Spend your lockdown time like a boss

Shristi Nangalia

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Coronavirus scare can be overwhelming. An easy way to get over the boredom due to prolonged lockdown is to take up painting and crafting. What better than producing things to decorate your house? Moreover, this will help your hyperactive kids to learn something new. Here are some engaging (and simple) DIY home décor crafting ideas:

Amp up the walls

Stick some painter’s tape on a discarded plywood piece to make a geometric pattern, colour the inner segments and remove the tape for a crisp and colourful final output. Fix a nail or screw at the back to hang the piece on wall or simply place it on any open shelf around your house.

Allow your child to write his/her favourite movie dialogue or an inspiring quote with acrylic or plastic paint. Next, help the child hang it over his/her bedroom wall to cherish.

Refurbish old mirror frames and photo frames by colouring these with a bold, accentuating colour.

You can get a little more artsy by applying string art, block printing and calligraphy to make one-of-a-kind wall décor panel, quoted frame, a name plate and more.

Refurbish your furniture

Give a facelift to your drawers, sideboards and chairs. Paint floral or geometric patterns over the exposed areas of the furniture. Else spray a bold or metallic colour on an old chair or coffee table.

Mould magic with macrame

Macrame is the art of tying knots with strings to make coarse laces, geometrical patterns and fringes. Learn simpler knots with the help of online tutorials and make decoratives like wall hangings, hanging plant holders, table runners, throws, etc.

Brighten up with hanging lamps

From around your home and garden, collect bamboo strips or GI wires, ropes, torn fabric, broken beads and feathers. You will need a strong glue or needle and thread to bring together a crafty handmade hanging lamp. Structure the frame of the shape you like and cover the same with patterned or printed or crochet fabric of your choice. Stitch the edges or use a strong glue to fasten the fabric over the frame. Embellish the lamp with beads, feathers, tassels, etc. Lastly, affix a pendant bulb inside to complete the setup.

Planters with boots, tyres

Look for broken or discarded teacups and mugs from your kitchen or store, paint these if you like and pot succulents or your favourite herbs in good potting soil from your garden. You can work it out as a mini-gardening lesson for your kids. Reward? Beautiful table and shelf décor of your taste.

Besides this, unused cans and ceramics, rejected shoes and bags, old tyres, broken crates and drums, etc. can act as pots for bigger plants. Make sure all the planters and pots you make have drain holes.

Expertspeak

“Give your plain walls a makeover and or even use the idea on furniture and lampshades. A brown book binding paper to make a stencil since it has plastic on one side.” — Preethi Prabhu, interior decorator and décor blogger.

“You can use an old OHP sheet, or a thick cardboard, or an old plastic tablemat and cut out shapes from it, to make your stencils. For your first project, use a very simple shape like a triangle or a circle. Add lovely motifs to the wall. You can use any acrylic paints, or left-over wall paints to paint over the stencils. It’s a good idea to practice on some newspaper first before painting on the wall.” — Sharon ColacoDSouza, décor consultant and stylist.

Papier mache

An easy DIY parents can do with their kids is papier mache. Soak bits of newspaper in water overnight and then mix fevicol to make a dough.

The mixture can be used to make masks, old plastic bin covers and small animal sculptures.

A lovely tepee

All you need is 5 long sticks — you can forage them from the garden, or you could just “borrow” the sticks off the adjustable height dusters in your home. You need 3 such sticks of approximately the same height, a whimsical colourful fabric — curtain/bed sheet and some rope. Just tie the sticks together using a clove hitch knot — you can look up the knot, or if you were a Girl Guide or a Boy Scout you probably already know. Once the sticks are tied together at the top, drape the curtain over it, and use a little rug on the floor inside. Let the kids set up their little space with their favourite books, or toy, and they are all set!

Furniture with feet

Collect old pairs of kiddy socks and stuff these toe to heal with fillers — old rags, or quilting batting, or anything you may have. Then just roll the socks up on the kids bed, study tables and chairs in their rooms, and watch them howl with laughter as their furniture now seems to have their own feet! Ideally, create this for one piece as a surprise for them, and when they get all excited, let them spend the morning creating feet for all the other furniture pieces!