11 Frugal DIY Upcycling Furniture Projects

Living thrifty and frugal doesn’t have to be ugly and boring. I’m not sure if I know how to decorate very frugal but lucky us, there are so many cute and cheap ways to decorate an apartment or a big house.

I know, I know, we see new interior design commercials and must-buy home decor ideas every day. Temptations, temptations….. what are we gonna do about it?

We don’t have money and space to buy all of those new trending decors, but we wants it….they are soooo precious.

Let me show you how you can (too) improve your house with these frugal decorating tips. So you can stop buying more stuff you don’t need.

Let’s change our motto to “Work with what you’ve got.”

All right, now let’s dig in and see how to decorate our house cheaply. 😉

1. Rustic wall mounted wooden shelves

We love nature, and we like to walk on the beach with the dogs in the mornings. These walks clear my mind, and I can be so much better at my job. Sometimes after a nice big rain, we find a lot of driftwood on the beach.

That vertical piece on the picture is HEAVY. Putting it on the car to take it home was our workout for that morning.

And there it was, sitting on our driveway for months. We didn’t know what to do with it. We only knew we absolutely love it. Then I turned to my best friend (Pinterest) for rustic reclaimed wood home decor inspiration, and our idea was born.

2. Rustic wall mounted wooden lamp

Well, we felt like the rustic “let nature into our house” project wasn’t quite finished. We needed something vertical to the other side of the wall to complete the look.

I can totally see this cheap decorating trick for apartments too. Even though we finished our TV wall decoration with a big rustic lamp, you can do it in a small apartment. Probably you just have to find smaller driftwood on the beach to fit on your wall.

And this is how the whole wall looks like.

3. Repurposed futon/ reading nook DIY

If you read my other DIY posts you might know already we love to collect junk. Better said my husband likes it and I learned from him.

This futon has a long story. He was a bed for humans, for dogs, and an outdoor sofa in the old house.

Then we moved, and I couldn’t stand the futon anymore. BUT we kept it anyway. I spent many hours staring at him and kind of hating him…. until one day I figured it out!!!

I NEED A READING NOOK at the window where  I can enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning and admire the sunrise/ocean view. Amado took the futon apart repurposed all the wood and made a nook.

4. Collapsible murphy craft table

And the poor futon saga keeps going on. I needed a table for my sewing machine and my jewelry crafts.

Lucky me, Amado was super kind to use the leftover wood from the futon and make me a fold out table hidden in the little cabinet next to the reading nook.

This is my favorite table in the house. I can turn it in different angles if I want to see the ocean or the TV. We can use it as a serving table when we invite friends over, and end of the day just fold it and hide it back to the cabinet. Perfect for small apartments and tight places too.

5. Repurpose curtain and upholstery foam into a boho bean bag

So when you give in and buy the newest trendy farmhouse curtain use your old one to make a cute, cozy bean bag. I had these curtains with pom-poms and didn’t want to throw them away. Plus I had some cushions from the reading nook project, and we used them as a bean bag filling.

The whole project is from repurposed materials, and it was FREE!

6. Recycled sweater and blanket pillows

You see we live in Puerto Rico and I’m very attached to my sweaters and cardigans. BUT I never get to use them in the hot tropical weather.

They are super old anyway, and I have 2 options… I donate them or recycle them. I chose to repurpose my favorite ones and look at them a little longer.

Plus I was about to buy some decorative pillow cases. I made these pillow covers instead and saved the money. If you don’t want to sew you can watch this youtube video of how to make a no-sew pillow cover.

7. Repurposed pallet sofa bed for the living room

The pallets are always a free source of wood, and you can use them for sooo many DIY home decor. Just look it up on Pinterest. People make a couch, shoe racks, bookshelves, outdoor bar out of them. (Just to name a few.)

You can get pallets from Walmart or your local stores, but if you live in a place where termites might be an issue I recommend to get treated ones.

I got 3 pallets from my work, and we decided to make a cozy living room lounge. We like it so much we pretty much live on it.

8. Repurposed computer desk and office DIY hacks

We had a chipped old ugly L shaped office computer desk. Probably you remember it had the holder for the computer tower too. Oooh and the keyboard tray.

It had 2 tables connected with a half moon piece. Therefore you get an L shaped corner office. It was very nice 20 years ago, but today in a limited office space I needed something smaller, but still functional.

Here is what I did.

• • I like silver, but this table was boring, so I decided to spray paint it red.
  • No longer wanted the L shape and decided to get rid of the half moon middle piece.
  • Turned one of the tables on its side and now I got a shelf for my printer and space for my file cabinet.
  • I used the keyboard tray to wall mount a folder holder.
  • I hated the glass desktop and decided to place a white plastic board under it. The glass gave a beautiful light blue look to that.
  • Finish the cozy office look I sew some red boho floor pillows form an old blanket.

9. Rustic stacked stone mirror frame

I got these stone tiles for a couple of dollars in Home Depot and decided to make a funky rock frame around our boring mirrors in the bathroom.

Don’t worry it is finished. I went for this “broken” look in purpose.

It just happened I turned around, and I see the bathtub is naked. Luckily I had left over tiles and finished the bathtub too.

 

 

10. Beach themed picture from repurposed towels

Are you like me who keeps all the favorite beach towels forever? Because they remind you of the best vacations, you ever took?

I made these pictures from my all time favorite beach towel. It was old, ugly, had holes here and there, but I couldn’t throw it away. So I put it to good use and made cute beach themed pictures out of it.

I used an old clock and repurposed a bamboo placemat with some shells.

Well, that’s it for today. I’m sure I will find many more pictures of all the DIY home decor we have done, and I will update this post. Until then check out my DIY tutorials.

Have fun with your DIY upcycling furniture projects and get some ideas from here to repurpose as much old stuff as you can.

Don’t forget to PIN it and come back anytime to get inspired.