The Latest

This clever pair shares budget-friendly, out-of-the-box projects that even DIY-newcomers can complete with ease.

In my neighborhood, it’s common for residents to set out piles of unwanted items with friendly “free” signs, meaning that you never know when you’ll head out for a walk or to run an errand and come back with something interesting and useful. After seeing these amazing luggage transformations, I’m majorly hoping that one of my neighbors will toss an unneeded suitcase or two to the curb. Looking to work some DIY magic of your own?

If you’re following along, you may have caught us drooling over Arlyn Hernandez’s makeovers. Arlyn is Emily Henderson’s editorial director and the proud occupant of not one but two beautifully designed rooms in a 100-year-old Los Angeles Mediterranean-style apartment building.

The year was 1995, and there was a ficus tree that lived in the corner of our living room, beside the couch. The tree had a wicker basket over the base with shredded moss covering the soil. The leaves were a deep green, splattered with soft yellow variegation. My mom never watered it, but it never died. I thought, at the ripe age of six, that if I did not touch the tree as my mom demanded, it would grant me a wish. Unfortunately, the ficus was not a magical fairytale tree.

Sometimes you see something you just need in your space, no matter what. You know there will be a downside, but it’s just too perfect. For me, it was the window-style fixed shower panels. I started seeing this look last summer when we were renovating the bizarre and so-ugly bathroom in our Victorian home. Honestly, anything was an upgrade from the teeny, low-ceilinged, stained-beyond-all-hope stall shower that came with the house that I might have just gone with the first shower I saw.