I used to have a problem with collecting chairs, but I quickly had to shut it down. I was running out of space for them, and honestly, it was becoming a little like my stuffed animal collection when I was a kid, meaning that I anthropomorphized each one and felt guilty letting any of them…
I love the look of papier-mâché. It is sturdy, classic and timeless, but sometimes it is just too much trouble — the layers, dripping and drying time, and then the painting. If I had an art/craft-dedicated studio and time to spare, I would be all over it. But for now, paper clay is my new…
I never can manage to come up with them myself, but I love super duper simple DIY projects. I have such admiration for people who see something and then, boom, a couple minutes later they have turned it into something totally different. Quick, easy, no muss or fuss: three-step projects are awesome. I’m going to make…
After tossing all the holiday wrapping and boxes and looking sadly at my overflowing recycle bin, I am not embarrassed to admit that I dumpster dove in my own trash. I had this idea to create a much more affordable version of Vitra’s Uten.Silo organizer using the boxes that had served their purpose and been…
If you haven’t tackled your gift wrapping yet, you’re in luck — this is our second DIY today to feature super cheap, super fast and super cute giftwrap and decor projects. This one comes from Sara Rivka Dahan, the DIY expert behind the site Creative Jewish Mom. While at the store, Sara spotted these blank…
Every year we save the best shoe, shirt and jewelry boxes from the holidays and recycle them to hold craft supplies, store photos or use as gift boxes for the next giving season. Our stockpiles were getting unruly, as were our drawers full of scrap ribbon and wrapping paper, so we came up with a…
A few months ago, we were asked to contribute some holiday gift DIY projects to the December/January issue of Ladies’ Home Journal. The magazine has just hit stands, and our projects are now available to view on their website! Some of these are variations on past projects, while others — like the vintage book tablet…
It’s possible that we have done everything you could think to do with mini pumpkins and gourds in the name of a beautiful Thanksgiving table — glitter, spray paint, stencils, papier mâché, carving, drilling, stamping. There is hardly a tool or technique we haven’t applied to (or tried on) the squash family. We thought this…
It’s been rainy in Oakland of late; I forgot how cool and crisp it can get here during the fall and winter rainy season. I’ve been breaking out the extra layers and lighting candles the past few days, and I’ve been wanting to find a fun and cozy project I could work on indoors while…
in honor of a brand new year, the common ‘material’ for this month’s projects will be a theme: new year’s resolutions! we all make them, we all break them, but you have to try right? this week’s resolution is “waste not, want not”. every few months i purchase my cat a scratch pad from trader…
this time of year the days just seem to fly by and this week was a total blur! next week ac and i are heading down to virginia for the holidays but i’ll be posting through next tuesday so please tune in next week for some fantastic end of the year sneak peeks, the last…
how fun is this diy wrapping tutorial (using old plastic bags from target!) from creature comforts? i need to go find something to wrap. click here for the full instructions.
the other day i hopped on the F train and headed over to carroll gardens to visit my favorite event planner of all time, david stark. i’ve been watching (and blogging) david’s work for a while now and thought he would be perfect or the next installment of the d*s video series. thankfully david was…
this fantastic diy idea comes from the lovely mollie dash and her boyfriend bryan. bryan decided to make this chandelier from packing peanuts- something some of us accumulate more often than we’d like. rather than throw them away (only if they’re non-recyclable, of course), why not turn them into something like this? click here for…
i know wednesday is normally diy day but i couldn’t resist sharing this cool diy project from maya at maya*made. she decided to update the traditional cork board idea with something fun and different- coffee/grain/flour sacks. i love the way she’s re-purposed them here (though some of them are lovely i’d hang them as is)…
in honor of diy wednesday (stay tuned for derek and lauren’s post at 1pm today), i thought i’d kick things off with this fun project from eco friend architect michelle kaufmann. michelle has a great series of green diy projects on youtube, but you can also view her work over at green site, ecologue. just…
holy moly!! this post marks our 1 year anniversary of doing diy projects here at design*sponge! boy how time flies!! we just want to say it’s been such a huge privilege and pleasure sharing our weekly projects with you. continuing with last week’s idea of re-purposing an every day object by giving it a little…
we’ve spent the last few days in chicago visiting friends and seeing the sights. (we also caught the renegade craft fair on sunday- you can check out some pictures on our flickr page right here. we wanted to make sure to leave our generous hosts a nice thank you gift, but without our usual arsenal…
we’re always on the lookout for fun materials we can use in our diy projects. this time we found it right under our noses (actually it was right under our cats’ noses). after giving them a special treat of wet food the other day, we decided to repurpose the empty can into a handy little…
there was a brief period between my first post-college job and my second where i spent a month trying to figure out what i wanted to do and how the heck i was going to pay my rent. during that month, in addition to rampantly searching for jobs, i found myself immersed in way, way…
