DIY Projects: Getting Creative and Making Stuff

This is not a drill.

Time for a bit of "show and tell". In this post I share some of my DIY projects and creative moments. 

I love to create, repurpose and upcycle things. My wife is cut from similar cloth, and together we embrace it. Our house is full of creative pieces and practical DIY projects. I suppose we are habitually built this way!

The purpose of this post is to throw out some ideas and get you thinking. The Internet is a fine place for creative inspiration, such as sites like Pinterest and Etsy. Creativity exists in us all, it just needs coercing out.

How To Get Creative

Many people claim they lack creativity, but I don't buy it. Dismissing your creativity, is falsely declaring you don't possess ideas. We all have ideas and we all see opportunity. Us creative types just act on it and follow it through. 

Dismissing your creativity, is falsely declaring you don't possess ideas. 

Ideas should not remain ideas, get them out and share with the world. I love a little DIY project, because it gets my mind working. I love the challenge of engineering something, and overcoming challenges.

Being creative is about fulfilling ideas to fix problems or bring joy. Creativity exists in us all, find it and unleash it. Focus on what you enjoy and how can these ideas be progressed creativity?

Perhaps you can refresh old ideas? Perhaps you can tailor a concept for a new audience? Maybe you can retrofit older ideas for mass appeal? Maybe a new trend is the basis for some creativity?

Being creative, starts with thinking creatively. For inspriation, I'll show you four DIY projects of my own. Some were practical, some were just fun!

1. The Flux Capacitor

In a flux, great scotts!

Fans of the movie 'Back To The Future' will be familiar with the flux capacitor. It was the fictional device that made time travel possible. This project was for show and I completed it within a week.

I built it from an old metal tin, some audio leads and a broken security light. I used some USB lights that were LED and sourced from Ebay, for the flashing effect. 

The USB function allows them to be plugged into a variety of power sources, your car, your phone-charger etc. Here I have used a phone charger pack, labelled as plutonium.

The transparent screen is just perspex from an old picture frame, cut to size. The red warning stickers were downloaded online, printed and stuck on with glue. 

I get a lot of compliments about my flux capacitor. Get out of town! You didn't know I did anything creative?

2. The Ukulele Lamp

A lightbulb moment

For years we had this lovely teacup lamp, until my kids knocked it from
the table. The exterior was smashed badly, but the light itself still worked. The upcycling challenge was on, so I started repurposing it.

The original concept was to build a guitar lamp, but guitars are huge. I decided on a ukulele design, because they are smaller and more practical for the project. Using a drill, I was able to thread the original lamp mechanism through the body of the instrument.

After some small adjustments, I secured it together and added a new lamp shade to finish it. The ukulele lamp was born!

3. Smart TV Cupboard

Smart TV, smart idea

Above our fridge was a big space, that had annoyed me for years. I decided to make the area functional, by building a cupboard and mounting a flat screen TV.

I used MDF to build the cupboard and painted it cream to match my kitchen units. A small flat screen TV was fitted to the outside, and I threaded and hid the wires behind.

I also fixed some hinges to the cupboard, enabling easy access to the storage space behind. The TV is smart enabled, so the kids can now watch NetFlix and Disney+ in the kitchen. There's nothing like Paw Patrol over porridge!

4. Shoe Rack and Cloakroom

I'll get my coat!

Our house has a porch and there was some space being unutilised. It seemed logical to create storage and make it functional. I began thinking about the area and how best to use it. It seemed practical to have a space for jackets, coats and shoes.

The first thing I did was fit a horizontal coat rack, for hanging jackets. I used a discarded curtain pole and cut it to size with a hacksaw. I bought some fittings to screw it into place.

After this, I installed some shoe racks underneath with general purpose wood. Refreshingly, it has made the space practical and useful. A simple but effective idea!

Final Thoughts

We are all capable of being and demonstrating creativity. Creativity means having ideas, but pro-actively seeing them through. 

Allow yourself to be creative, whatever the end goal is. Creativity does not have to solve a problem, it can purely be done for fun.

Not everyone is naturally creative, work hard to coerce it out, if that's you.