2022 DIY home décor ideas.

If you’re a first-time homeowner, you may have already spent most of your cash just getting into your home. You still may need more furniture, bedding, accessories, and wall art to help make your home complete, but there’s no need to run up your credit cards. You can fabricate and craft a lot of fun things yourself and even learn some new do-it-yourself (DIY) home decorating skills along the way.

Here are some ideas that cost little or no money that will give your home individuality and flair because you made it yourself and it’s one of a kind.

Shutterfly.com recommends that you personalize your home with memories that have been printed onto home goods, such as framed wall art composed of family vacations, graduations, weddings, scenery and vistas. Simply upload photos into easy-to-use templates that can decorate your home with delightful canvas printed pillows, drinkware, garden flags, notebooks, paper goods, and other ideas for your home or office. You can choose from wood, metal, canvas, paper, and acrylic. One of the most exciting decorative changes you can bring to your home is wallpaper that’s pre-pasted and quick to install. Simply follow the guides to order the correct number of rolls for your space.

In a promotional partnership with Spoonflower, Shutterfly suggests that you can either buy items such as cloth napkins, table runners, blankets, etc., or you can buy fabric by the yard in original patterns and make lampshades, pillows and more yourself. You can upload your own artistic design for fabric or wallpaper, or you can hire one of the independent artists to create a unique design for you that can be printed on whatever you choose.  Begin this DIY room decor idea with a wooden dowel. Fasten yarn of varying colors in a symmetrical arrangement. Hang this statement piece in your living room, bedroom or home office.

Chalkboards and corkboards

Chalkboard walls have been around for a while, in kitchens, children’s rooms, hallways, laundry rooms and mud rooms. They’re useful and fun to decorate with colored chalk, especially with seasonal themes like flowers, pumpkins, and candy canes.  You can put up lists, draw in a calendar and change the days monthly. You can use acrylic chalkboard paint or decorative paint and make your message board small and portable, to put on the side of the refrigerator or on a desktop easel.  Small boards can also be wired into a wreath for the front door to blast a friendly welcome message, or you can make a doorknob hanger for times when you don’t want to be disturbed.

Corkboards can add a surprising amount of color to a wall. Cork can be painted, pinned, cut and shaped any way you want. You can even get large sheets of cork from a flooring store, suggests CraftNectar.com, and use them to cover an entire wall like wallpaper. The key with cork is not to over-pin it with outdated or useless scraps of paper. Keep it curated so it looks intentional and not messy.

Crafts with Rattan, Cane and Wicker

TheWickedBoheme.com explains the differences between some of the most sustainable plants used in furniture and accessories. Rattan is a tree that grows in Southeast Asia that happens to be one of the strongest woods in the world. Cane is the skin of the rattan and is intended for lighter-use weaving, often as an accent for rattan furniture. Bamboo is grass that grows thick and strong. Wicker is not a plant at all, but a method of weaving that can be used with rattan, bamboo, cane, reed, and seagrass.

MakeCalmLovely.com offers multiple uses for rattan cane that can give your home a custom look with a touch of nostalgia. Rattan can be wrapped around objects or inserted into objects such as glass candles, boxes, headboards and lampshades for a unique look. Cane can make shelves look fresh and can easily be mixed with a variety of contemporary, classic or coastal decorating styles. You can also make accessories and gifts such as napkin rings, baskets, and jewelry holders. You can create stamps with caning and cover one side with fabric paint to add color and pattern to plain napkins, table runners, and pillow fabric. To buy caning by the inch or the foot, see the resources available at HomemadeGinger.com.

Crafts with Rope

Like cork and cane, rope and twine can be woven, painted, and glued to provide loads of fun DIY decorating ideas. WooHome.com has lots of ideas for sustainable sisal rope which is strong enough to survive the seven seas and bring a nautical flair to your home.  It comes in different thicknesses that you can choose to coil around clay pots, mirrors and lampshades with hot glue. You can make baskets, rugs, and coasters simply by coiling the rope into circles and gluing them to stay put. Rope can add an attractive rustic flair to shelving. Simply drill holes into each corner of a plank of wood the length that you want. Thread the rope through the holes and tie a knot under the plank. Rinse and repeat for multiple shelves.

Fabric art

With more time spent at home since the pandemic began, many people are turning to quilting, sewing and other needle arts for entertainment that can result in a practical decorative piece. Believe it or not, but you don’t need your own sewing machine to make terrific bedding, pillows, throws, wall hangings, runners, placemats, and much more. Fine quilt stores will let you rent a machine for the day and the staff will help you with directions. Just go in, tell them what you want to make, and they’ll sell you the fabric and thread to do the job. You can also buy upholstery fabric and recover chair seats, footstools, and ottomans, using a simple staple gun.  

Update the gallery wall

You already know you can arrange photographs, prints, or paintings of different sizes into attractive shapes on the wall, but you can do the same with treasured collections.

Imagine a small wall of vintage copper bundt pans in the kitchen, dinner plates in the dining room, or pristine vinyl records and album covers in the den. This is where collectibles make a house into a home. CountryLiving.com suggests going to a flea market to collect items of interest to you. You can also finish a wall with a giant barn quilt. Find a quilt block online that you love and download it. Size it up from paper size to wall size a number of ways, by using a grid or using your math skills. Draw the pattern with a pencil and then paint in the colors and shapes.

DIY home decorations can be fun to make, enjoyable to look at, and make great conversation pieces. With online tutorials, you can also make them look professional.