Furniture Hacks

Nowadays, it is easy to find affordable furniture for your home from chain stores, but those pieces can lack character. This is where furniture hacking comes in - updating, repurposing and personalising to create stylish, unique masterpieces. Here, Hester van Overbeek shows you 35 ways to update your home accessories, soft furnishings and even wooden furniture, all with step-by-step photos to guide you along the way. Projects range from simpler ideas, such as a table made from stacked old magazines (that can also act as a stool) or a patchwork rug, created by sewing small inexpensive mats together, to ways to create larger pieces that cost a fraction of the price it would be to buy them new. Discover how to make your own four-poster bed by combining a budget bed base and pieces of reclaimed wood, or convert a bookcase into a sideboard. There are five chapters - Living Room, Kitchen and Dining Room, Bedroom, Home Office, and Outdoor Space - and each one includes a 'quick craft' idea for beginner upcyclers, too. Why not paint cutlery handles with nail polish to update them, or make your own bedside light simply using a shelf support? Hester's philosophy is that you don't need much money or many DIY skills to make your house into a cosy, stylish home. With the right inspiration, you can create something beautiful.