Category: home design

Mom Transforms 3 Rooms in Bleak Woodchip Rental for Lovely Gray Home for Under $300—And the Results Are Stunning

Mom-of-two Charli Jones knows a thing or two about working home renovation magic without breaking the bank—transforming her once plain, but decent, accommodations into a home to be proud of. In March, Jones, 30, moved into a new rental in Bradfield, Berkshire, in order to be closer to her mom. She considers her abode a…


Entrepreneur Makes Trendy Tiles, Shelves, Tabletops From Used Bamboo Chopsticks From Restaurants

A Vancouver entrepreneur has transformed a most highly disposable object—the bamboo chopstick—into a viable business model, making trendily sustainable wall tiles, coasters, kitchenware, tabletops, and more. In a city that tosses hundreds of thousands of chopsticks per week, Felix Böck, 32, CEO of ChopValue, saw an opportunity. Initially, he floated several ideas for upcycling waste…


Contractors Find Pioneer-Era 1800s Log Homestead Under Exterior of Modern Utah Home

An original hand-hewn homestead from the pioneer era was uncovered when demolition contractors pealed back the exterior of what was thought to be a modern bungalow in Orem, Utah. The antique log house—featuring updates from the early- to mid-1900s—was last owned by the Shamadas, of Japanese decent, who once ran a fruit stand on the…


Man Finds Note in a Bottle From 1974 Inside Wall of House—Tracks Down Worker Who Wrote It 50 Years Ago

Peeling back the layers of a home during renovations is a bit like time travel. For one man in New South Wales, Australia, contractors demolishing his wall revealed a time capsule—a glass bottle containing a note—in a wall cavity in his Newcastle home. The home owner, Matt Streatfeild, was looking behind the plaster within the…


Artist Crafts Tiny, Meticulously Detailed Antique Rooms Inside Adorably Cozy Suitcases

One artist from Central Asia discovered a love for crafting antique furniture and interior décor—on a miniature scale. Artist Olga Mokriskaya, from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (bordering the Caspian Sea), started rendering tiny themed rooms—rich in texture and meticulous in detail—inside adorably packaged “roombox suitcases.” She developed her pastime as a young girl. The artist recalls the…


How to Create a Functional, Stylish Family Room

A well-designed family room can truly be the heart of the household. But too often, the family room ends up feeling like either a formal parlor—stiff and uninviting—or a free-for-all kids’ playroom. Strike a balance by picking up some of these ideas for attractive, functional family rooms that look good and work hard for the…


Coffee Shop Owner Builds Scarecrow Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Tableau for Festive Tribute to Military

A coffee shop owner-operator in Georgia has been setting up scarecrows outside her establishment for a number of years—not to frighten off birds, but for a festive contest to raise community spirit. Kristy King, 42, who runs Elliano’s Coffee in Waycross, won that event—SwampTown Scarecrows—in 2015, with her scarecrow display depicting the Last Supper. Then,…


Easy Swaps to Give Your House an Instant Upgrade

Sometimes the simplest decorating swaps can yield the biggest returns. These one-hit-wonder changes will invigorate your spaces with minimal effort on your part. But be forewarned: One swap may make you want to do another … and another. But that’s what makes decorating fun, right? Pillows Swap standard-issue pillows for something with personality. Ditch the…


Texas Artist Uses Rusty Scrap Metal to Create Longhorn Bull, Horses, and Other Big Beasts

A former church pastor-turned-artist has spent a lifetime living in different U.S. states working in different trades but now calls Texas home. For years, he’s been building colossal sculptures out of old, rusty metal—combining a Western motif and a penchant for big beasts to create life-sized longhorn bulls, grandiose horses, bears, and buffalo. The 64-year-old metal…


Origami Artist Creates Mind-Blowing Medieval Knight With Sword and Shield From Single Piece of Paper

The Japanese artform of origami is a craft of elegant simplicity, and any hopeful origami practitioner knows the challenges in creating artwork from folding a single piece of paper. One professional origami artists from Finland, Juho Könkkölä, who’s enjoyed origami from a very young age, started innovating sophisticated origami fantasy figures “out of boredom” in…