Decor

Handmade: Simple DIY Vintage Decor Ideas

This is what Home Tree Atlas is all about. Simple and great looking decor ideas that anyone can do at home. The DIY vintage decor ideas below range from simple decor ideas such as using glass bottles as planters, to more DIY projects like taking a reclaimed window and turning it into a photo frame.

Simple DIY Decor Ideas

You can easily buy old vintage style clothing pins on Amazon here. These can be used to hang up photographs on a piece of rope just like in picture (1).

Vintage bottles can be used for a number of decor ideas around the house. They can be used to hold up flowers (2). Instead of having your kitchen liquids by the sink in their plastic brand bottles, you can pour the liquids into vintage bottles and make the area look better. For more ideas on using vintage bottles around the house check out my mood board here: Home Decor Ideas: Using Vintage Glass Bottles.

Give your closets a makeover with some vintage style paint (mint, baby pastel blue, cream), and add on some vintage handles or door knobs.

A bird cage is another item that can be used for a number of decor ideas – from housing plants and books, to jewellery organizers and candle stands. For a mood board and more ideas have a look here: Home Decor Ideas: Using Bird Cages.

Old reclaimed ladders can be upcycled and used in rooms for shelving or storage. They can also be used as a bedroom side table just like in picture (3) – Ideas for Decorating With Ladders.

Galvanised buckets can be used as a trash can or to store magazines and blankets. Have a look at this mood board for more vintage storage ideas (one of the most popular posts on Home Tree Atlas): Vintage Storage and Organization Ideas.

Getting Creative With Your Printer

There are a whole bunch of vintage DIY ideas you can do with just your printer:

Catherine from Design Editor took a vintage camera photo and got it blown up for only $3.29. You can see the framed print in picture (4). The vintage camera photo is available to download for free from her site here.

A DIY project that I did, was to create posters with vintage graphics. I printed them out on A3 card and painted in the empty space with chalkboard paint to create chalkboard posters (5). You can see the step by step guide here.

I got the graphics for the chalkboard DIY vintage posters from The Graphics Fairy. Over on her site, she has a ton of vintage graphics that are free to download. People have used them to decorate countertops, kitchen linens, or even buckets (6).

Over on Just Something I Made there are great looking apothecary labels that you can download and print for free. They can be transferred onto pillows, sewn onto towels for a little design spice (7), or used to label jars (8).

More Craftier Vintage DIY Project Ideas

I wrote up a post showing all the different things you can do with old reclaimed windows. In picture (9) you can see one being used as a photo frame. In my mood board here they have also been turned into room dividers, mirror frames, kitchen command centers, and even into DIY vintage furniture pieces (cabinet and coffee table).

Vintage and antique door knobs can be used as towel hooks or as curtain tie backs (10).

In my Vintage Style Wallpaper mood board I show a range of different design ideas. My favorite style is the textured wallpaper, the anaglyptic paper designs seen in picture (11).

A few simple vintage DIY project ideas include turning normal looking jars vintage by using Mod Podge and food coloring (12) – you can follow along with the step by step guide here. Or how about printing/stamping/transferring vintage graphics onto cork or fabric pieces to create your own coasters (13).

I’ve saved the best idea for last. By simply sewing together a number of doilies, you can create a long table runner for your coffee or dining room table (14). 1/2/3/9/10/11/13/14

Style Guide: Vintage Flooring Ideas and Designs

It isn’t easy to find vintage flooring ideas, as there are only a few designs that really work. I’ll be on the lookout for more ideas, but here are some to get you going with your own room makeovers.

Vintage Tile Flooring

Ceramic tiles are a classic choice for flooring. For a vintage style you can go for the more traditional black and white floor design seen in the bathroom pictures (1) and (2). An inexpensive flooring option would be to use black and white vinyl flooring that looks like a tiled design. Another direction would be the more decorative and colorful tiles seen in pictures (3) and (4).

A mosaic of small Hexagon floor tiles also looks great in a vintage styled room (5).

Vintage Floor Patterns

Hardwood flooring is another choice for a vintage style floor. You can arrange the wooden planks into a pattern for a more decorative look. Take a look at the herringbone pattern in pictures (6) and (7). You’ve also got the popular chevron pattern (8).

The chevron pattern can also be used when tiling floors. It is also a great pattern for area rugs (9).

Area Rugs

For those of you that don’t have hardwood floors or even if you do, area rugs are a quick way of adding some vintage flooring style to any room.

Some quick ideas include using floral rugs (seen above), or solid pastel shades. Above I mentioned chevron patterned rugs. Don’t forget about those really fluffy vintage style rugs (aka shag rugs) seen in pictures (10) (11) and (12). 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/Vintage Carpet

More Vintage Mood Boards:

February 20, 2014 in Construction, Decor

Best of Home Tree Atlas: Home Decor Ideas

Here is a collection of the most popular posts on Home Tree Atlas right now.

February 16, 2014 in Decor

Home Decor Ideas: DIY Coasters

It is all in the details when it comes to a well designed home. Even the coasters you use can say a lot about your style and design taste. How about creating your own? All sorts of materials can be used to create great looking DIY coasters.

Organic Materials

One simple coaster idea is to take a log or large branch and slice it up to create wood slices. A coat of oil and you’ve got yourself some rustic looking homemade coasters seen in picture (1). Chopped up pallets (free if you salvage for them) can also be made into wooden coasters (2). For more DIY pallet ideas for around the home, have a look at my mood board post here.

Agate slices = beautiful. These make great looking coasters. The slices in picture (3) are more rustic in color (browns and greys), but you can get some really colorful ones (blues, reds). The agate coasters in the picture can be bought from Etsy here. If you buy agate slices, glue felt or cork to the underside to protect your furniture.

Hard Materials

Bathroom tiles are perfect for creating homemade coasters (4). They are the right size, come in different shapes, and are water resistant. You’ll want to glue felt to the bottom to protect your furniture. You can also use mod podge to glue the underside of instagram print outs or pieces of fabric to ceramic tiles. Then mod podge the top to seal and protect the print out or fabric – just like the DIY photo coasters in picture (5) by Just a Smidgen.

How about creating your own ceramic tile coasters by using easy to use air dry clay. The clay pieces in picture (6) are designed to be fridge magnets. You can just modify the tutorial, seen here, by making them bigger and gluing felt to the back instead of magnets.

The coasters in picture (7) are made out of natural tumbled marble. They can be bought from Etsy here. A similar look can be created by using (quick dry) concrete – and then stamping them. For other concrete home DIY ideas have a look here: Home Decor Ideas: Using Concrete.

DIY Coaster Ideas Using Softer Materials

I am always fond of using leather in home decor. But it can be hard to find ways of using it without making a space look tacky. Leather coasters look great though. Hank & Hunt have a tutorial on how to create chevron patterned DIY drink coasters (8). They use an embossing plate, but simple embossing hand tools (with different designs, numbers or, even letters) can be used too.

Wool felt and thread were used to create the geometric coaster designs in picture (9) – by Mackenzie.

Cork coasters can be used to make all sorts of DIY coaster designs. Painting over them or stamping them is one way to go (10). Or there is this DIY project by Design Love Fest that mod podged printouts onto cork pieces (11).

The linen coasters in picture (12) are available from Anthropologie. But similar ones can be handmade by hemming fabric and printing, stamping, or even using a Sharpie to create your own homemade designs (Home Decor Ideas: The Sharpie Touch).