College senior Mallory Colby uses DIY projects for crafting

Kelsey: What types of crafts or DIY projects do you do?

Mallory: Canvas paintings, refinishing old furniture, jewelry holders, and wine bottle projects.

K: What do you think interests college girls into DIY decorating projects or crafting?

M: I think it gives us a chance to express our creativeness and find a style that matches our personality. I also think it let’s us relieve stress out of our usually hectic lifestyles.

K: Where do you get your inspiration for your crafts?

M: Usually, I find all my crafts on pinterest or the DIY and HGTV channel.

K: Do you feel that it is cheaper to make your own furniture, art, or crafts? Why or Why not?

M: Sometimes it can be. You can find good deals on old furniture at antique stores, and you refinish them yourself by staining them a different color or buying different hardware for the knobs and handles.

K: What interests you most about crafting and DIY projects?

M: My favorite thing about crafting is putting my own touches on it to make it more of my own style. I also enjoy seeing the outcome and posting pictures to see if others like it too.

K: Do you find them time consuming or are they relatively easy to accomplish? Do you ever get discouraged? Do you find them relaxing or fun to do?

M: Most of the projects I do can be done in one night, depending on if something has to dry over night or not. I’ve never gotten so upset with a project that I felt like it couldn’t be fixed or I had to start over with. Most of the time, I pick the ones that I know will be easy for me. I always refer to my crafting time as “me time.” I find it very relaxing, and it gives me time to think about things and relieve some stress.

Mallory Colby

“I think it gives us a chance to express our creativeness

and find a style that matches our personality. I also think it

let’s us relieve stress out of our usually hectic lifestyles.”

DIY RUFFLED LAMP

 

Find an old lamp that you don’t mind repurposing. If you don’t have one handy, visit your local Goodwill or other thrift shops/ garage sales. I got this lamp for under $5 by buying it in separate pieces.

See! It's a perfectly good lamp. It just needs some TLC!

Next, you're going to need a fair amount of fabric. Make sure to get enough. I had about 2 yards of white fabric from Hancock's.

 

Lay out your fabric and begin cutting 2" wide strips of fabric.

 

For the size of my lamp shade, I cut 10 3 ft long strips.

 

This is the tricky part. Take a needle and thread and sew a long strip down each strip of fabric. Then, pull the end of the thread to create the ruffled strips.

 

Next, take a glue gun and hot glue the ruffled fabric strips to the lamp shade.

 

Here's all the ruffled strips glued to the lamp shade.

 

And here's the finished product!

DIY Decorating for College Girls

MEMPHIS, Tenn.–Open those books and turn on the coffee machines. You’re in for at least a few all-nighters. Adjusting to college life can be stressful. You’re relearning your study habits, fending for yourself and, for the first time, living on your own. But moving into your first place, whether a dorm, apartment, or a house, doesn’t have to add any extra stress when it comes to decorating.

Sandra--Sawdust and Paper Scraps

As women, most of you want your place to be a sanctuary, a place you love to live. Why should you settle for the blah walls and the uniform furniture and the stereotypical design?

Trust me girls, your place can be beautiful, even on a limited budget. All it takes is a little creativity and effort and you too can have a room worthy of design super star status.

According to Sandra from the DIY blog Sawdust and Paper Scraps, “One of the easiest ways to transform a space is through paint. If you are in a rented space that doesn’t allow you to paint the walls, paint your furniture. If you don’t have furniture, go to a thrift store or yard sale and find some ugly piece that is just right for your space and needs some TLC and paint it.”

Moving into your first place can be scary for some. However, if your looking to decorate your place, its perfect because it’s a blank canvas. A great place to start is by painting the walls or furniture. Starting with simple projects helps alleviate some of the trepidation that may come when considering using do-it-yourself decorating techniques.

Joey and Lana Make A House A Home

Lana Migliore of the DIY blog, Making a House a Home, said, “Renters and owners should defiantly give it a try. You can DIY lamps, which are easy and gratifying, small furniture, frames, decor, and other things that don’t take up too much time or money. I think it would be a great mental exercise for college students.”

In terms of the advantages of using do-it-yourself techniques, Migliore said, “It makes you think in new ways. Each object can play a variety of rolls. You start seeing objects in a new light.”

According to another blogger, Jessica Fediw of Happy Together Creates, “when you are in college or just out of college, it’s the perfect time to try out some DIY projects. You are looking to have a nice place, but usually are on a budget. Plus, you might have more time on your hands and energy for DIY projects.”

Also, DIY projects can help college girls on a budget save money by decorating their places themselves. According to Migliore, it helps save her and her husband money. “Even when we mess up, we save. I would say we save at least 75 percent on everything we do.”

DIY blogger Kelly Marzca from A View Along The Way said “Doing projects ourselves saves lots of cash, but even better, we are able to create exactly what we envision. We’re limited only by what we can imagine and what we’re willing to take the time to learn. Not to mention that once you finish a project, there’s nothing like enjoying it every day with the knowledge that your hard work made it happen.

“My favorite part is that I’m investing as little money as possible, so if I don’t like something or it doesn’t turn out well, I can change it,” said Marzca.

Sandra’s favorite part about DIY projects is “knowing that I can do just about anything I set my mind to.”

Migliore said, “We can customize anything we want, when we want, and how we want. I love the problem solving aspect of dreaming something up and making it happen. It feels amazing to have something in your mind and then see it in your home.

So you may be wondering where to begin. The answer is simple; the Internet. The Web is full of DIY blogs, and Google can be your best friend when researching certain projects. Pinterest can also be a huge asset when looking for inspiration or tutorials on DIY projects. Home décor magazines and websites like HGTV also provide ideas for home improvement and decorating.

So you’ve done some research and have been inspired. Some projects are obviously going to be much harder, while others will be easier to tackle and can serve an equally appealing decorating purpose. For college girls who want to use DIY decorating techniques, starting small and working up to bigger projects is the route to take.

Migliore said, “I would suggest sewing curtains, making pillows, and refinishing and painting furniture. You can find cheap furniture at good will and even if the finish is bad, it’s easy to sand and paint and will look great if the structure has good lines.”

“If a person wants a certain look, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to create it. Often times, that means thinking outside the box,” said Sandra.

Kelly Marzca--A View Along The Way

“I’d say almost anything you want to create can be done if you’re willing to invest the time in Googling around to learn how to do it, and it helps if you know someone with access to tools. Start out small, with little art projects or simple projects that don’t require lots of time and energy. Build up some confidence and don’t be afraid to take risks or try things that fail,” said Marzca.

Decorating your first place should be a rewarding learning experience. DIY projects can help you save money and help you develop your style. Decorating is a process. You sense of style changes, and so can your home décor.

“For me, it’s taken me years to refine my style and my taste, and I’m still doing so today, so it just doesn’t make sense to invest lots of money in decorating. Doing projects yourself gives you a deeper understanding and appreciation for how things are made, and allows you to save money while exploring your personal style,” said Marzca.

Arlington Christmas Parade Craft Fair 2011

Arlington, TENN.–The Christmas Parade Crafts Fair brought craft vendors and local businesses together from the growing town of Arlington, Tenn., on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. 

Eight vendors from the Arlington, Bartlett, and Cordova areas hosted the third annual Crafts Fair in the historic Arlington Depot Square. 

Sandy Brewer and Maurice Gaines have been holding the craft fairs in Arlington since 2008.

Brewer’s daughter, Alex, 20, ran the Five Paw Barkery booth. Her booth sells all natural dog treats and dog ornaments for Christmas. 

Her family started the Five Paws Barkery because “we all have dogs, and all the dog treats in the store have preservations, and we all like baking, so that where we started.” Five Paw Barkery is also online at Etsy.com.

According to Alex, her mother started the craft fair, “to mostly get people to the Depot because she owns a business down here.” Sandy is the owner of the Travel Agency in downtown Arlington. 

Alex said her mother also holds other craft fairs every third Saturday during the summer, the Harvest Gathering during the weekend after Thanksgiving and the crafts fair for the annual Christmas parade.  During the summer, they also hold a farmers market. 

Since 2008, Sandy has rented the space next door to S.Y. Wilson for her craft fairs and farmer’s markets. S.Y. Wilson and Co.,  is the antiques and artisan market located in the Depot as well. 

S.Y. Wilson was founded in 1893 as the general store for the town. It now operates as an antiques and artisan market and is a historic landmark in Arlington. 

On the day of the holiday craft fair, “Wilson’s Store” is complete with original and repurposed furniture and antiques, knick knacks, and a Mr. and Mrs. Claus picture-taking set up for the kids. It is also full of artwork, hand painted and crafted by local artists. 

S.Y. Wilson is currently operated by fourth-generation descendants of founder Samuel Young Wilson, Mark and Susan Wilson Hoggard. The market was converted from a general store to the antique market on Aug. 5, 2011 complete with 37 vendors. 

Susan Hoggard said, “We restructured because of big box stores like Home Depot and Wal-Mart. It was too hard to stay in business as a general store.” 

College Girl’s Guide to DIY- Kelsey Gilliam

Adormables, a new boutique in Oxford, MS Q & A with Cheri Hansen

Cheri Hansen (pictured right) is the co-owner of a new small business in Oxford, Miss. Hansen, along with her friend Renee Jones (pictured left), opened the home decor shop Adormables in the Mississippi college town. Adormables is geared for college girls decorating their dorms, apartments, or rental houses. Their shop also caters to women looking to shop for handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces. Cheri enjoys repurposing furniture, hand-painting canvases, creating decorative pillows, and styling and decorating college houses and dorm rooms. Cheri and Renee have been long-time decorating lovers and recently decided to start their boutique and begin selling their creations to the public.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWEE: Cheri Hansen

INTERVIEWER: Kelsey Gilliam

PLACE: The Hansen Residence, Berryhill Neighborhood, Cordova, TN

RECORDING:

K. Tell me where you got the idea for Adormables.
C. Well I’ve always dabbled in decorating and crafts and stuff, and I guess where I got the idea was people kept asking me to decorate their dorm rooms. So I’ve done several dorms rooms in Alabama, Ole Miss, ASU, Mississippi State and that’s where I came up with the name. That’s not exactly what the business is now. It’s in Oxford at the Mustard Seed, and what I do is rent out booth space and from that people buy stuff to decorate with. Hand-painted canvases, hand-made throw pillows, refurbished furniture and that kind of stuff. Adormables is just because of the dorm rooms. It all ties in.

K. How many dorms have you decorated?

C. Eight.

K. Wow. That’s a lot of work. Do you sell more furniture or what?

C. You know, it really depends on the time of year. If it’s right at the beginning of the fall, when all the kids are moving in, its furniture. That’s when you sell more furniture. Once that all slows down, it turns into women shopping and buying canvases, and you know you’ll sell furniture here and there but mostly at this point it’s just women coming to shop.

K. Do you do a lot of your work here in Memphis and then go to Oxford?

C. Yeah. I go about every other week.

K. Every other week down there?

C. Yeah. I do it (decorate) in my kitchen and my garage.

K. Okay. And do you do it with another lady?

C. Yes. I do it with a girlfriend of mine. We’ve been friends since high school.

K. Oh that’s so cool.

C. Yeah. Neither one of us is working right now. We just complement each other real well. I’m real meticulous and I like the furniture part of it, and she’s more free-hand.

K. What made y’all decide to go to Oxford?

C. Clientele and the fact that there is a lot of money in Oxford. They spend the money on that sort of thing. Plus it’s a college town.

K. And it’s close.

C. Yeah it is close. And there’s just not a whole lot like that in Memphis. I mean Collierville has Sheffields but it’s strictly antiques, and we have antiques but we’re not strictly that.

K. I fell in love with Pinterest. Have you been on there?

C. Yes.

K. I love it. So for my blog I’m gonna do a series. I’m gonna make my own headboard. I’m gonna refurbish a desk, do some canvas stuff. Things that I’ve found for do-it-yourself. And show people how to do it. Like girls my age. We don’t normally do that. We just buy it.

C. More and more though.

K. Yeah it is becoming a fad.

C. Pinterest is awesome. Best ideas in the whole wide world.

K. I love it. So where do you get your ideas from? Do they just come to you?

C. You know for the most part they do just come to me. I have been looking at Pinterest, but I’m not gonna copy something. I don’t like to do something someone else has done. I might get an idea off pinterest, but I would never do exactly what they did. I like to pick a piece of fabric and take that portion (of fabric) and do like (paint) a canvas to match it.

K. You like to be inspired.

C. Yes. I like to find one piece that inspires me to do a whole room. And then you pull your colors out of there; and decorating magazines. I’ve looked at decorating magazines with my mother, since I was a kid, that’s what we had everywhere. Decorating magazines were everywhere.

K. So does your decorating talent come from your mom you think?

C. Yeah. Oh yeah. She’s really good.

K. Yeah. So many from my age just go online, or go to twitter. No body influenced them. It’s more of the online media. Do y’all do a lot of sales from your Adormables Facebook?

C. Not yet. I just now created a page for Adormables.

K. Yes. My roommate Shelby showed me some of it.

C. Yes, she saw the corn hole games. The corn hole games are big. My husband, Philip, makes them. He constructs them, and then I paint them.

K. Seems like a lot of work.

C. Yes. Let’s see we’ve done UT, Memphis, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama, Arkansas, and then we did a Boston Red Sox. So that’s what I’ve got to get to. They are asking about them at the Mustard Seed. I’ve gotta get them there to sell them. But they are a lot of work. And they take up a lot of space.

K. Yeah, they just seem like a lot of work.

C. Yes they are a lot of work. Some of them, more so. Like the ones that have Colonel Rebel, that one takes a lot of work. The Memphis Tigers is a lot of work. Arkansas, the razorback, is a lot of work.

K. UT is easy haha.

C. Yeah the T is easy. Alabama’s pretty easy. We do the houndstooth on the edges, but still it’s not that hard. It’s not that detailed. Not like the Colonel.

K. Do you like going down to Oxford, like being there?

C. Mhmm. I love Oxford. I wouldn’t mid living in Oxford.

K. I mean, I’ve never been. I don’t know anything about it.

C. Really?

K. Yeah isn’t that weird.

C. Seriously. I love Oxford. You know my daughter, Chanler, is living in Oxford. She’s doing hair down there. It’s a really good opportunity.

K. Man I need to go see Chanler then. I went and saw this one girl today, and she messed up my hair. I’m pretty mad about it.

C. Well it looks cute.

K. I mean it was this long. I cut it like this much. And I told her I didn’t want it all to be one length and then she did it all one length. And I kept telling her like No bigger layers. Layer it so I can do something with it. She just wouldn’t listen to me. I was mad.

C. Well it looks good to me.

K. When you repurpose furniture is it really difficult? What do you do?

C. You’ll have to look at some of my stuff. As far as upholstering goes and recovering stuff, I did these parsons chairs. I bought six of them off of Craigslist. Six parsons chairs for $20. I recovered them and put fabric on the bottom of them and then I painted Chanler’s kitchen table. It’s a turquoise blue.

K. I saw on your facebook page. It looks so good.

C. So I mean it’s both. But I’m not real good at upholstering. Now I’d like to take a class, but people have said it’s really hard work. And I just don’t know if I’m ready to take it to that extent yet. It’s just easier doing what I like to do. That’s painting canvases and you know, refinishing furniture and stuff like that. Now, the upholstering. I’d like to be able to do it, but I don’t know that I’ll ever go to that trouble.

K. What’s been your favorite decorating experience?

C. It was a little house in the cotton district. It was Chanler’s little house in the cotton district.

K .Really?

C. Mhmm. When she got it, she called me and was like well, I signed a lease today. I was like, well, you did? She said yeah, I’m gonna send you a picture, and I was like oh my gosh Chanler, does it have air conditioning. She was like yeah, I think. And you know, it’s like does it have a dishwasher? And she said well I don’t know. It was awful. You may have seen pictures of it.

K. I did. I saw it on Facebook.

C. But when I finished it was the cutest thing. I mean when I finished I could’ve lived there myself and everybody in the world could leave me alone and I could’ve just been by myself. But that was my favorite thing that I’ve done. No doubt. It was just the most rewarding one when I got done, because if you had seen it before I started you would have never believed it. And it was such a challenge too because it was tiny. It was just tiny. But we managed to get her furniture in there. Hers and her roommates. And we fixed up the porch real cute. It was just precious. It was my favorite.

K. Yeah it looked really good. While I was looking at it, all my roommates where like wow that’s so cute. They asked if Chanler had done it, and I said no that’s her mom. She’s talented. She’s really really talented. They were like gosh I wish she’d come here and do our house. I said I’m sure she would for a little some-something.

C. I mean next time she moves I’m not gonna be able to take any pictures because we keep using the same things over and over, but yeah the porch was my favorite.

College girls thinking about DIY projects

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Not many students have considered using do-it-yourself projects to decorate their homes and save money, but for one University of Memphis student, it is a possibility.

According to University of Memphis sophomore, Drucilla Thompson, she’s read a DIY magazine and seen the HGTV television show, but she hasn’t actually done any decorating using do-it-yourself ideas.

When asked if she would ever complete one of these money-saving projects she said, “Yeah, I think I would, because it doesn’t cost as much to put together in the end.”

According to Thompson, 19, who wants to pursue broadcast journalism, she’s seen the shows that are focused on remodeling homes and said those projects would be “too much work.”

However, she said, ”smaller projects I would do because in the end they probably would save me money.”

Story by @CollegeGirlsDIY