handcrafted goods include a maker bio. The creative decorative pieces, such as the wooden door harp (why knock when you can announce your entrance with strings?), also make great housewarming gifts for the hostess who has everything.

Not Your Mama’s Crate and Barrel

CB2, Crate and Barrel’s cheaper and more modern sister, offers surprisingly good sales without sacrificing style. Geometric vases, unique lighting, storage accessories and more await you! You can also sign up for their emails and be the first to know when sales or special offers are available.

Wanderlust for World Market

For those of us whose vacation days were spent well before July, World Market’s eclectic decor will transform your home into an international destination without the hassle of heavy luggage and long flights. And there’s almost always a sale both in stores and online.

The Craft collection by World Market is a dynamic array of limited-edition, handcrafted goods from artisanal communities across the globe. Each item in the collection requires a minimum number of pre-orders before the artisan proceeds with the craft’s production.

Eclectic and Budget Friendly

It’s hard to not get sucked into the world of Zulily every time you visit their site. Not only do they offer clothing and shoes at discounted prices, but they also offer home decor at reduced prices from brands you know and love. It’s important to note that the sales run for just a couple of days per collection, so you have to act fast if you want an item. Purchases are final sale, but their customer service team will work with you to find a solution if you find that you’re not happy with your purchase.

Shopping online for unusual and affordable home decor can be a fun and exciting way to reflect your personality in your home and surround yourself with comfort every season of the year.

What’s your favorite home decor website? Let us know in the comments to get the conversation going with your fellow Zing readers!

Why You Should Consider Collecting Rainwater

Droughts are not uncommon in today's world, unfortunately. All over the news are reports of areas stricken by drought, with little or no rainfall on the horizon. When the rains come, they usually only provide temporary relief. However, if you have a tank for collection, you can make the water last much, much longer.

Part of the reason for a lack of water in the underground table is that humans have built over so much land. Things like concrete and asphalt do not absorb any water, so none gets into the soil where it needs to go. Buildings and other huge structures also block the collection of water, and cause it to run off, causing dangerous erosion. Owning a collection tank can help with this issue.

These tanks are built specifically to collect some of this rain and hold it in storage for later use. This water is safe to use for dishes, laundry, toilets and landscaping, which means that drinking water is conserved for human consumption only.

These tanks can be installed in a variety of places, and pumps to use them can be purchased separately, often from the same dealer who sold the tank to you. The pumps are generally either manual or automatic, but with energy-saving features. This means less electricity used, which is yet another benefit of this type of system.

There are two main types of tanks, underground and above ground. An above ground tank is just what it sounds like. It does not need a hole dug to place it, so you can put it on top of concrete, wood, or just dirt. You can place it near gutters to maximize the amount of water collected.

Underground tanks work much the same way, but they are buried underneath the ground. This is great for areas where ground space is at a premium, and keeps them out of sight. People who want to store extra water for long term use often turn to an underground system for their storage needs.

There are various sizes and capacities available. If you wish only to use yours for gardening, a small 100 liter vessel might suffice. If you intend to use this is a source of water for household needs as well, you might look into a much larger 10,000 liter model.

The shape and color choices for a rainwater tank also vary quite a bit. From pink to green, there is a color that suits your setting and taste. Round, square, and grid-like tanks are all available. Pick the one that is right for you, then sit back, relieved that the next drought will not be so hard on you.

Innovative products can make home life easier

While you’re waiting for technology to deliver that flying car, a few other gizmos have been invented to make life at home easier. And they’re even getting a bit more affordable, says Boyce Thompson, the former editor of Builder magazine and author of the book, “The New New Home.”

During the Atlanta Home Show next month at the Cobb Galleria, Thompson will introduce some of the innovative gadgets and systems that are now on the market. “I’m always looking for stuff that changes the way you experience a product and that fundamentally changes the way a house functions,” he said. “And I bring them to these shows around the country.”

A few of his favorites he’ll be showcasing include a Corian counter top that charges cell phones and iPads, voice controls for home systems, and lights that respond to the owner’s mood. But perhaps the product that meets Thompson’s enhanced experience criteria is the Ring, a video camera at your doorbell that sends images of what’s outside to your cell phone.

“It’s amazing to think your doorbell is now a camera and video machine – and the eyes and ears of the smart home,” said Thompson. “You can be anywhere and see who’s at the door.”

Another cool product is the Aquion battery system that stores energy generated from solar panels. “The installation of solar panels doubled in 2015, and the price is half what is was five years ago,” said Thompson. “If a house produces more electricity than you need, you can store energy in these batteries that could run a house for three to four days. That makes living off the utility grid a reality.”

One product that doubles as a décor accent while creating a germ-free environmental is the line of Sherwin-Williams paints that debuted earlier this year. “It took four years to develop this paint that to combats allergens and germs – a real innovation,” said Thompson.

Windows are also getting an update. “Andersen Windows now features a line that comes with a sensor in the hardware that sends you a text notification every time a window is opened or closed,” said Thompson. “At first I thought it was kinda gimmicky to connect the windows to a home automation system, but it’s a neat idea. It can remind you a window is open when it’s starting to rain. You could even get a notification when your rambunctious kid tries to sneak out onto the roof!”