RikkiRogersBlog

Happy Sunday, readers! :)

The bad news is that the latest Pottery Barn magazine just arrived in my mailbox and not only have I been feeling very poor, but also that my house is sadly under-decorated! The solution? Cute Do-it-yourself projects made out of old “junk” or “garbage” items, collectively known as (buzzword alert!) “upcycling.”

Lately I’ve been checking out a lot of these upcycling projects online that got me thinking, “I could do that!”

In this post, I’m going to highlight four of the projects that hubby and I are undertaking today.

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Rustic Tea Light Holder

DIYers, it probably doesn’t get any easier than this.

I’m going to dig into hubby’s scrap wood pile for wood that would be easy to cut into little blocks, run into town real quick and buy him a 1.5 inch drill bit for a couple of dollars, have him drill tea-light sized holes into the wood and then sand the sharp edges down and stain the blocks an attractive darker brown.

To take this project to the next level, I thought perhaps I could look into buying a small wood burning kit (like the kind kids have!) and perhaps burn a cute little shape into the blocks. Tell me these aren’t adorable and very easy to make? So what are you waiting for? Grab your husband and start digging through the scrap wood pile in the garage!

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Pallet Shelves

Also adorable, rustic, and made from scrap material, is my current favorite from this list, “Pallet Shelves.”

We have four great big, weather-worn pallets from this summer’s front yard landscaping project just waiting to be turned into something great. Other than the use of his saw, I’m not sure that these are going to require much else on my husband’s behalf other than his assistance in hanging them.

Currently, our pallets are lined up in the back yard, drying in the sun. Later today, hubby will saw the ends off, nail a piece of wood onto the bottom of each so that it can hold photos and knick-knacks, and voila! In fact, he’s already picked a place in the house to hang them.

We both loved this idea so much that he’s even been researching other ways to turn old pallets into great, artistic (and rustic!) looking furniture. An upcoming blog post may feature a pallet-coffee-table and tv-stand… I can’t wait to see these future projects come into fruition!

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Wine Cork Bath Mat

My sister told me about this project, and she recently completed her very own!

I’ll need shelf liner, a hot glue gun, and 250 corks. Thankfully, my father-in-law is a wine aficionado and also happens to be a cork-saver! Hubby just brought home a big box of corks for me – enough to complete this project! – so all I need is the shelf liner and hot glue.

The mat in the picture uses about 85 corks (all halved) but I plan to make a mat a little larger than that.

While this is not the most durable bath mat out there, it certainly is one of the cutest and has a lot of personality. Our guest bathroom doesn’t see a whole lot of use and it will match the sparse decor in there perfectly. Can’t wait to get started on this one!

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Knit Teddy Bear

My mother-in-law showed me how to knit, and while I haven’t advanced beyond knitting squares, I can use my sewing skills to turn those squares into cute, stuffed knit animals.

Originally, when I found out my sister was pregnant, I started out on a fall colored baby blanket made up of long knit strips that I was going to sew together into a baby blanket. Now I’m contemplating making the blanket strips into a stuffed knit animal for my now-4-month-old-niece rather than plugging another 60 hours or so into finishing the blanket.

I have already made several of my knit squares into (IMO) super cute knit mouse cat toys that my cats just love, so this project seems very doable to me.

I’ve got knitting needles and yarn, needle and thread, all I would need is buttons for eyes and I’m done!

I’ll post photos when we complete all of these projects, of course. Can’t wait to share them with you all and I hope that I won’t be the only one using my Sunday to create some cute, environmentally-friendly, and easy home decorating projects!