Beginner Home Upgrades – Try These DIY Projects

Last year, I put out a request for some of the projects you, the DIY Playbook readers, have tackled, that were inspired by a room, DIY, or craft project that you’ve seen on the blog. I was blown away by the amazing submissions I received and you can check out those past submissions on this post. I am back with another post to share more projects. Most of these are beginner home upgrades that anyone can do, so I hope you leave feeling inspired.

I’ll first share the projects from the blog the reader was inspired by, followed by their own words in italics.

Bridget’s Nephew’s Nursery

I am a DIYer myself and my favorite part of what I do is doing it to make my family’s houses feel more like home to them. This October, I did my sister’s nursery for her first baby boy. The accent wall we did was inspired by two of your past projects sort of combined- board and batten and the wood wall in your bathroom. We did that with peel and stick wallpaper above! Turned out so cute. Thank you for featuring other small-time DIYers on your blog!

Bailey’s Home Office

At the beginning of Covid, I found myself working from home permanently. My husband and I decided to upgrade our office space with a DIY Playbook-inspired desk space with bookshelves! We love it because it provides a bright, fun, and unique workplace to work from home each day and it truly feels like my work office, not just a small desk in a corner. Casey’s tutorial on starting with pre-made cabinets, building bookshelves, and painting with a paint sprayer gave us the confidence to tackle it ourselves.

Colleen’s Updated Bath

I updated a bathroom before our new baby arrived because I knew I would be spending a lot more time in there giving our new little guy his nightly baths. I painted the tile, painted the vanity, and replaced knobs. WOW! It was a huge bang for my buck upgrade. We ended up selling the house six months after and it was a huge selling point. I wouldn’t recommend it at 8 months pregnant, but I was in full nesting mode!

Jill’s Functional Laundry Room

We were inspired by your laundry room renovation and decided to turn a small poorly used space next to the washer and dryer into a laundry sorting and folding station! I love that it’s organized and makes the basement laundry room look much nicer! Thanks for the inspiration!

Daira’s Nursery

I loved every element of Rory’s nursery and was so inspired that I copied it all! This was our first woodworking project and the whole family helped. It was so fun and my big kids are so proud of all the hard work we did to make a special room for their baby twin sisters!! Dad and Mom are pretty proud of the beautiful space, too! Thank you for your easy-to-follow and understand tutorials and for your creativity that we could replicate!

Haley’s Entryway

Here is our board and batten entryway! This wall straddles two different floorings so we didn’t want to put a piece of furniture. Doing the board and batten was so easy, looks great, and is extremely useful! Those little hooks can hold a lot!

Dina’s Staircase & Closet

I actually featured Dina’s house as a Reader OMG! home tour a couple of years ago if you want to see her entire gorgeous home.

This stair makeover was done last January and was my biggest project to date! I ripped out the 20-year-old carpet, but didn’t want to replace these stairs with carpet again. I decided to sand and paint the plywood, added skirting, along with board and batten. Of course, I had to make them unique so added the number detail.

This front hall closet was rarely used and I hated the look of the mirrored sliding doors. I did this project in two days over a weekend. I removed the ugly doors (and sold them on Facebook Marketplace) and added a bench, shiplap, hooks, and a shelf. This new entryway addition is much more welcoming and functional for guests and looks pretty too!

Submit Your Projects!

Okay, this was so much fun. I absolutely loved seeing the projects you guys have done in your own homes and how you’ve put a spin on some of my ideas to make them work for you. If you have your own DIY Playbook-inspired project, I would love to see what you have been up to! Fill out this form to submit your ideas and I’ll include them in the next recap.

Casey