How To: Do Your Own DIY

Who here misses living in a dorm? I sure don’t. Except maybe the whole “I never have to cook for myself, ever” part. That was nice.

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on any topic I choose to write about from here on out, but maybe the things that I've gone through or are going through currently relate to you and can help you in some way. At the very least, you can laugh at/with me, remembering that one time that maybe you too felt like a complete moron, as I go through the many Mishaps of an Almost Adult.

We all remember our college days. Dudes decorating their rooms with the ever-classy old beer boxes. Girls with posters of our favorite actors plastered to our cinderblock walls. (Mine was the famous Cosmo Kramer painting. Tells you something about my personality, doesn’t it?) Everything is cheap and semi-disposable.

And then we graduated. We moved into Almost Adult apartments with our same stuff we had in college and suddenly, you look around and realize just how cheap and disposable everything looks. IKEA furniture doesn’t move very well. Either that or I really suck at putting it together properly… Extreme possibility there.

So as I was staring at my IKEA dresser with the bottom drawer completely broken and tempting the rest of the dresser to follow in its footsteps, I realized that my apartment needed to look a little more Almost Adult, a little less Recent Grad.

Seeing as Frugal and I are still in a relationship, this needed to be a cheap fix. I can’t afford entirely new furniture at this point in time. Instead, I found two resources to help me with my DIY Recent Grad Apartment Purge: Apartment Therapy and Pinterest.

Apartment Therapy is exactly what it sounds like, and gave me a chuckle with its name choice. Its chock full of ideas on IKEA hacks, DIY furniture re-dos, product comparisons and lots of other fun ideas.

And then there’s Apartment Therapy’s slightly crazy and ADHD sister, Pinterest. Holy @#*$, all of these awesome ideas in one place?! It’s like a Mecca for… well, everything. The only place where its completely-kind-of acceptable to let your crazy flag fly and pin everything for your future wedding (apparently even if you’re single), your future babies, your hopes and dreams, yada yada yada.

Never been on Pinterest? It’s an online pin board application that allows to create virtual “bulletin boards” (think middle school Dream Boards here people) and pin different things to it, such as blog posts, how to articles (hey hey!), websites, you name it. If it’s on the web, it can be pinned. If it’s not, well, take a picture and post it yourself!

Suddenly I’m dreaming of paint swatches, fabric patterns, wingback chairs that after watching that 2 minute video I’m SUUUURE I can reproduce… But seriously.

So how do we make our Dream Boards a reality?

1. Pick a project. Start with something you're semi-comfortable with. I chose painting furniture. I needed a new dresser BADLY, so i went about doing the easiest thing i knew how. I recieved a dresser I had picked out from a consignment shop for Christmas this past year and began the refinishing process. Not only do all of my drawers work now, but it actually even looks pretty good!    
2. Do your research. Instead of just reading that two minute tutorial on reupholstering a wingback chair, find a couple different ones and do your homework. Are they giving the same advice? How hard does it really look? How much does it cost to have someone else do it?
3. Do you have your Jumping Buddy? Help each other out. Most DIY projects go a lot smoother with two sets of hands working on it. (Man, i'm all about the Finding Nemo lately. Please read that in the voice of Squirt.)
4. Target the areas you need the most help with first. Investing in "staples" isn't a terrible idea now that our lives are a little more settled as Almost Adults. So save up your money and treat yourself to a non-broken couch.
5.  Need a rug? Check out hardware stores or local flooring places. A lot of times they have left over pieces of carpet that are already cut that you can have the edges bound and POOF! You've practically got carpet.
6. Check out local thrift stores, antique malls, and flea markets. You never know what you'll find! I just bought a 1920s french door frame that i popped the glass out of and am now going to have vintage wall art for $30.
7. Be brave! You might surprise yourself with your own handiness. If not, well, call your friends and see if they can help you fix whatever you just attempted to do yourself.

If you need me, I'll probably be wasting time on Pinterest. Have a good week, Readers!