home: made [ balloon vase ]

home: made [ balloon vase ]

This tutorial from Simply Handmade Studios is a brilliant, simple and very effective way to make a water secure vase. It just uses plaster, a balloon and paint/decoration of your choice.

Follow the simple method to produce your own vase. It can be varied with size and shape of the balloon.

We also found a similar idea but swapping to coating the outside instead with plaster, pva or another strong bonding layer.

Design and decorate with paint, glitter, spray, beads or even gold leaf.

home: made [ concrete moulds ]

home: made [ concrete moulds ]

If you are interested in getting creative with concrete and making your own concrete homewares – there’s lots of mould kits across the high street and online to help produce all different shapes and styles.

Amazon is full of various mould sets with prices as low as £8.99 upwards.

Etsy is also bursting with sets with all sorts of shape designs to use.

And of course, the huge market place eBay, is also packed with sets to use. We love the circular low dish design we found.

Then head to MyFabrics or other online craft providers for small batches of concrete mix to start using your moulds and creating your pieces.

Your own pieces would make great gifts for others and also lovely to have personally designed pieces around your home. Homewares can be left the natural concrete colour or painted or sprayed once dry.

home: made [ diy books ]

home: made [ diy books ]

Explore bookstores, online or in person for great aids for DIY and creating the perfect home for you.

We’ve scanned the shelves for our favourite picks.

Making A House Your Home / Amazon £14.99

DIY Furniture/ Amazon £4.14

The Girls Guide To DIY / World Of Books £7.19

The Interior Design Handbook / Amazon £14.99

DIY Art At Home / World of Books £4.79

DIY Furniture 2 / Amazon £13.70

A Well Crafted Home / John Lewis £19.99

home: made [ IKEA Besta hack ]

home: made [ IKEA Besta hack ]

Mouldings and fluted edges are big news right now and seen all over furniture. Softening sideboards and cupboard doors.

Rather than paying the price for this new trend, why not create your own version.

We found this great IKEA hack from abeautifulmess.com to get you started. Learn the basics and adapt to any door fronts.

home: made [ woven basket ]

home: made [ woven basket ]

A wonderful tutorial from Design Sponge to make handy baskets to use around the home.

This simple how-two uses just basket cane and a few tools. Follow the simple directions and create any size storage to use for fruit, toys, toiletries… all kinds of home products.

home: made [ circular shelf ]

home: made [ circular shelf ]

Here’s a great tutorial guide to create a modern circular hanging shelving unit with just a few materials and basic tools.

It makes a great display area for quirky pieces, would work well in a bathroom, lounge or really lovely in a nursery with some chosen special baby ornaments or photos.

This easy DIY is from Decoist.com

home: made [ pottery kit ]

home: made [ pottery kit ]

Ready for another creative project at home? We love this pottery kit from Sculpd. It’s ample set with enough for two people to get stuck in to a good bit of creating pottery at home.

They say;

A Sculpd Pottery Kit contains everything you’ll need to sculpt, carve, paint and seal your own pinch pots, succulent plant pots, trinket dishes, vases, candle holders, sculptures, wall hangings, coasters, pendants and everything in between.

Every kit contains enough clay for two people. You can create 4 or more pinch pots or 2 larger plant pots with plenty left over for the finishing touches.

What’s in the kit?

2 Packs Premium Air-Dry Clay

Step-By-Step Beginners Pottery Guide

Pottery Carving, Shaping and Cutting Tools & Tool Bag

White Acrylic Paint

Glossy Varnish / Sealant

2 Paintbrushes

– Sponge for Smoothing

We use a premium air-drying clay that is soft, supple, easy to manipulate and dries a lovely light grey colour with a smooth surface making it a joy to paint on. We’ve tested every air-dry clay we could get our fingers into, and this clay is hands down the best.

home: made [ side table ]

home: made [ side table ]

We have seen quite a lot of fluted circular tables over the last year, along with DIY versions and we love them.

This tutorial we found uses pine moulding and a birch wood top. A really lovely natural finish with no need to paint.

We found this tutorial on hunker.com and it’s really simple to follow. Give it a go!