20+ Genius DIY Projects That Take A Home From Bleak To Chic

There's little more to a floating or "swinging" shelf than a plank of wood with four holes drilled into the corners. When you weave two thin ropes through the holes at each end, it should look like you have a swing. Then, tie the tops of the ropes together and form a knot. And voila! It sounds simple, but a floating shelf adds a special something to any room, especially if decorated with gorgeous plants or personal knickknacks.

Walls are more than just canvasses for paint. Try creating insane patterns fit for an art museum on your walls! Using inexpensive electrical tape, you can turn even the most ordinary of home offices into art pieces that are sure to inspire. You can also add sleek stripes to out-of-date appliances, if you're so inclined.

Dreaming of regal chandeliers? You'd be more likely to find Mason jars on a picnic table than in a formal dining room, but there's an easy way to turn the former canning jars into a fancy chandelier. You just need hanging bulbs and Mason jars to create this unique look. Just make sure the lids are tightly secured onto the jars when you hang them up!

Decrepit shutters can make the outside of your house look ancient (not to mention haunted), but they're too cool to just throw away! So why not re-purpose them? When you add old table legs, a fresh coat of paint, and a little TLC, you can turn your rickety shutters into cool and comfy benches! A shutter bench would definitely be the focal point of any dining room.

Combine spray-painted branches, battery-powered fairy lights, and fake or real butterflies (dead from natural causes) inside a glass cloche to add a bright, colorful pop to an otherwise dull room. This would be fun project to undertake with the whole family, especially when any kids who dream of someday coming across a fairy village in the forest.

By simply lining the edges of a mirror—or even an old picture frame—with a fabric or even decorative tape that matches other colors in the room, you can create an accent piece that'll pull any room together. It's the perfect craft for people who don't want to make seismic (or expensive) changes to their home, but still want to spruce things up.

Stark white kitchen appliances like refrigerators are relics of decades past, and all the electrical tape in the world can't make them cool again. With stainless steel paint — yes, paint! — you can give the fridge a more modern (and expensive) look. It's crazy how a little paint and TLC can bring your kitchen 50 years into the present day.

When decorating, it's easy to forget about end tables and how expensive they can be. But by simply sticking two wire-frame trash cans butt-to-butt, you can circumvent cost and get a nifty, customized living room accent piece. Depending on how your decorate them, they can make your room like retro, kitschy, or even fancy.

Brand new furniture will set you back hundreds, even thousands of dollars. A solution? Salvage older furniture from thrift stores. Using paint, furniture polish, sandpaper, and other refurbishing tools, you can turn even the most out-of-touch pieces into modern masterpieces. Chairs can become coffee bars, weathered dressers can become uniquely-shaped bookshelves... really, the possibilities are endless.

Grimy, water-stained fixtures can hamper the looks of an otherwise gorgeous shower. But by simply sanding them down and adding a coat of paint — one that matches the bathroom décor — you can make them an asset to a beautiful bathroom. Plus, you won't have to look at that weird shower grime for a while...

Succulents along the windowsill can add life to an otherwise dead room. Either leave 'em in small ceramic pots or create a larger, more diverse piece that'll draw everyone's eyes. Either way, they'll take very little effort to maintain. The succulents will do all the work while you benefit from their beauty. That's a win!

For the most part, pipes are not something you feature in a home, but something you hide away. With a touch of gold or matte black paint, though, they can give a bathroom an interesting, industrial look. Sometimes, embracing the "uglier" parts of your space is easier than trying to hide them — and looks cooler in the long run, too.

Square shelves? For squares, maybe. Crafting honeycomb-style shelves can make a bedroom far more pleasing to the eye. You see, the honeycomb shape can help break up the monotony of straight lines in your home. This DIY project takes more construction skills than others, but the end result makes it well worth it.

For just a few dollars, you can buy an adhesive vinyl that cloaks anything in luxurious marble. Cheap kitchen counters, islands, or living room end tables can look ripped right out of a wealthy estate! Make sure you carefully measure out the contact paper so that you don't have any unseemly seams. Oh, and smooth it out so there are no bubbles poking through!

More mason jars mean more opportunities to make your home cute, cozy, and classy. All you have to do is fill a Mason jar with colorful hand soap and cut a dispenser-sized hole out of the lid. When you poke the dispenser through the hole and then screw the lid onto the jar, you'll have your own Mason jar soap dispenser that's far classier than just a plain hand soap bottle.

Cheap, ugly chairs will drag even a well-decorated room down. Simple patterns like maps pinned to or painted onto an uninspired wooden chair can give any room a more personal and engaging feel. Plus, how often have you seen a dining room chair with an antique-looking map of the world on it? We didn't think so. It would make for an interesting conversation piece.

A bold concept, yes, but something worth considering if you're looking for a striking but cheap bedroom accent. Four doormats organized into a rectangle and secured onto the wall can make the eye-catching headboard you've been looking for. Just try to choose doormats with a subtle pattern or shape to them; you don't necessarily want the word "welcome" repeated four times above your bed!

Unsurprisingly, patio chairs and tables go through a lot across the year — especially if you don’t bring them inside. As a result of that, the weather can really wear them down. But don’t take that as a sign that you need to invest in replacements. Instead, pop open a paint can and give the pieces a makeover. They’ll be revitalized before you know it.

Work with crates or have easy access to four of them? Sand them down, coat them with paint, and assemble them into a coffee table that's as functional as it is unique — perfect for giving your home a coastal feel. It would look good, have plenty of accessible storage, and its built-in handles would make it easy to move.

The perfect centerpiece for your crate coffee table? A rope basket! You only need to wrap a rope around an existing basket to make one, but they make a perfect storage place for important loose ends. They're especially good for kids' rooms, where you want a soft storage receptacle as opposed to one with sharp corners.

Ready to take the party outside? A simple dug-out pit filled with firewood, surrounded by concrete blocks, and covered with grill racks makes for the perfect barbecue pit or meat smoker. Invite friends over for a tour of your new, classed-up place, and then head out back for celebratory grilled meats! Your neighbors will be so jealous...

Drab light fixtures ruining your decor? Grab an old hanging planter and attach it to your ceiling fixture. Some people like to snake in some LED light bulbs to turn the planter into a real light fixture; others simply allow the planter to speak for itself. Either way, it'll give the room a dash of that cozy country charm!

If you think a garage can't be both functional and adorable, think again! With a little chalkboard paint, you can revitalize the space while creating a useful spot for messages. Plus, you'll officially become the "fun" house where drawing on the walls is not only allowed, but encouraged. How does it feel to be the cool parent?!

Cinderblocks may be useful, but they're definitely not a cute accent piece (unless you're going for a more industrial vibe in your home). For a quick way to spruce up an outdoor space, tuck some peekaboo plants in your cinderblocks to take them from "no" to "woah!" See? Now cinderblocks can be useful and adorable.

If chalkboard paint isn't your thing, why not throw some wallpaper on there? Find a wallpaper (or any decorative contact paper) that complements your kitchen's style. If you want to draw attention away from an unsightly table or outdated countertop, then choosing a bright, colorful wallpaper could be a good idea! Simply stick the paper on and watch your kitchen go from "drab" to "fab!"

How about this for a cool idea? Grab a helping of ready-mix concrete from your local store and create a few awesome DIY stepping stones. These features will really catch the eye in your garden, and you can opt for any designs you fancy. Plus, this method is considerably cheaper than buying stones outright. It’s a lot more fun, too!

All box springs are ugly, there's no doubt about it. Thankfully, there's an easy way to turn your ugly mattress holder into a creative accent. Grab your favorite fabric and a staple gun, and you can upholster the box spring in no time. You can choose a subtle color that helps the box spring fade into the background, or you can embrace it and add in a fun pop of color.

Backsplash looking a little beat up? Don't break the bank on new tiles! Just grab a can of your favorite paint and give it a fresh coat to instantly brighten up your kitchen. Those ancient earth tones plastered across your kitchen can be easily remedied with a coat of fresh white paint (or any color you'd like). This works especially well on tiled and brick backsplashes.

If you want to spruce up a boring wall in your backyard, pull out a few pieces of spare wood sitting in the garage, and build them into a couple of open-topped boxes. Once that’s done, you can then plant some flowers in them and hang the results on the wall. Just like that, you’ve created a “vertical garden” for very little outlay.

To fill in those pesky gaps between your washing machine and dryer — a.k.a. "the land of lost socks" — simply craft a laundry table. Just measure the area from one end of the washer to the other end of the dryer. Then, cut up the wood or cardboard paper. In no time, you'll have a sturdy surface on which to separate and fold clothes in the comfort of your laundry room.

Reluctant to spend big on a new garden bench? Well, this hack could be right up your alley. Yes, you can build your own seating space for a relatively small outlay. Just pick up some inexpensive concrete slabs from a specialist store, before “dry-stacking” them into the shape of a bench. After that, stick a cushiony cover on top and you’ll be done!

Basements can be a great place to relax, but they're not always the most welcoming room in the house. Give your basement the pop of color it deserves by painting over those old columns with a coat of your favorite shade. Covering the columns with cute fabric, patterned contact paper, and even a string of yellow lights could help transform the basement into a cozy paradise.

If you've got a septic vent in your yard, you're probably tired of looking at it. No one wants a rusty pipe poking up out of their garden, right? Well, the solution to this dilemma is simple: grab a birdbath and plop it right in front of that vent. That way, you're blocking it from view without making it completely inaccessible to the plumber. Say, "goodbye turds, hello birds!"

Some of us are lucky to have furniture that lasts ages, but the downside is having your home's style stuck in the past. If a piece of wooden furniture isn't broken, though, just revamp it with milk paint! This DIY-er used the natural paint to give a new finish to her chair.

Who doesn’t wince when thinking about hardscaping? It’s pricey, to say the least! But money can be saved if you plan carefully. Yes, when looking for materials, don’t ignore “the stone leftovers” that are often found in specialist shops. There’s a very good chance that you’ll get them for a lower price.

If you're into bohemian designs, this is one DIY project you might want to look into. Using just a simple stencil you can transform a drab nightstand into a floral masterpiece! You can probably find interesting stencils in any craft store. Although the painting requires some finesse, the final product is well worth the time and energy it takes to create.

It can be a bit of a headache trying to find the right plant pots at the store. For one thing, their prices can get exceedingly high, which isn’t great news for your wallet! As an alternative, though, try crafting a few planters at home for a fraction of the cost. Grooved plastic is said to be an excellent material here.

Cleaning and polishing up your bathroom tiles is a must, but take it a step further and do a whole paint job! If you really want to be creative (and only a little crazy), add a unique design to the tiles. There are stencils made precisely for that kind of project!

If you’re struggling to think of ways to make your garden chairs more snug, here’s a simple tip. To start with, get your hands on some colorful outdoor-friendly materials. Then, grab a few spare pillows and cushions from the house. After that, use the former to create a new batch of covers, before placing the results on the seats. They’ll look great!

“What’s a living fence?” we hear you ask. Well, it’s a pretty cool decoration that’ll instantly transform your garden. All you need to do is plant a bushy shrub or tree in an available space. Then, while it’s growing, “train” the sapling to branch out into a jaw-dropping design. It’ll look incredible. And it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to create!