How to make a feature wall for less than $15

As you might know, we currently live in a rental house. The house was built in the 1970’s and although it has been updated over the years, some spots still breathe those seventies… Especially in the basement this posed a slight problem for us. There is a wall in the main area that is somewhat outdated –yes, I am being very kind to that wall-. The main area is also the playroom for our daughter and that wall, it just seemed to suck all the fun out of that room. Okay, so maybe that’s a little much, but still it is one ugly wall. Painting was out of the question because of us renting and also because the panelling wasn’t real good quality. It wasn’t mounted very nice and was very loose at a lot of points. I was afraid wallpaper would never come off and putting new paneling in front of the wall would be a very big and expensive project. I was starting to believe we would be stuck with that ugly wall. Not anymore though! Because even though we can’t really change things permanently, I found a way to transform this ugly wall into a feature wall!

How to transform an ugly wall into a feature wall

Halfway through

When looking in despair at that ugly, faux wood wall, I thought about a previous project of mine. I started thinking that shelf lining would be a great solution! I tested a spot and stuck a piece of scrap lining I had left to see if it would stick and left it overnight. It stuck! And, more importantly; I was able to remove it afterwards without ruining the paneling behind it. So I went to Wallmart where they sell shelf lining at the best price. I had measured how much I would need and for this wall, I just needed two rolls. That means I made this feature wall for about $15! You can’t beat that price, right?

The project was relatively easy. Just measure how long the lining has to be, cut it and stick it on the wall. The tricky part was getting it on straight but luckily you can pull it back off and stick it back on again plenty of times.

I really love how this wall turned out! The pattern even brings out the best of those brown doors! My girl now has a pretty feature wall in her play room. Do you have any great tips on how to transform an ugly wall? Love to hear them!

Ps. A full blog on the whole playroom will follow. After redoing it, it is now jam-packed with cute play areas! I just need some more time to finish it.

DIY door make over that's cheap, easy and not permanent!

I’m very lucky because our new rental house has an extra room on the main floor. That means I get to have a craft room on the main floor! The house being a rental does mean I don’t have complete freedom to change the rooms as I please so I’m somewhat limited in what I can do to the spaces. I also don’t want to spend a ton of money on a place we’re not sure how long we’ll be living in, so sometimes we have to get creative.

In my craft room there were these, uhm…not so beautiful doors. They are kind of cheap looking doors and I really didn’t need any mirrors in a room I’m crafting in (or am I the only one with strange facial expressions while crafting?). I couldn’t remove the doors easily and I kind of liked the idea of a storage cupboard with doors (the more of my mess I can hide, the better). I decided to turn to my new best friend; shelf lining!

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It was a really easy DIY job and the result is really nice! First I measured my shelf lining (I bought mine at Walmart), making sure that the lining was a little wider than my mirrored doors. Trust me, you want to do that! Sticking the lining completely straight is impossible, leaving some overlap makes sure you have some margin to stick it not completely straight.

I then stuck the lining on the mirror. Just take a small portion of the backing of the lining and start sticking. Pull the backing as you gently push the lining on the mirror. Try to only push down the middle, take care of the edges later. It makes for less bubbles to push out afterwards.

After sticking the lining on and pushing the bubbles out I created a nice fold with my thumb on the sides of the mirror. Using a knife I cut the lining to size and I removed the excess lining.

And that’s it! The mirrors are now covered and if we move I can simply take the lining off. Everyone wins!

I’d love to hear how you solved an ugly door at your house!

Cheap DIY tulle lamp

The other day I was looking around my little girls’ room looking for ways to improve her room. Since we are renting we’re not allowed to paint or do anything major. That makes it a bit hard I find. My eyes kept being drawn to her hideous lamp on the ceiling. Well, to be fair, it’s not really hideous, but in the mind of a five year old, it’s not appealing at all. I didn’t want to replace the lamp, scared of what I would find underneath and scared that I would not be able to hang back the original lamp. So I started thinking about ways I could change the lamp without actually touching the lamp. Of course that same afternoon my girl gave me the idea I needed. As she was browsing a ‘Princess mimi’ sticker book she saw a lampshade she absolutely loved! I gave it one look and immediately thought; I can make that!

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Of course I browsed my beloved Pinterest and came upon a great blog that describes making a similar lampshade for the wall. I used her blog as inspiration and came upon my own version of this cool tulle pom pom lampshade! It does take quite some time but it’s really cheap and easy to do.

I went to Dollarama (love, love, love that store!) and bought a metal fruit basket. I was really lucky because it was just the right size for me (being slightly larger than the original lampshade). I chose the metal one because I didn’t want to use something flammable and I preferred something that would allow air to flow through. Simply because I am using the lampshade on a regular lamp as opposed to a string of battery operated lamps, I figured that the lamp could get hot and would need some ventilation (I use a energy efficient light bulb because they tend not to get as hot as a regular bulb, I would certainly recommend that!).

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I had some left over tulle (yes, that happens with having a five year old in your house), mine was sparkling which turned out great but was really messy when assembling. I cut my tulle in strips of about 5cm x 15cm, but you can see what size you like, the longer, the bigger your lampshade will be. After cutting hundreds of strips (I think it really were hundreds), I started tying the strips onto my fruit basket. I added some metal wires at places because the gaps were quite wide at some spots and I wanted the lamp to be really full. I started on top and worked my way down. It took a really long time but it’s a nice and calming job as well. 

After an emergency trip to Fabricland to buy some more tulle I was finally finished. I ended up using about 3 meters of tulle (yes, I know, that’s a lot!). My lamp ended up being really really full and I thing I would use slightly less tulle the next time as the lampshade turned out to be quite dark. I tied the lampshade to the existing lampshade with some metal wires. You can easily remove it and it won’t even leave a mark!


My girl loves her new lamp!
I hope you love it too and I would love to hear your ideas on how to turn an ugly lampshade into something cool for practically nothing! 

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CAUTION! Please make sure you stay safe! Make sure your existing lamp can support the extra weight and make sure your lamp won’t get too hot. Remember; you are using flammable material (tulle) next to a lamp that can potentially get really hot, so make sure your lamp won’t overheat! We have used the lamp for two months now and haven’t had any problems with it but make sure you know what you’re doing when trying this!

Window dressing -Dutch style-

We finally have our rental house. It’s really quite nice but it has to become more ‘us’ for sure. The big window in the living room was a bit of an eyesore. We do want as much light flowing in as possible but we also wanted some privacy.

I didn’t want to just stick some contact foil on the window and be done with it. Since our living room is still quite empty, I really wanted to add something. After some thinking, I came up with a design of a row of Amsterdam canal houses. I drew some houses.

Transferred them to contact foil (mat clear, Walmart, Target and The Home Depot have some). And cut the houses. Luckily for me canal houses aren’t all straight and neat, so I could just cut it with my scissors. 

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Then I just stuck the thing on the window. That was actually the most time consuming part. Getting it on straight and with as little bubbles as possible was quite the challenge. Just make sure you have plenty of time so you don’t have to rush and you’ll be fine! If you’re unsure, just try a small window first. The longer your design has to be, the more difficult the sticking is. My window was over 2 meters long and that was pretty hard.

As you might have noticed; the end result doesn’t have any windows and doors, but the design does. Well…. Ok it wasn’t all easy going… I did try a neat design with windows and doors cut out. It was very cool. But when it came to sticking it to the window… It was impossible to get on! Really, just believe me and don’t try it! Or maybe do and prove me wrong ;) 

This first DIY project was actually quite cheap and easy but I think the results are great! The little canal houses add character to the room and also provide excellent privacy without holding back any light. Give it a try and please let me know how it went!