DIY: Bookshelf ideas

Although there are hundreds of things you can do to prettify your house, there are few that cost absolutely nothing. Bookshelves are often an attraction point that draw people when they walk into the room. Instead of just using it as a functional piece of furniture, why not use it as a decor object. A new and in-fashion way to decorate bookshelves are to pay attention to the way the books are arranged.

There are various ways to arrange books on your bookshelf:

1.   Alphabetic: By author or series (also called indexing)

source: www.guardian.co.uk

2.   High to low: By book height

source: http://t1.gstatic.com/

3.  Stacked: On little heaps

Source: Better Homes and Gardens (Jan 2009)

4.   Chromatic: By cover color

Flickr: User Chotda

The latter is the in-fashion way to do this, and this is how I aim to keep mine for time being.

DIY: Frosted glass the cheap and easy way!

There are some really cheap and easy ways to decorate windows by "frosting them". The idea is to create a sandblasted look by making use of a spray paint.

Rust-Oleum frosted glass spray (available at Builders Warehouse).

Step-by-step how to:
1.  Buy or make your own pattern stencil. (here with some awesome ideas)
2.  Cut out your patterns on self-adhesive plastic
3.  Make sure that the surface you will be decorating is clean and free from oily or dust particles
4.  Stick your stencil images onto the surface
5.  Start spraying!

Decor: You will not believe... Magnetic Paint!

As per my post last week Friday on no-drill renovations, I continue with something from the Nate Show. Here is something that I have never seen or heard of before watching the video... Magnetic paint! Yes, you have heard right, the paint is see through and can be painted onto almost any surface. The surface then becomes magnetic and you can decorate it with all kinds of magnets, including magnetic frames as per the video below:

Decor: No-Drill renovations by Nate Berkus

In my view, Nate Berkus is one of the best design guru's of our times. He started off with home make-overs on the Oprah Winfrey show, but now has his own show. The show is not being broadcast in South Africa as yet, but is available for viewing online. Nate has started a series on no-drill renovations, and I think this is the problem to most our design dilemmas, take a look and lemme know what you think!