Do you have a word of the year?

You know. A word that encompasses everything you hope and dream the new year to be.

Last year my word was MINDFUL.

This year? I’ve decided that my word is EASY.

Yep.

I don’t want complicated. I don’t want overthinking. I don’t want challenging.

I simply want easy.

So today? I’m going to show you all the ways I make things around the home easier.

After all we are friends, right? I mean, we talk almost every day and drink coffee together and talk about words and Venn diagrams and blinking and missing french fries and why I’m never going to be like Emily Gilmore.

And friends show the easiest way to do everything.

Here are my top 10 home decor hacks from 2021.

Number 10: How to line your curtains the easy way

Do NOT overthink your curtains.

Trust me.

This is so much easier. All you need is $6.77 and this post on how to line a curtain in the easiest and simplest and most inexpensive way

Number 9: How to make your own white pitchers the easy way

These pitchers didn’t always look like this.

Not even close. I think one of them started with a bear face.

Here’s the easiest way to make your own whiteware from thrift store finds.

Number 8:  The easy way to transform baskets

I saw these vintage baskets with numbers and wanted to recreate them.

This is such an easy hack to do with thrift store baskets.

See how to spray paint baskets here.

Number 7: The easy way to paint a plywood subfloor

See that floor with its giant checkerboard pattern that looks like it just rolled in from the country?

It’s just the plywood subfloor that we painted.

I know, right? I can hear you asking yourself—can you even do that?  

Can you actually paint the plywood floor?  Yes.  Yes, Virginia, you can.  It was one of the best flooring decisions we ever made.

Here’s how to paint a plywood subfloor.

Number 6: The easy way to restuff a couch cushion

If you have cushions that attach to the back of your couch and they start to slump?

No worries.

I have the FIX.

Here’s how to fix slumping couch cushions here.

Number 5: The easy way to transform curtain rods

If you have ever priced brass (or gold) curtain rods then you understand you might need to take out a loan for window treatments.

Gold curtain rods like these are so on trend right now.

But the price tag? YIKES. Whhhhhhhy gold curtain rod people? Why the cost? We have children to put through college.

So I bought these curtain rods in the scratch and dent section of the store and spray-painted them gold.

You can see them in the room here.

Number 4: Using drop cloths for curtains

And if you need something to hang on those spray-painted rods? Drop cloths aren’t just for painting anymore.

They are one of the simplest (and cheapest) ways to have floor to ceiling curtain panels in your home.

I’ve painted them and stenciled them and washed them and thought about bleaching them and hung them on short rods and hung them on long rods and sewed them and no-sewed them and decorated my house with them for over a decade.

Here are all the questions and the details and how I make my drop cloth curtains.

Number 3: The easy way to make anything look like metal

Did you know that you can make anything look like metal?

Anything.

All you need is this product and this home decor hack.

Number 2: The easy way to transform a builders grade door with paint

How do you transform a hollow core builder-grade door when you’re budget has already been spent on the ceiling and the floors and the walls and cute nail polish?

The answer?

Meet a door’s best friend—paint. Paint can help us pop out those panels and give the door visual interest and make it shine and look high-end and make the neighbors sit up and take notice and say, “That is some door.”

Here’s how we transformed this door from ordinary to amazing with paint.

Number 1: The easy way to turn paint sticks into a tabletop

This tabletop was pitiful.

It was covered with splattered paint and rings of where the spray paint can used to be and scratches and big chips in the veneer.  Wobbly and woebegone and just waiting for a make-over. Nothing is better than a before and after. 

Here’s how I used paint sticks to completely transform this tabletop.

Even if you never make a single one of these projects, I want you to leave today with this.

Decorating doesn’t have to be fancy.

Decorating doesn’t have to be expensive.

Decorating isn’t all about spending a fortune.

A beautiful home can be yours with a few home decor hacks, a little imagination, some old windows, some paint sticks, a few drop cloths and a little paint. 🙂

And now?

Here are some more great projects from some of my favorite friends

Robyns Frenchnest

Your Top Ten Home Decor Styling Tips of 2021

Happy Happy Nester

Top Recipe for 2021

My 100 Year Old Home

My Top Ten Table Setting Ideas in 2021

French Country Cottage

Top Entertaining Ideas and Table Settings 2021

Want to know how to decorate your home for free?
Click here to get my FIVE BEST secrets.