My Former DIY Stylish Organizing Ideas And The Affordable (And Stylish) Options I Would Actually Buy Now

I’m neither terribly organized or adept at DIYing, and yet years ago I was the DIY contributor to Redbook. I had totally forgotten about it when Ryann found the above photo and we realized that most of these projects are actually still smart and good. PLUS now that it is years later I can tell you what I really think about them and give any tips and BTS insight that I couldn’t do for the magazine article.

First up, that DIY Entry Shoe Organizer (above). Now when we made this 7 years ago, there were no readymade shoe racks and now there are (I would likely just buy this in white). Sure, ours is prettier and more simple, but the wood we used was really slim and getting it to stay together with nails and glue was a challenge. It needs to be narrow so it holds the shoes, but not so narrow that you can only get ballet flats in there.

Also, DO NOT choose white painted wood, it got scuffed immediately (as did the walls, actually). It could be lacquer, but if you are going to DIY this, make sure that you use pretty sealed (matte) wood and make it slightly more special. Otherwise, just buy it. I also think that coat hooks like this could work for shoes and would look kinda cool. Here are some others on the market that I am pretty into:

1. Wall Mounted Shoes Organizer | 2. Esdella Shoes Rack | 3. Spine Wall Shelves | 4. Eden & Co. Rack | 5. Esdella Shoes Rack Organizer | 6. Step Up Large Shoe Shelf

How To Turn A Dresser Into A Kitchen Island 

This one cracked us up. We loved the idea of it, but all the bells and whistles cost like $300, which was hilarious for a ‘DIY kitchen cart’. So here’s the deal – IF you already have a dresser and you NEED a kitchen cart, this DIY is full of so many great ideas. But do not go out and buy that Ikea dresser and pimp it out like this (just buy a cute kitchen cart). The leather, those castors, the brass towel holder – it all added up and it definitely felt like ‘polishing a turd’ situation – putting so much money into a piece of furniture that can’t really handle too much wear and tear. Now if this were a vintage dresser, solid wood, then sure invest in making it look really pretty and unique, just don’t go buying this and invest too much money into it when there are good/already done kitchen carts out there. (BTW our job was to show ideas, rather than ‘you should do exactly this, but the magazine wanted things that could be sourced – aka that people could purchase if they wanted to’).

1. Black Rolling Cart | 2. Metal, Wood and Leather Bar Cart | 3. Mid-Century Bar Cart

DIY Wooden Dowel Coat Rack

This is cute and fun. I’d likely choose a different color palette now (or hell, just raw wood). It was dowels and rope, that’s it. It doesn’t have a large footprint for only holding 4 things and yes it can be easily knocked over. I actually bought this coat rack for the mountain house out of desperation because I needed it the next day and I really like it. No matter what coat rack you choose, it will be covered in garbage quickly if you actually use it, so keep that in mind. But for a cute project I’m still into that DIY we did.

1. SONGMICS Coat Rack Stand | 2. Devon Coat Rack | 3. Porch and Den Suede Metal Coat Rack | 4. Topline Hat & Coat Rack | 5. Toby Coat Rack | 6. Levy Coat Rack

DIY Garment Rack

Ok, this one was a stretch, but here goes. IF you have leftover ladders then this is clever and fun (and there are tons of ways to customize it). Or heck if you find a couple of vintage wood ladders at a thrift store then consider this. What I like about it rather than a store-bought is A. you are using what you already have’ and B. you can customize it a lot with paint colors and additional hooks. Plus, it’s unique. But it was a lot of work for a product that sure, you can buy readymade. Here are the ones that we love:

1. Foldable Bamboo Clothes Rack | 2. Cameron Clothing Rack | 3. Single Rail Bamboo Garment Rack

DIY Jewelry Block 

These jewelry blocks went VIRAL you guys. It was the early days of Pinterest and people freaked out about them. I even had an Etsy designer reach out and ask if they could make them and sell them. Since I wasn’t selling them (I said ‘yah go for it’ because I’m the worst business person ever). They are totally cute, but this year I needed a necklace organizer but didn’t want to make one and I bought this one off Etsy and love it. Here are a few more that are similar and affordable:

1. Y&Me Jewelry Organizer | 2. Wood Earring Display | 3. Stained Glass Mirror Jewelry Hanging Organizer | 4. Modern Home Jewelry Organizer | 5. Wall-Mounted Accessory Holder | 6. Graham Jewelry Organizer

DIY Office Wall Pockets

Those wall pockets are actually really cute if you want to be able to really customize colors and words. We used alphabet stickers and tape and just spray painted them, then peeled off the wall pockets. You could do stripes or any other pattern, too.

1. Pocket Wall Organizer | 2. Leather Hanging File Organizer | 3. Gold Wire Adjustable Wall Organizer | 4. Wall Mount File Holder | 5. Slate Blue Wall Pocket | 6. Brown Faux Leather Grayson File Holder

As I’ve said before, a part of “my new year, old me” mantra is to do more DIY’s because I forgot how much fun I had doing these. Are there any DIYs you are curious about that you want us to try? Do you guys remember any of these/have you tried them? If so I would love to see photos 🙂 I hope you have a great weekend and do let us know if you plan on trying any of these. xx