With the rather scary events and weird toilet paper shortages going on around the world, we’re trying our best to keep level-headed and are normal life going on as much as possible.
In an attempt to keep my mind off things, I’m in full-on DIY mode and am tackling lots of little projects that I’ve not been motivated to finish. I’d be lying if I said it was working 100% but keeping busy and ticking boxes is at least a bit distracting.
Everyone has different ways of dealing with things but if you’re like me and like to distract yourself from day-to-day misery why not finish all of those little home projects you’ve started, learn a new DIY skill or have a go at one of these home improvement projects?
DIYing is so much easier than you think and, if you are spending more time at home, why not at least make the most of a bad situation and give your home a few DIY updates!
Here are 10 home improvement projects to try while you’re in self-isolation (or just avoiding the rest of the world)!
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1. Prepare Your Outdoor Space for Spring and Summer
We’ll all need to get out for a bit of fresh air sooner or later so why not spend some time in your garden or on your balcony and give your outdoor space a refresh so that it’s ready to go for the summer!
Along with giving everywhere a tidy, why not tackle an easy DIY project? We built our outdoor sofa with hidden storage last summer and it’s the perfect spot to relax and soak up the sun rays!
You can see our beginner-friendly tutorial on how to build an outdoor sofa with hidden storage here!
Another great outdoor project that’s surprisingly easy to build is a log store!
It took us about half a day to build from scratch and it’s perfect for storing all of your firewood. You can check out how we built DIY log store here!
2. Get Organised!
Obviously, you could have a sort out, get your paperwork done or tackle your tax return on time for a change but there are some more fun ways you can get organised!
With all of us staying home and more home cooking going on than ever, now is the perfect time to get all of your spices organised.
We built these easy DIY floating spice shelves that are perfect to keep all of your spices in easy reach and organized!
3. Start Your Spring Clean Early
It may not quite be spring yet but why not make the most of your time home and start your spring cleaning a bit early?
With gyms, swimming baths and pretty much any other sporting facility closed you’re going to want to stay active and giving your home a clean from top to bottom might just keep you occupied for a few days!
Okay, so it might not be quite the same as an hour-long Body Pump class but at least you’ll be keeping active and will have a clean home afterwards.
To help you on your way, you can download our free cleaning checklist!
4. Build A Bar Cart
Our bar cart is one of our latest DIY projects and it’s already one of my favourite ever DIYs.
It was super easy to build (although a bit of patience is required) and works really well to keep your drinks and cocktail supplies together in one place. Now, all we need are a few new delicious gins to add to our collection.
If you fancy building your own bar cart, you can see our step-by-step tutorial here!
5. Update Your Furniture
Another one of our favourite recent projects is our Ikea Hemnes chest of drawers hack.
We were in desperate need of some decent storage in our bedroom and this chest of drawers is already stuffed so full of t-shirts and jumpers that it’s probably about time we started working on our walk-in wardrobe!
Follow our tutorial to give your old furniture a stylish cane webbing update!
6. Refresh A Room
Why not get out your paintbrush and roller and give one of your rooms a coat of paint?
Paint is always our favourite way to create an almost instant change and refresh any room.
You don’t have to stop with your walls though – why not paint your doors, skirting boards, a piece of furniture or your radiators?
We love the colour in our master bedroom (it’s a colour match of Inchyra Blue by Farrow & Ball) so much, that we painted everything the same colour – even the sockets and light switches!
P.S. Dulux currently has a great offer on at the moment! Enter the code 5OFF25 at checkout to get £5 off your order of £25 or more! (T’s & C’s apply)
7. Treat Yourself To Some New Bedding
This is probably the easiest and quickest way to instantly give your bedroom a completely new feel, even if it doesn’t really have anything to do with DIY.
There’s not much I enjoy more than crawling into a freshly made bed, especially when it has super fluffy duvet with some luxurious bed linen on it! Our Christy bed linen (gifted in a previous collaboration) is absolutely beautiful and works so well with the dark walls in our bedroom.
Whilst I can’t guarantee you’ll have a stress and worry-free nights’ sleep, it will at least be super comfortable and stylish!
P.S. If you want to treat yourself to some gorgeous new Christy bed linen or luxury towels enter the code LHOC20 at checkout to receive a massive 20% off your order! (T’s & C’s apply) They currently also have free delivery on orders over £50, so there’s no need to even leave the house!
8. Build A Bath Caddy
We’re all feeling more stressed and on edge than usual and you’ll probably feel in need of some pampering – I know I am! Visiting a spa is obviously out of the question at the moment but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some relaxing me-time!
Having a soak in the bath is always something that relaxes me and our DIY bath caddy which we recently built is the perfect place to rest your glass of wine or cup of cocoa and cover with candles for that spa-like feeling.
It took less than an hour to build our bath caddy and you can see exactly how to build your own super-affordable bath caddy here!
9. Play Boardgames!
Okay, so this admittedly doesn’t have anything to do DIY but it is one of our favourite ways to spend an evening and it’s not as geeky as you might think!
It usually involves getting together with friends, opening a nice bottle of wine and, most importantly, having a lot of fun! Which is something we could all do with at the moment!
We’ve been board game geeks as long as I can remember and have a rather extensive and always-growing collection. You can read about our all-time favourite board games with suggestions for beginners and families here!
10. Update Your Walls
Having spent countless hours cursing our wallpapered walls and ceilings in our last home, I’m the first to admit that I never thought I’d wallpaper a wall. Ever!
It was always going to take something very special to convince me to give it a try but when I saw the spectacular wall murals by Photowall (gifted in a previous collaboration) I knew I had to have one!
Photowall has hundreds of designs and they are printed specifically for your wall and your measurements then sent to you in the post. You can even order a wallpapering kit (we did) so you have all supplies ready to go to add a gorgeous mural to one of your walls without even having to leave the house!
For our hallway wall, we chose the lovely Pattern Jay design. And you can ready how we gave our hallway a makeover and how to hang wallpaper here!
What are you doing to keep occupied? If you have any tips on destressing we’d love to hear them, too! Maybe they’ll help people that are feeling particularly anxious at the moment! Keep safe!
Adele says
What a lovely website!! Beautiful post!!
Christine says
Thank you so much, Adele!
Cx
Sally says
We’ve spent the last week making our garden habitable again after winter and spring cleaning. It’s made such a difference to us!
Christine says
I always loved tiding the garden at the beginning of the year, even if it’s somehow always more work than you expect! Or at least it always was for us!
Cx