DIY Apartment Ideas

New furniture? Check! New white goods? Check! New TV? Check! You’ve just moved in to your new apartment and, while incredibly exhausted, you’re feeling proud of your efforts to unpack while remaining relatively sane in front of friends, family, the removalists and the pizza guy.

You sit back to try to relax, but immediately feel as though something important is missing. The place feels cold. Not only do you have no desire to invite anyone over, you strangely have no desire to be alone in the apartment either! You feel lost.

It doesn’t feel like home. You start to despair that you’ve made a big mistake.

Don’t despair! It’s simply time to start making your new place feel more like home and, given you’ve already spent most of your savings, that can only mean one thing – DIY décor!

Here are five affordable ways you can transform your new apartment into a place you’ll feel proud to call home.

1.     Design some centerpieces

Gather together candles and dishes of all sizes. Head down to the communal garden, local park or nearby creek and select some large and small pebbles, preferably round. For a high glamour effect, spray paint the rocks gold or silver (or any colour that strikes your fancy!), place them on the plates and nestle your candles in. Voila! A beautiful rock candle centrepiece. ApartmentDevelopments.com.au recommends Diptyque candles available here

2.     Put up some art

To spruce up a mirror, stick some fake flowers around the two opposite corners of the frame. Alternatively, to truly display your individual personality, take it up a notch with some gorgeous and affordable art prints.

3.     Make some hanging cutouts

Use a stencil of a heart, elephant or cute zombie to make 20-30 cut outs then spray paint or hand paint for full effect. Attach each cut out along a piece of plain or coloured string then hang multiple strings vertically from a wall or wardrobe or mirror.

4.     Make some origami flowers

All you need for this activity is a packet of long wooden skewers, some coloured paper and an origami ‘how to’ guide for flowers. A quick YouTube search will do the trick! Create the flowers, use the skewers as stems then place them in vases or glasses throughout your home.

5.     Build a herb garden

Sure, you can buy some good old faithful pots if you like, but for something both unique and affordable, think shoe boxes, bulk oil tin cans, glass jars or shoe bags. Simply add soil and seeds or seedlings. Water as advised!

Now it’s time to show your new, decorated apartment off to your friends! Cheese platter? Check! Cheese? Check! Champagne? Check!