There is a phase in my life when I am obsessed about something. For now, it is ceramic and glass jars. Anything but plastic. Love the Organica pickle bottles. Wish they were square. I find myself buying those pickles for the bottles. Do you have glass jars lying around the house? If yes, then this DIY will be a breeze. I picked up four of these glass jars with a hole in the lid from Home Town for Rs. 150 a piece. These make cute containers for serving juices at parties. But, I saw huge potential in these to be used for potpourri or as soap dispensers in the bathroom. The hole in the lid makes it a lot easier to push the dispenser through. Things required: Glass jar Hammer Screw driver Some heat source Dispensing pump from another soap dispenser How to make a soap dispenser: Turn the cap of the…
For today’s DIY post, I am reviving one of of the old projects and how it has come handy over the years. Look around your house or take a walk around your apartment, and you can be absolutely sure of finding a piece of wood in good shape. Along with my son’s bunk bed, the carpenter had given two extra strips of rubber wood if we ever wanted to attach a railing on the other side.
So, the mother-son duo got into action. The task at hand was to convert this unused piece of rubber wood into a key/sports equipment hanging rack.
Encouraged by Preethi, I am going to give this DIY series a day, a try, at least on weekdays. Today, I take you through a painting project that promises a splash of color and instant facelift. A few weeks ago, I spotted a set of these tall planters on sale and got them home. They had clearly seen better days. I toyed with the idea of painting them lime green and lemon yellow to complement each other. But, both metallic colors were not available at the Asian Paints stores. So I bought the sample cans of orange and yellow (250 ml). Materials required: 1. Metal primer. 2. Brush. Though spray painting is the best for such surfaces. 3. Thinner to thin the paint and clean the brush. 4. Sample cans of enamel paint. These are solvent-based paints and not water-based. For such small surfaces, sample cans would be more…
Hard water. Lime scales. That’s the hard fact. Be it in Bangalore, or anywhere in India. More often than not, the task or obsession of keeping the taps sparkling clean falls on me. House helps are not obsessed about it. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a clean bathroom. Over the years, I have learnt one secret and one ingredient that works wonders. Ready to know? The best part is it doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket. That one ingredient is LEMON. Any citrus fruit works but lemon works best. Our fridge is always stocked with lemons as lemonade is an essential part of dinner. The father-son duo make it a ritual and enjoy making a glass for themselves with whatever ingredient they fancy that night. And it gets creative, too with mint, basil.. :) Ok, so over to the bathrooms. If you are not in the mood for some…
We finally moved into the new house. It’s been two weeks. This was the first weekend in months when we had some time (a few hours) on our hands with nothing to do. That was a strange feeling. After you’ve been running around tirelessly for months for everything from hinges and laminates to painting and furniture, there is a sudden vacuum. Oh, we are not all done. There are still many, many pending items to be crossed off from the list. But, this momentary break is essential. In the meantime, Asian Paints got me excited about something I have been wanting to do for a while. One of my long pending projects has been to revamp a TV cabinet to give it a new look. This TV cabinet from Damro is in exceptionally good state. Only thing is I don’t like the laminate finish anymore after seeing it day in…
How’s the mid-week holiday treating you? A blessing for the kids, I’m sure:)
OK before I begin, thank you so much to each one of you who went to great lengths to explain your design concept; for participating; for harboring the courage to let others know how you would do it. I’ve never been this thrilled for a post before. Every comment offered an insight; laced with a practical thought.
Now, it’s time to clarify the title. Whether or not, Namratha actually goes with one of the designs (which would be tough for anyone, to be fair), I’m sure all of your inputs have helped her think of the space in a different perspective. As I see it, if I were to actually design the room, and execute it, aspects I’d have never considered before would strike me like a rug, or a unit running across the walls. Thanks to your suggestions, of course.
So, this is what I did – created a Pinterest board called Work Space. Study Ideas. All your suggestions are pinned there in addition to a few more I liked. In this post, I’m collating a few of the designs (not favorites, just randomly picked) with the pluses and minuses highlighted.
Hello everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. Saturday was great and I’d planned to go to Kala Madhyam yesterday but felt a li’l under the weather which kept me grounded at home for most part of the day. Did any of you happen to go? I’d written about how floating shelves can be stylish and optimum for storage for space-starved rooms. As planned, the project got underway during the Dusshera holidays and here are the pictures. The only change in plan: instead of doing it myself, I got it done from a carpenter. The mandate was simple: sturdy enough to hold books and detachable later on. A strip of wood is fixed on to the wall. The shelves have a groove that fit into the strip and are secured in position with two screws at the bottom of the shelf. Project Details: Material: Plywood with laminate Dimensions: 1ft in…
Yes, you read it right- creating memories on the wall. If you’ve been looking for that perfect piece of art like me to deck up your wall so much so that the wall has been bare for years now, don’t look any further. Go make something of our own. For starters, here is an easy peasy one. All you need is a framed canvas, some paint and a pair of hands of yours and your family :) If making a trip to the stationery store to get a framed canvas seems tough, just make the wall your canvas. When my son turned three, out of boredom and desire to have some fun, one afty I created his hand print on a canvas. Now that he’ll turn six in two weeks, am I glad I did that? Saving memories for posterity. Some more ideas of using hand and foot prints. Alright,…
Yesterday, in the first part of this series to make your home spotless just in time for Diwali, we looked at getting a sparkling living room and bedroom. Today, we move into one of the high traffic areas after the kitchen and which just gets messy no water what, if not tended to. What’s the one thing you love about any good hotel? Especially when someone else does the job for you to keep it dry. Yes, you guessed it right – bathrooms! And no matter how clean the rest of the home is, it’s the bathrooms that will make or break it. Most Indian bathrooms do not have clear segregation of shower area (wet vs dry area) which makes it tough to keep it dry all through the day. Wetness = magnet for dirt = floor stains in the long run. The trick for minimal maintenance in bathrooms is to…
This is a thrift post to show how to reuse ketchup and sauce bottles into oil dispensers. Not only are they healthy relative to plastic, they cost almost nothing and look amazing. I have been using these for over six years now. See what you need to make one at home.
I’m in love with glass lately – all shapes, sizes and colors. Thanks to MasterChef, I fell in love with glass oil dispensers that took me on a dispenser-hunting mission to Jamals, Home Stop, @ home, Home Town, a zillion other fancy crockery shops in the neighborhood and wherever we went. So, I was looking for simple glass oil dispensers but didn’t find anything locally that was budget-friendly.
Then, when the Maggi ketchup bottle got over this time, I had cleaned it up (tip: use hot water and liquid soap to remove labels easily) to paint on it. But, it stayed on the counter for a week when I realized it could be turned into a oil dispenser with a pourer/spout. And, this is what we have. A standard size spout fixes well on most bottles.