DIY

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

DIY Pendant Light Ideas: From Paper Lanterns To Concrete Lamps

The good thing about most of the DIY pendant light ideas shown in the mood board above, is that they don’t require any special wiring. Making them easy and simple home decor projects.

A Wrap Around

Veneer strips, twine, and doilies are some of the materials that can be used to wrap around a pendant light to make creative and beautiful DIY hanging lamp shades. You can follow along with the veneer DIY project seen in picture (1) here.

The DIY string lamp chandelier seen in the outdoor picture (2) can be adapted to have a hanging light fitted inside just like the veneer project. The technique used to create the string lanterns can also be done with other materials other than string to create different styled lights. Balloons were used to create the round shape. Twine that was dipped in cornstarch was then wrapped around the balloon. The twine hardens and is set in place. The balloon can be popped and removed – follow along with the step by step instructions here. A similar technique can be done with doily patterns seen in picture (3).

For DIY string light ideas have a look at my mood board posts here:

Paper Lanterns

A paper lantern makes for a great DIY pendant lamp base. I’ve seen people glue circle cut outs of maps, geometric cut outs, and even playing cards to a paper lantern, creating their own homemade pendant lights. The DIY project by Nichole in picture (4) uses a large paper lantern and coffee filters to create one big fluff ball of a light. It is one time consuming project though, taking around 10 hours or so to glue the 1000 coffee filters one by one.

Hang a number of paper lanterns in a group, at different heights, to create a paper lantern chandelier. You could have string lights fed into the lanterns, or have one pendant light hanging in the middle of the ensemble to light it all up.

A simple and and quick paper lantern project is to create an ombre effect – just like the lantern in picture (5). This can be done by either dip dying the paper lantern or using spray paint to progressively add color to the white lantern.

Going Ombre Again

If you can find yourself some snow globe like pendant lights, there is another ombre/gradient lighting project you can do. Over on Design Love Fest there is a tutorial on how to elegantly spray an ombre color palette onto white glass pendant lamp shades (6).

Concrete and Bottles

Ben over on Homemade Modern used soda and water bottles to create simple concrete molds – creating the industrial chic pendant lamps seen in picture (7).

For DIY lamp ideas have a look at my mood board post here: DIY Lamp Ideas: From Recycling Felt to Dip Dyed Shades.

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).

DIY Lamp Ideas: From Recycling Felt to Dip Dyed Shades

From designer toy lamps to creating your own mini township, here are the most creative DIY lamp ideas around.

Modifying Lamps

The Toy Lamp by Ryan McElhinney, seen in picture (1), is one incredible designer piece. Something similar can be made by taking old children’s toys and artfully glue gunning them to an existing lamp. For a great design try and choose paint colors that match or contrast the lamp well. Gold or Silver and black create a sleek modern design. For a more funky color scheme use bright bold colors: like yellow spray painted toys with an orange lamp. Light blue spray painted toys with a dark blue lamp.

The dip dyed DIY lamp shade by Design*Sponge is a simple project to do, but looks crazy great (2). For more home decor dip dying project ideas have a look at my mood board post here. Taking a Sharpie marker to a lamp is a creative and simple way of upcycling an old lamp (3) – by BHG. For more sharpie home DIY ideas, look here.

New Materials

How about using different materials to create your own homemade lamp. The organic flowing ribbon lamp by Sara Bergano is a bit of a complex DIY undertaking as it requires some soldering and wiring work. But by using scrap felt pieces and LED lights, Sara was able to create a lamp that is flexible and can be moulded to different shapes – and can be used as a floor, table, or even as a pendant lamp (4).

The DIY table lamp by Rob Edwards seen in picture (5) looks like it would be a complicated project, or something you could only buy at the store. But the process Rob used to create this is quite easy. The only major tool needed was a heat gun, which was used to bend the scrap acrylic to his liking. All that was left to do was to stick on the veneer and the IKEA LED lights.

Taking an IKEA FAX lamp shade, along with strips of teak wood, a few hardware pieces and concrete, Minni was able to create her own industrial style DIY desk lamp (6). Jump over to their site for the step by step guide.

DIY Paper Lamp Shade Ideas

Paper is a material that can be easily turned into a DIY lamp. Try and use LED lights for these projects as these will give off less heat.

Only a sheet of paper and simple cut and fold techniques were used to create the geometric origami style paper lamp in picture (7). You can follow along with Drew’s DIY guide here.

Another fun DIY lamp project is to use print outs of houses to create your own little lamp town – just like in picture (8), by Claire.

String Lights

String lights are inexpensive and flexible light fixtures. I’ve seen them stuffed in bird cages, and wine bottles (9 by Wit & Whistle) to create soft glowing lamps. Over on A Merry Mishap, string lights were weaved into a large rope to create a special kind of floor lamp (10).

For more DIY string light ideas have a look at these mood board posts: