In this post I will be sharing the four DIY home projects we will be doing in our home. All the projects are budget friendly, easy for beginners and will add instant character to your house. A breakdown of the cost estimates and materials also included!
At the beginning of each year, Matt and I put together a list of goals that cover a range of areas (career, financial, fitness, family, personal, and my favorite–home!). We moved into our house in August of 2017 and we have been in our house now for about 1.5 years. Matt always tells me, “But I thought we bought a newer house so we wouldn’t have to change anything!”—which don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful house and has a lot of great features that I love. But in my eyes, it’s very traditional and beige. Beige walls, beige carpet, and beige tiles….it just lacks the character and style that I personally like.
To me, our home is a perfect canvas that just needs a little tweaking here and there. I want our home to feel like us. We plan on being here for awhile, so why not have fun and make it how we want it!
time & money–can we really do this? with toddlers and a third on the way?
My mind is always spinning with ideas and it gets me so excited to think about all the possibilities! Luckily I have my husband’s support with most of my ideas. The only challenge is this….TIME & MONEY! Ugh! Only if we all had a billion dollars and a full time nanny to watch the kids haha. But that’s not reality! So we are going to do this by:
- Doing things DIY (contractors quoted us thousands of dollars for projects I know we can do for only a couple hundred).
- Save a little each month after all expenses, grocery, & miscellaneous things are paid.
- Use money earned from my makeup freelancing jobs.
- Work on projects when the kids are napping, at night and before baby #3 is due. (no biggie, haha!)
I have been following and watching other amazing moms getting things done and making beautiful changes to their homes. And I truly believe I CAN DO IT TOO! I am just a regular girl, mother of toddlers, who has never used a power tool in her life. But I want to learn and save money doing it. Plus I feel like it would be so cool to look at something in my home and say, “I DID THAT!” So, let’s just hope I don’t mess anything up!
We also want to tackle easy, less time consuming DIY projects to help add character to our home. The goal is to do beginner level projects that will be easy to finish over a weekend.
Planning DIY Projects – costs & Materials
In order to know how much to budget for each project, you need to first figure out the cost! The first cost Matt and I need to invest in are some key DIY tools. After watching and looking at several other DIY’ers, Youtube videos, and Bloggers, I have come up with this list of tools:
My next door neighbor has a full on wood shop in his garage, so if we end up needing a table saw for any reason, we will just borrow his. We plan on trying to get Home depot to cut most of our wood too.
diy project estimate costs:
Since this is our first time doing these home DIY projects, these are general estimates, which we are basing off of material costs and the measurements we took of each space. In addition to that, we are adding a 20% margin to cover any potential add on’s. When we complete the projects, I will do a post with an exact breakdown of cost.
DIY PROJECT #1: office sHIPLAP aCCENT wALL
Materials Needed:
- 5mm 4×8 Underlayment Boards
- Spackling
- Finish nails
- Primer
- Paint (considering using “Night View” by Valspar).
- 1/8″ Spacers
Estimated Cost: $150
We finished this project and it turned out beautiful! You can check it out here!
dIY PROJECT #2: eNTRY Board & Batten Accent Wall
Materials Needed for Dark Board & Batten Wall:
- Hardboard Panels
- MDF
- Spackling
- Liquid Nails
- Finish nails
- Primer
- Paint
Estimated Cost: $75
DIY PROJECT #3: LIVING ROOM Board & Batten ACCent WALL
Materials Needed:
- Hardboard panels
- MDF Strips
- Decorative trim (still deciding)
- Finish Nails
- Liquid Nails
- Spackling
- Caulking
- Wood filler
- Primer
- Paint
Total Estimated Cost: $280
DIY PROJECT #4: OUTDOOR PLAYHOUSE
Along with the DIY home projects that will add character to our house, we also thought it would be fun to make our own outdoor play house for the girls! I found a really great step by step tutorial that will help be our guide. My husband has a pretty good idea though of how to build one, so we might end up just designing and creating it ourselves.
Materials Needed (get the free PDF plans for this exact house on jenwoodhouse.com):
- 19- Simpson Strong Tile MP24 Mending Plates
- 19- Simpson Strong Tie TP15 Tie Plates
- 12- Simpson Strong Tie A21Z Angles
- 14- 2x4x8
- 22-1x6x8
- 9- 1x2x8
- 51″ of 1×4′
- 2- Sheets of 3/4″ Plywood
- 2″ Wood Screws
- 1 1/4″ Wood Screws
- 1 1/4″ Brad Nails
- Wood Glue
Estimated Cost: $250
So that’s our plans! When we finish the projects, I will share how they all went and the final costs with you. We plan on starting the dark shiplap wall in our office at the end of May and hopefully finish the rest of the projects over the course of the summer (most likely one project per month). Wish us luck!! 🙂
