Since I was little, I loved making something more out of something small or seemingly insignificant. Whether it was an essay out of a small life moment or a painting out of leftover house paint and scrap wood, I’ve always loved to spend my free time this way. This year, especially, I’ve been hopping on the DIY crazy train, probably as a means to slow down from my hectic work life.

My parents and boyfriend are always really helpful in my random ideas and help me where necessary. Since it’s pretty tough to do any project in my little apartment, I like to go out to my parents’ farm on the weekend and see what I can find in our 100 year old house and the out buildings.

Here are a few things around my bedroom that we’ve done in the last few months (or years, for a couple of them):

Remember those cheesy butterfly pictures that used to hang above my bed? Well, I took the plunge and painted over them. I was at HomeGoods (a very dangerous place for me) and I saw a painting I really liked. I decided to recreate it instead of purchasing it, and instead of buying a whole new canvas, I decided to just paint over one I wasn’t in love with anymore. So that’s the result on my closet wall (which takes up more space than my clothes because the apartment building maintenance closet is on the other side of the wall). My boyfriend painted the other one (a lot more creatively than my own I might add), and I don’t have a picture as it’s earned a spot above his parent’s fireplace mantel.

Below the painting is something I made on a visit home while I was still living in Willmar. The white trim is left over from the trim that was prevalent around our house when it was still in my great grandparent’s possession in the early 1900’s. The knobs are ones I found in the basement of my parent’s house, unused or left over from various projects, and they’re painted from leftover paint from my parent’s kitchen.

Last winter, when I was in my parent’s barn, I saw an old window frame propped up against the wall. It only had two glass panes left and 3 sides, so I added a piece of barn wood from my grandmother’s barn and filled in the empty space with leftover chicken wire from our chicken coop. The hooks are all mismatched ones I found in the basement of our house, also left from the original house design in the early 1900’s.

I found a picture online that I really liked, where the bed was flanked on either side with wooden West Elm sconces (now sold out). 

Since they were sold out (and I couldn’t afford to buy them anyway), I decided to make my own. My dad and I (90% my dad, I just told him what I wanted) picked out two broken rake poles and an old wooden fence post. We cut the fence post in half for the bases and and used the rake poles for the part that sticks out. While not as petite or flawless as the West Elm version, I love them more. I then picked up some LED Edison lights from target and ordered two cord kits from Amazon (not as pretty as the picture, but a heck of a lot cheaper).

Also pictured are the Beatles planks I painted. My favorite album is Abbey Road, but I didn’t want just another Abbey Road poster. Instead I took four pieces of a 2×4 cut the same length and painted on the Abbey Road silhouettes. It looks a bit like Paul is sporting a beer belly rather than a coat, but I love it.

Another thing you can see (besides my obsession with pillows) is the headboard we made. I had a bunch of leftover cloth from another project, and I decided to make the headboard I always wanted (actually the one I’ve always wanted is tufted, but that was too hard).

My dad cut the shape I wanted out of a piece of plywood and I stapled quilt batting to it, then the fabric over the batting.

Around the edges I tacked in the nailhead trim (the stuff that comes in a roll, because I’ve tried to do the individual tacks before, and it’s painstakingly difficult), and after attaching two painted 2×4’s to the back, we were done.

I think next stop is to paint my bar cart, the shelf in my room, and probably my dresser and night stand, because I’ve never been a huge fan of Espresso. Also I want to put removable wallpaper all the hell over my kitchen because it is hideous.

And yes, all of this is probably just procrastination from my writing projects. Ah well…