DIY Life

Impatient for those golden and red leaves to start falling? Make this Whimsical Autumn Leaves Windcatcher while you wait. Easy enough for kids to do with help. You supply colorful fabric leaves and beads and let them have at it. – Centsational Girl

Pasted with vintage maps, any object becomes a unique and eye-catching collectable. A chic headboard or a stack of antique books. How about paper butterflies crafted from old music score sheets? A collection of photos to inspire you. – Bromeliad Living

The Young House Love bloggers are working hard on a sleek nursery design for blogger John's sister's house. The emphasis is a decidedly non-prissy nursery, with nary an iota of pastel pink or blue in sight. Instead, contemporary lines and colors rule ... all on a tight budget. – Young House Love

Anyone who has ever tried to outfit their bedroom knows that bedroom furniture is not cheap. So what do you do if you are short on cash, yet long for a stylish room? You do-it-yourself, of course.

There are a few things to consider before you begin. Think about your decorating style. Are you looking for something as a short term solution or are you looking to invest the time and energy into making a headboard that will last your for the long haul. How much time and energy do you really want to spend making a headboard? Do you want to make your headboard from items that you already own, then look around your house, garage, or attic at things that you have laying around that could be repurposed.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Think beyond the metal scroll screen. There are many types of screens out there that can suit your own personal taste. You can even use vintage shutters hinged together.

It's summer: the season of sun, sand and surfing! So let's talk about how to incorporate a dash of beach flavor into your interior décor. Specifically, let's talk surfboards.

First up: Enter the DIY Life-Lunar Lounge Coffee Table Giveaway! A beautifully streamlined Eliptikal table is up for grabs. Inspired by 1950s interiors, the Eliptikal also evokes the world of surfing style. Want to win it? Just follow the link to Erin's post and tell us how you would put your own decorative stamp on this baby.

Now, I'll confess, I'm no surfer. However, I love the look of vintage long boards. Yes, they're kind of big and bulky, but they also possess elegant lines. They speak so powerfully of the ocean and outdoors living. Plus they effortlessly add an unexpected, fun twist to any room.

In my humble opinion, upholstered furniture looks better without the anchoring wall of fabric known as the skirt. More often than not, skirts are cut and hemmed too short anyway. Unless the legs are downright hideous, their presence adds an element which becomes a part of the overall design, rather than something attached to it.

Complete removal of a skirt can get tricky, but ReadyMade happened across a chair update project on The Brick House blog that opens up all sorts of vintage chair possibilities.

The blogger transformed this unimpressive gold 1970s chair into a retro gem by altering the skirt in order to show off those modern legs. Find out more after the break.

Lately, I've been coming across beautiful vintage TV and stereo cabinetry while making my weekly thrift shop rounds.

Most have beautiful wood finishes, and the designs are unusual and very retro, but I haven't been able to bring myself to buy a heavy cabinet filled with a dead Magnavox just for the cabinet. I continue to rack my brain to come up with a practical purpose for such a behemoth. What could possibly justify the time and trouble to lug this thing home?

Moxie, over on Craftster, came up with a clever and functional use for an old 1950s-style TV cabinet. Read more about it after the break.

Shabby chic is an interesting home decorating style. It's almost as if you are trying to give your home a haphazard look, slightly worn out, a little bit mis-matched, traditional with a twist. Originally seen in European country homes that were expensive to keep up, shabby chic was borne out of the necessity to keep home decor costs to a minimum.

Certain design elements are associated with shabby chic: fringe and tassels, different types and patterns of fabric used in the same room, distressed surfaces, and flea market finds.

After the break, we'll reveal a few tips and tricks to help you get this look on your own.

Bring a bit of vintage style into your bathroom with Julie Reed's crocheted bath rug. The doily pattern that she used is from 1918: authentic and classic. The full tutorial will give you everything you need to recreate this bath mat in your own home.

Julie doesn't just list supplies and steps, but walks us through what works and what doesn't, as she chooses the right yarn and tries to minimize the ruffled edge.

I love her color choice. The juniper and charcoal heather compliment each other beautifully. This is the kind of inspired piece you could build your whole bathroom around. After the break, I'll discuss some DIY ways to finish off your vintage style bathroom.

Mother's Day invariably means an avalanche of mundane gift ideas for mom. If your mom is into gardening big-time, why not get something she can use and/or enjoy year-round--unlike, say, that $60 bunch of flowers or (yawn) potted herb garden you were about to order. Read on for ten gifts that real gardening moms would love to receive this Mother's Day!

Oh and by the way: all of the following gift ideas are available on the Web, which is cool because it means you don't have to schlep to the mall or your local blue- or orange-hued home and garden superstore. The down side: prices do not include tax or shipping. But, hey, if you can avoid a trip to the mall on Saturday it's worth it, right?

1. Japanese hand shears, $25-$48
Renowned for their beauty and durability are these Japanese hand tools. The secret? They are constructed from carbon steel (as opposed to stainless steel). Elegant rolled steel handles give them an unusual and distinctive appearance. In order to prevent rusting, these tools must always be dried after use and oiled occasionally. Aficionados swear it's worth the effort.

What are we trying to achieve when we express our individual style? I'm typically looking to show off a bit of my own flair, letting the world in on who I am and what I'm about. Adding one-of-a-kind accessories is a great way to do this.

If over-sized diamond-encrusted initials aren't your idea of personalized style, then this recycled book handbag might be just the expressive piece of fashion that you're looking for.

There isn't much that says more about us than the books we read and the classics we've enjoyed. Take one of those old favorites, and turn it into a funky handbag. I'm excited to try out this project because it looks relatively straightforward, and the final handbag is sure to be a piece that gets people talking.

Scrounge the thrift stores for a copy of your favorite book, or find an interesting classic. Match it to your fabric of choice, and some purse handles. With these personalized pieces, follow the instructions in the video, and enjoy your newest and hippest accessory.

Laundry is definitely one of my favorite household chores to do. Taking something that is stained and dirty and making it come out clean and beautiful always puts a smile on my face, even when I have to dig into nasty laundry baskets to accomplish that task.

ModHomeEcTeacher on Curbly shows us how to make a hangable laundry hamper with one yard of fabric and plastic purse handles, a wooden spool to mark a round pattern and a sewing machine to stitch it all together into a gorgeous stylin' new laundry hamper that we should be proud to carry around.

I think the hangable hamper would be great for grocery shopping too, as long as you don't fill it with too many cans or plastic bottles. Check your local thrift stores for some really nice vintage fabric and purse handles; you never know what cool items you may find!

Pam Garrison is a relatively well-known artist and craft blogger: you may have seen her work in the Somerset family of magazines, or over at her blog.

Recently, Pam wrote about a decorating project she'd done in her own home: she made over the closet in her art room by papering its interior and adding shelves.

There's nothing so unusual in that, but the paper is entirely vintage (and vintage-style) wallpaper scraps, put up in a patchwork style. The effect is a cheerful and pretty collage. She credits the inspiration for the project to Alicia Paulson of the popular blog Posie Gets Cozy, who has done a closet door in a similar style.

Read more about how Pam did it, along with some further suggestions of my own, after the break.

For the last few years, I have had two online friends who frequently post photos of their daily outfits; their style, mixing finds from all over, seems effortless. They often wear legwarmers on cold days, but never in a 1980s-ballerina-kitsch way -- almost more like knee socks. I'm not ordinarily a fan of legwarmers, so it surprises me that I love how these ladies wear them.

When I saw this tutorial for "Buttoned legwarmers (almost like spats)" by Craftster user LauPre, in the current list of the site's featured projects, I immediately thought of my two wardrobe-remixing acquaintances. The legwarmers showcase the same kind of sassy style, and if you can sew on a sewing machine, you can definitely make them yourself! They're a perfect match for unpredictable March and April weather.

Suggestions for making and wearing LauPre's creation (even if you're a hand-sewer), as well as a tutorial with more details, after the break.

Posie Gets Cozy is definitely one of our favorite crafty blogs, so we were pleased when CRAFT noted that its proprietor, Alicia Paulson, had posted some pretty days-of-the-week Pleasant Kitchen towel embroidery patterns. You can download them for free.

The patterns have a vintage feel and include designs like an egg cup, a Pyrex serving bowl, a "cheese lady," and an old-fashioned espresso pot. Alicia used relatively low-quality kitchen towels and added contrast fabric binding to their edges, but she suggests that you try Flour Sack Towels from P.O.S.H. if you'd like a nicer base.

There's a trick to getting this particular set of designs onto the fabric so that you can stitch them; I'll discuss it more after the break. It may not be what you think.

If you happen to have all your shirts from the last 30 years hanging in the back of your closet, or even just taking up much needed space, don't throw them away. While I know that you needed to get rid of them yesterday, and you have them all stacked up by the door ready to make their way to the thrift store, why not get out the scissors and cut them up to make a warm and cozy quilt?

Design*Sponge regulars Derek and Lauren were getting sentimental about whether or not they really wanted to take Derek's old shirts to the thrift store. They needed a new duvet cover, so they decided they would cut up his shirts and their old duvet cover and make a new warm and cozy pseudo quilt, thus keeping their memories intact. Using old shirts, a duvet cover, scissors, a rotary cutter, a ruler, sewing machine, iron and a self healing cutting mat, Derek and Lauren's directions are very easy to follow and you can soon end up with your own "new" cozy "quilt".

I think this is a neat project because you are killing two birds with one stone by getting rid of your old shirts and making over your boring duvet cover. Since duvet covers are so expensive, this project should be right up your DIY alley.

Many women have a fond place in their hearts for Victoria, the magazine that ceased publication in 2003 after a 16-year run. It was a lifestyle magazine, glancingly similar to Martha Stewart Living, with articles about anything that fit in with a romantic 19th century theme. It also showcased attempts to capture a similar vibe in modern life.

Some features were overtly historical, while others would simply be about wearing vintage-repro jewelry with modern clothing. There were always lots of recipes, all of which seemed to have something to do with country-house Christmases, garden parties, and afternoon tea.

If that sounds wonderful to you, I have good news: Victoria was recently relaunched with a new publisher, and is available on newsstands. Since that is not, however, news that is necessarily related to any sort of DIY topic, I have to add that they have some tips for you on their website. You can learn more about them after the break.