DIY Life

Last week we took a peek at ways to decorate your walls without breaking your lease's no-drill, no-nail policy. In particular, we looked at clever little stick-up products that sub for regular picture hooks. Today we continue this topic, but focus on ways to decorate the walls themselves.

Strategy 1: Negotiate! Persuade your landlord to compromise. Suggest a new paint job for the living room (or the whole apartment/house) in exchange for agreeing to the no-nail, no-drill policy. If he/she hesitates, offer to let them pre-approve your color choice.

Ask permission to install a gallery-style picture hanging rail. Emphasize that you would pay for and install the rail all by yourself, but that you would generously leave it behind for the next tenant.

The key to success here may be all in how you pitch it. Don't act like you're asking a favor of your landlord. Do not get whiney. Do sell your suggestions as improvements that will benefit the property owner.

This water bottle wall divider is the perfect addition to any green home or office. The genius combination of recycled plastic bottles and modern office design, makes this project one you won't want to pass up.

Designed by Klein Dytham Architecture, this semi transparent wall is perfect for dividing open work spaces. While Curbly doesn't reveal the full instructions on how to recreate this original idea, they do give some guidance.

You'll need lots of clean, empty water bottles, with the labels peeled off. The bottles are strung on wires hanging from floor to ceiling. It looks like the track would be the same as any other industrial wall divider.

You don't have to duplicate their design entirely. Play around with your own space and modify it to best meet your own style and functional needs.

My kids and I are voracious readers and we seem to accumulate books at the speed of light. Basic build-it-yourself bookshelves are fairly inexpensive but, let's be honest, they're also really boring. The other day, I went looking for some new and interesting ways to store books and came across the neatest idea at FamilyFun.com: rain gutter shelves.

Here's the plan: measure the walls where you want the shelving to hang, then run down to the nearest home improvement store. Gutters are typically sold in ten-foot lengths, but ask to have them cut shorter if you need to. Then grab a handful of brackets to attach the gutters to the wall, some decorative end caps, and head home.

Hammer the brackets to the wall (use a level to make sure your shelving will be straight), then insert the gutters and place the end caps. There you have it, instant bookshelves!

Design*Sponge is usually a great source for eye candy and DIY inspiration. Recently, they've been adding a weekly DIY feature with tutorials and the like. This week, we got a twofer as they've posted a fabulous project submitted by one of their readers.

Inspired by a corkboard (scroll to the very bottom to see it) created by a featured designer on the blog, the reader created her own tutorial for a baroque-style corkboard. The tutorial provides both directions and a template for creating this on your own. All you need is cork and a cutting tool.

This is a clever alternative to typical rectangular corkboards and is a great way to add visual interest by using different silhouettes in your space.

If you're too old for frat parties, then it's really time to get rid of that Klimt poster you have "decorating" your living room wall. Dorm room decor is not acceptable outside a dorm room, even if it was inspired by great art.

Really, no matter how much you love your family, framed photos of them will only get you so far. Here are a few interesting, cheap, and easy ideas to spruce up your space without regressing to freshman year:

Most people, with few exceptions, are soothed and calmed by the sounds of trickling or splashing water. Since the majority of us are unable to reside close to a shoreline or babbling brook, the building of ponds and fountains has become very popular.

Unfortunately, ideas and plans for building your own source of water pleasure seem to be in relatively short supply and kits to accomplish these projects can be terribly expensive. A fountain style known as a "water wall" has become an extremely desirable home environment detail both indoors and out, but most people just aren't sure where to begin. Water walls are actually quite simple and can definitely be a do it yourself project.

What I shall attempt to provide you with now, is enough quality information to get you beyond the point of just deciding that you can bring your desire for a water wall to reality. If I had the space and funds to actually build you a working model, I'd do that but current circumstances restrict me to only providing you with information at this time.

It happens in every home. Some time or another someone is going to hit a wall with something that is harder than the drywall and the drywall is going to lose the battle.

When that happens you have two choices. You can either hang a picture over the damaged spot where it will remain to snicker at you every time you walk by or you can fix the damage and sleep better at night. I suggest that you fix the hole.

Begin by assessing the damage. Do you have a wall injury that is just a tear through the outer layer of the drywall facing paper or is the drywall fractured on both the inner and outer faces? Even worse, did you actually punch a hole all the way through?