Add a pattern to a basic rug. With some paint and dedication, you can make a basic, cheap rug look much more upscale. Craft a rope bowl. All you need to make a similar bowl is rope and a hot glue gun. Build a pendant chandelier. Believe it or not, this copycat chandelier achieves its ethereal beauty with pieces of wax paper (don’t worry, they won’t melt or catch on fire). Learn how to make it here. Sew a striped shower curtain. Make a nearly identical shower curtain by sewing together strips of basic cotton. Build a tufted headboard. While this project is probably not best for beginners, it’ll help you rest easy knowing you don’t need to drop hundreds of dollars on the headboard of your dreams. Sew some floor poufs. If you can sew a straight line, then you can probably sew some pouf floor cushions. They’re much easier and cheaper to make than you’d think! Turn an old dresser into a piece of statement furniture.

You can achieve this effect with a sander and a few different shades of stain. Make some decorative wooden spheres. An unlike way to use embroidery hoops. Build your own geometric daybed. Does require some carpentry expertise and/or the help of a handy friend. Create some reclaimed wood shelves.National Blender Parts Australia The original shelves are meant to look old and beat up, so why pay more to buy them new? Puppies For Sale CatahoulaIn order to achieve a distressed looked, this tutorial involves some very cathartic banging on pieces of wood with a hammer.Wholesale House Of Marley Build a shell pendant chandelier. You’d never guess that something so glam was mostly made from wax paper and an old lamp shade.

Transform old vases by adding a mercury glass effect. Achieve the look by using metallic spray paint and vinegar. Make a chevron print carpet. All you need is paint and tape to achieve this look. Create a tiered plant stand from old dishes. Build a geometric cutout headboard. You’d never guess that this headboard is mostly made from decorative doormats. Make some chalkboard planters. Simply paint a terracotta pot with some chalkboard paint. Transform a basic table with a dip painted effect. A super easy way to turn a basic side table into something special. Turn a glass vase into a lamp. BEHOLD: the transformational powers of a hardware store lamp kit. Turn a wooden stump into a beautiful side table. If you can mange to procure a tree stump for free, this project will cost you nearly nothing. Sew a pintuck duvet cover. Build some industrial pipe curtain rods. The West Elm rods are meant to look like industrial piping, so why not cut out the middle man and make your own out of pipes themselves?

Sew some knotted felt pillows. Monogram your dish towels. For the cost of a single monogrammed dish towel, add your mark to a whole bunch of ‘em. Build a rectangular headboard.Several months ago I received an e-mail from a city resident who was getting bites at night that she thought were from a spider. Large, and itchy, but with a burning sensation that told her they weren’t mosquito bites. The problem escalated until she had over 40 red welts on her legs. “I was getting groups of about 5-20 ‘bites’ every night, and my husband had none, and he wore boxers! Also, after the first few nights, I was wearing heavy sweat pants to bed tucked into my socks, and still found marks! She cleaned and vacuumed everything in the bedroom and changed the sheets, but the next morning she still had a few bites. She then went on the internet, and found that this was NOT the work of a spider, but possibly bed bugs. They quarantined the bedroom after thoroughly cleaning and spraying everything with over-the-counter pesticides, but no evidence of ANY bugs was found.

She checked the sheets for blood spots, actual bugs – dead or alive, and shed skins, but found none. One pest company had given her a quote of $1200 to come and treat for bed bugs, but a second pest company suspected carpet beetles instead of bed bugs due to the fact that the wife was getting the ‘bites’ and the husband was not. Some people are allergic to carpet beetles and some are not, however, almost everyone has some allergy to bed bugs. The pest company arrived, and upon inspection, no bed bugs were found, however, a few dead carpet beetles were discovered. Just like bed bugs: 1.) carpet beetles are attracted to you when you are sleeping because of the CO2 gas you exhale, 2.) carpet beetles are very shy, so they are hard to find, and 3.) carpet beetles also usually come out in the wee hours of the morning. The difference is: bed bugs bite, but carpet beetles eat natural fibers, like wool blankets, natural fibers and feathers, and do not bite. She learned that they did not need to chemically treat for carpet beetles, as it isn’t the live insects that cause the allergy.

Carpet beetle larvae have prickly little hairs that cause a reaction in some people that looks very much like bed bug bites. The solution is to make sure all the allergens (the hairs) are removed from the environment. People with sensitivity to the hairs may get some relief by not wearing shoes or socks in the house. A build-up of static electricity can cause the micro fine hairs on the larvae to impale themselves in human skin, thus creating a small pin-prick-like wound. The ‘bite reaction’ under clothes is symptomatic of carpet beetles, as the hairs can pass though all but the finest of weaves on clothes. The treatment: she had her carpets steam cleaned. The moral to this story is: if you search for bed bug signs and find no traces, carpet beetles could be the pest, especially if you are getting a number of bites every night. Check the area (with a magnifying glass) for the shed larval skins remembering that even a single carpet beetle skin could result in multiple “bite like” reactions due to the number of hairs they carry.