Furniture Hacks

Nowadays, it is easy to find affordable furniture for your home from chain stores, but those pieces can lack character. This is where furniture hacking comes in - updating, repurposing and personalising to create stylish, unique masterpieces. Here, Hester van Overbeek shows you 35 ways to update your home accessories, soft furnishings and even wooden furniture, all with step-by-step photos to guide you along the way.

Projects range from simpler ideas, such as a table made from stacked old magazines or a patchwork rug, created by sewing small inexpensive mats together, to ways to create larger pieces for a fraction of the price it would cost to buy them new. Discover how to make your own four-poster bed by combining a budget bed base and pieces of reclaimed wood, or convert a bookcase into a sideboard.

There are five chapters - Living Room, Kitchen and Dining Room, Bedroom, Home Office, and Outdoor Space - and each one includes an 'instant update' idea for beginner upcyclers, too. Why not paint cutlery handles with nail polish to update them, or make your own bedside light simply using a shelf support? Hester's philosophy is that you don't need much money or many DIY skills to make your house into a cosy, stylish home. With the right inspiration, you can create something beautiful.

About the Author

Hester van Overbeek is a make-up and hair artist and a passionate crafter, who has always had a keen interest in interior design, even when she was a child. When she moved to her current coastal home in Broadstairs, she took the opportunity to redecorate it and blog about her progress. Originally she featured these posts on her make-up blog, but it was so popular that in 2013 she created hestershandmadehome. where she could write about interiors and provide craft tutorials. The website has featured in 'Reloved', 'Ikea Magazine' and the Dutch magazine 'Libelle'.