It is easier than ever to fill our homes with things that look nice. But if you want your home decor to enrich your life, then every piece needs to have a story behind it. It needs to have some meaning. Otherwise, it’s just stuff.

One great way of doing this is to be a part of that story yourself, by creating your own home decor. Here are 9 pieces of home decor you can DIY.

Create Your Own Lighting

Creative lighting can completely transform a space, and even affect your mood. Lighting is an incredibly underrated part of interior design, and it has the special quality of being able to fill a whole room without taking up any space. What kinds of lighting can you add?

1. Ceiling Lights

You could install your own ceiling light. Recessed ceiling lights add ambiance and have a calming, elegant effect.

2. Lamps

Another DIY lighting option is to build your own lamp. You can buy the necessary wiring from the hardware store and then use your imagination to design the lamp base. Anything goes, from a vase that’s a family heirloom to an empty bottle of wine that you enjoyed on a special occasion.

3. Get Even More Artistic

You could also have fun with creating freeform lights, shaping elegant colored cloth lighting cable into patterns on the walls or ceilings, and hanging premium LED or old-fashioned light bulbs at the end.

Don’t forget to play with different-colored light bulbs and dimmer switches! Here’s a tip: Don’t use a bunch of different colored bulbs together in the same space, as they tend to cancel each other out. Try using different colors in different parts of a room, or even just using one color, like red or green or indigo.

Build Your Own Furniture

Furniture is expensive, and a lot of it you can do yourself as a fun weekend project. You can save even more money, and find some amazing materials, by visiting local yard sales.

4. Shelves

Shelves are the best of both worlds: They are incredibly beautiful when done well, and they are the most useful thing you can do with wall space. Adding shelves to an entire wall of just one room can double your entire home’s shelf capacity.

Here’s a tip: We like mixing and matching different shelf heights and widths to create a free-flowing pattern. But keep it coherent by using the same mounting hardware and shelf depths, and be sure to coordinate your colors if you use more than one.

5. Woodworking: Racks, Tables & More

If you enjoy working with wood and have the necessary woodworking equipment, you could create your own wooden racks, such as coat racks, spice racks, tool racks, and more. These small wood furniture pieces are pretty simple to design, cut, and assemble. If you want more, you can graduate to more ambitious articles of furniture such as end tables and desks.

6. Hooks

Hooks are a fun, easy type of “furniture.” Decorative DIY home decor hooks are quick to install and add lots of utility at the same time. You can arrange a bunch of different hooks in the same area to create a pattern of your own making, and then use the hooks themselves to hang decorative artworks.

Celebrate the Seasons

We love changing out our decor for the seasons! It helps get us in the mood for the season, and it lets a little bit of nature inside our homes.

7. Wreaths

Have you ever made your own wreath? It’s incredibly fun to do. You can buy a beautiful premade wreath, study its construction to figure out how its made, and then try to make a wreath yourself with real plants, or whatever you want!

By the way: Wreaths aren’t just for the holiday season! Try making your own spring flower wreath, or autumn squash wreath.

8. Wildflower Bouquets

When’s the last time you went picking wildflowers? Most of us did it as kids but stopped when we grew up. Beautiful flowers can come from anywhere, even places like vacant lots. Take a nice, refreshing walk, and see what you can find!

9. Candles

You can make your own candles for any occasion, like a birthday! Many people like beeswax and regular wax work just as well. Mix and match dyes and scents to your heart’s content. Have fun with it!

Here’s a crafting idea: When you pour your candle, fill the container with tiny ice cubes or crushed ice first. Later, after the candle has set, drain off the melted ice and wait for the candle to dry completely.

Design Your Own Home Decor DIY Projects

We’ve only scratched the surface of what you can DIY! If you want to create your own home decor projects from scratch, we have many resources to help you, such as these:

• Inspiring Home Design Ideas
• Residential Interior Design
• SketchUp for Interior Design

These resources will help you visualize your designs to make them fit your home better. Check them out today!