Easy out-of-the-box creative projects that you can be proud of

There is nothing more rewarding than doing a project that makes your home look amazing, and doing it all yourself. You can forever look at it and feel that warm glow of happiness, knowing that you made something special and nobody else. Of course, you can spend weeks, or months, on a project (matchstick titanic anyone?) but, you don’t need to. Some projects can be done in a couple of days, or even a couple of hours and still look like you are a pro.

Shelves

Everyone needs shelves in a home, and they can be simple or complex. Back in the day, we used to use boards and cinder blocks for shelves in college because it was cheap and easy. These days that same trick has become chic. Though you might paint the cinderblocks some different colors, the same rules apply. Think outside of the box. Speaking of the box, you can take a large wooden board and attach various sized boxes to it, and mount the whole thing on the wall and those boxes become shelves. You can pick up interesting boxes from many thrift stores, and done right, it becomes a work of art.

Lampshades

Lampshades are one of those things that people never think about, but can make a massive change to a room. You can even make whole lamps using stencil cutouts to throw unique images on the walls around the lamps. This is one of those areas that you can just go crazy with. You can just create it yourself, or pick up some old lamps at a garage sale and strip the fabric off the lampshade and use the frame to make something unique. Of course, use LED bulbs for the lamps to cut down on electric usage, and heat so you can get even more creative without worrying about fire. A lampshade made out of old negatives perhaps?

Pictures

There are so many ways to present pictures. You can just use a picture frame or an old window as a picture frame, or you can think outside of the box and create a hanging mobile of pictures which is very easy to do. You can scan your pictures and create a mosaic picture. A large picture of something, such as you and your loved one, but all made of tiny pictures that you scanned. There are services online for helping create this, just search photo mosaic creator.

Shoes

Shoes can be an amazing fashion accessory for men or women. Most women know that you can glue some rhinestones or other bits on a shoe and change it, but men can do this as well (ok, maybe not rhinestones). For example, you can take an old advertisement, print it out and transfer it to a white canvas shoe, and it will be completely unique. You can also use stencils on leather shoes for a unique look. There are special leather paints you can get. A top-level stencil and a bit of work and you can create some Astro Boy themed shoes, and you can’t get much cooler than that.

Craft shops

Craft stores are a great place to get lost in. You can wander around and imagine what you can do with everything you see. That is the key really, imagination. You can buy a cheap box from some big box store (see what we did there) and add some paint, or stencils, and suddenly a boring, cheap, wooden box can be something that you are proud to have on your shelf. Craft stores are great for opening up your eyes and mind.

Out of the box thinking just means that you are not thinking mainstream, and that is the essence of being a hipster. Not following the crowd just because everyone else does. Use your imagination, break some molds. Show people that you can take the mundane world around you and make it yours. Bend the world to your will, not let the world bend you to its will instead. The only box you limit yourself with is the one you make.