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Creative DIY deco for the home: Inspiration and upcycling handicraft ideas

Creative DIY deco for the home: Inspiration and upcycling handicraft ideas

We’ve all had the sudden urge to spice up our own four walls a little at one time or another. Are gran's preserving jars and old glass vases gathering dust unused in a display case? Is the door still missing a welcome sign and could the bare walls use some paint? Do you find simple flower pots made of monochrome, brown clay rather boring? With a little bit of handicraft and some creative ideas, you can turn your flat into an individual oasis of well-being.

Here you will find original tips on how to create urban jungle decor using simple means or how to easily upcycle old vases, glasses and flowerpots. Decorate your home as you wish and express your individuality with our craft ideas! We provide inspiration for DIY home decor ideas and show you how to easily implement them in detailed step-by-step instructions.

DIY home decor ideas: Make new from old with our upcycling ideas!

Individuality and sustainability are very important these days. The urban jungle style is finding its way into homes in many places, as it radiates an aura of nature, modern flair and simple elegance. And upcycling is also in vogue, true to the motto “make new from old!” So why not get your old, unloved vases, flower pots and embroidery frames out of the cellar and give them a makeover? Conjure up individual motifs on old vases and clad glasses with leather-look FIMO modelling clay. Let your creativity run wild and greet your guests with a self-designed welcome sign made of old embroidery frames with personalised hand lettering. It’s also easy to decorate and individually label new and old preserving jars with a lovingly designed sticker. Watercolour paintings as exotic wall decoration provide a feeling of being on holiday within your own four walls. DIY deco made with love is still the best!

Tip: These beautifully designed home decor items, whose instructions can be found here, are perfect as gifts! Homemade products are increasingly becoming a rarity: all the more reason, then, for friends and family to enjoy an original, unique DIY gift that they absolutely cannot get from anywhere else in this form! Individual patterns and lettering lend a very personal touch to any DIY project and turn it into a unique souvenir! Here you will find some of our arts and craft tips and ideas with instructions on how to easily create your own home decor!

Botanic Living: The green decor trend for the home

Botanic Living - DIY home decor ideas leaf lanterns

The urban jungle trend is finding its way into many flats. If you don't have your own garden, simply bring some greenery into your own four walls. Plants create a cosy atmosphere and make the place more homely. Especially in city flats, botanic living creates a fresh, pleasant haven of peace and quiet, because nature and a green environment have a positive effect on the human psyche. In times of climate protection, botanic living decorations create additional awareness regarding preservation of the habitat that is so important for us.

In addition to exotic indoor plants, you can easily follow the urban jungle trend with these DIY home decor ideas and add individual home accessories to your room: With its natural forms, the minimalist principle of botanic living creates well-being within your own four walls and turns a house into a home.

Styling ideas for embroidery frames

DIY embroidery frame

You can easily create your own DIY home decor by following our instructions: How about a green embroidery frame, for example, embellished with watercolour motifs in delicate olive green, inviting hand lettering messages or phrases? Natural binding material, such as linen, wool cords or raffia, can be attached to the embroidery frame as desired. The frame is decorated with handwritten sayings or, depending on the occasion, words such as "Welcome" or "Thank you". To finish, the embroidery frame can be beautifully decorated: with plants, moss, small twigs and other natural materials such as feathers or grasses. By following these instructions, you can easily make DIY wreaths. The minimalistic, Scandinavian style wall decoration is ready!

DIY embroidery frame tutorial

Watercolour and aquarelle: urban jungle wall decoration

Urban jungle wall decoration

To conjure an urban jungle style within your own four walls, the space does not have to become a private greenhouse with real plants. DIY pictures with nature motifs look just as good on the walls as expansive urban jungle greenery. With Design Journey watercolour crayons and a pigment liner, you can create beautiful watercolours with ginkgo, pilea or cactus plants. Colour-coordinated, they create an eternally green wall in the style of botanic living. The picture does not have to be filled. True to the motto “don’t be afraid to leave a gap”, painting isolated leaves and vines on the paper is enough. This gives you a minimalist plant wall with a modern look.

In our how-to area you can find detailed tutorials for drawing and painting nature motifs. If you’ve never worked with watercolour pencils before, have a read through our tips for watercolour painting. Just try it out – as DIY decor for every room!

Urban jungle wall decoration tutorial

DIY cladding for preserving jars, vases and flower pots

Upcycling in the kitchen: DIY hand lettering for preserving jars

Upcycling glasses with Hand Lettering

Whether they be screw-top or clap-top, almost everyone has them at home: preserving or storage jars. They can easily be embellished with stickers and individual lettering! Bring a touch of vintage into your home and spice up old gherkin jars with these DIY upcycling ideas using loving hand lettering . Simply use a Lumocolor Permanent Marker to paint on any text and content labels such as “Sugar”, “Farfalle”, “Millet” or “Flour”, depending on which ingredients will be stored in each jar. If you don’t want to write directly on the glass, you can decorate the container with elegant black cardboard and Design Journey super soft pens in white. The light-coloured lettering looks particularly good on black stickers if the glass contains light-coloured ingredients such as flour, salt or sugar. You will find instructions in our Handlettering Guide on how to create extra-beautiful DIY lettering.

Upcycling glasses tutorial

In addition to upcycling preserving jars with individual lettering, there are other ways to embellish them. Glasses can easily be transformed into individualised eye-catchers with handmade FIMO pendants – whether as a gift or for personal use.

DIY hanger tutorial

DIY tags for jars of cake mixture and bath salts

Upcycling flower pots and more: creative inspiration for DIY home decor ideas with FIMO

Upcycled flower pots

Plain, terracotta-coloured clay flower pots are not exactly prize winners when it comes to design and individuality. But why buy new pots, when its easy to spice them up with FIMO soft? There are no limits to your creativity here! Flower pots of all kinds can be DIY decorated with FIMO soft, in the fashionable colours of white, Sahara or skin. By the way, faces are particularly original: For example, a plant provides a green splendour of hair, while lashes and eyes are applied to the pot with FIMO modelling clay.

Upcycled flower pots tutorial

Of course other motifs are also conceivable, true to the motto “make the world your own!”

DIY planters tutorial

FIMO DIY planters
Hand-lettered bags for plant pot/vase holders

If you prefer to decorate your flower pots with pens, you can also easily use these to them add individual lettering and watercolour illustrations. All you need are paper bags, which serve as covers for the flower pots.

Hand lettering bags tutorial

Upcyling vases, glasses and bottles: rustic and modern DIY decor creations with FIMO leather-effect

Upcycled vase with FIMO leather-effect

If you still have old milk bottles, empty candle glasses or plain glass vases lying around, then check it out: before they gather dust in the display case, it is better to add new elements to them and create a modern look. A leather-look banderole lends individual touch to a bottle and turns it into a decorative wonder. Using FIMO leather-effect modelling clay, you can easily create chic cladding. Attached to the neck of the bottle or wrapped around the glass, they create an original Scandinavian-style look, especially in natural colours.

A small tip: These kind of decorated lanterns and vases make beautiful table decorations. They’re particularly suitable for private events such as baptisms or wedding celebrations!

Upcycled vase tutorial

FIMO decor ideas: Textured cladding for old vases and glasses

Vases with relief patterns using FIMOair

Who remembers the cult Rosenthal vases with the form of a crumpled bag? It’s easy to imitate these or other vases with relief patterns using FIMOair. To create a minimalist look, it is best to use FIMOair light in white. Now all that is needed are a few old vases that have long served their purpose or simply lost their appeal. The modelling clay can be used to create beautiful cladding for vases and glasses, for example using stripes, dots, patterns or other grooved, haptic contours.

Upcycled vase tutorial

Alternatively, DIY decor items can be made using FIMO soft; simple glass vases can be embellished and individualised with coloured dots or stripes. Those who attach particular importance to trends will want to know the colour of the year: 2020’s trend colour is Pantone19-4052 Classic Blue. This special shade of blue radiates calm, simple elegance and regality, and reminds dreamy souls of the evening sky.

Upcycled vase tutorial

Upcycling vase in trend colour 2020 classic blue
DIY Hygge lantern made of FIMO

DIY upcycling to create lanterns with a Nordic look is perfect for creating a homely atmosphere with a hygge design.

Hygge lantern tutorial

Good to know: Special modelling tools help with every step of the process. They can be used to prepare, shape and cut FIMO modelling clay.

More DIY Tutorials

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