The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

This week, I’m leaving you in the capable hands of a special guest blogger – Centsational Girl, aka Kate. If you haven’t already come across Kate’s Blog , this is where she shares her incredible talent for budget friendly DIYs and revamping old items on a shoestring. In her own words, Kate is “a simple gal with a simple dream:  transforming the drab into the fab with an arsenal of paintbrushes, primer and power tools. I’m in pursuit of diamond style on a dime, and I refuse to believe quality must always be expensive.” That’s our kind of thinking!

Kate will be sharing a wonderfully inventive tutorial with us this week, in which she turns a rickety old headboard into a beautiful, and practical, coat rack. Over to you Kate.

Cat x

Headboard turned Coat rack

You will need [as well as the old headboard]:

sandpaper
wood filler (optional)
saw
primer
paint
a second, contrasting paint colour
an old cloth
hooks
D rings x2
screwdriver

A little while ago, I bought a spindly old-fashioned twin headboard at the local thrift store with every intention of turning it into a bench.  I’d seen the idea traveling around on some blogs, and loved it.

After some thought, I decided I had less use for a bench, and greater use for a coat rack in my guest space.  I had a bare wall, so why not fashion the headboard into a rack for scarves, sweaters, jackets, robes, or hats for my guests ?   You may recall, I’ve done this before, turning a footboard into a message centre with some white and chalkboard paint.

So I decided to do it again, but this time with a headboard.  I also used a different paint technique to give my coat rack an antiquated look.  Now, the twin headboard has been transformed into an architecturally decorative piece, providing both form and function.

Follow along and I’ll show how I turned this:

Into this:

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Well this weekend was absolutely glorious, as predicted. That was good news for be because I’d been planning a BBQ to celebrate my friend Audrey’s birthday. I wanted to create atmosphere with candles but was worried about the wind blowing them out. The perfect solution? Use old jars to make hanging lantern tea light holders. Hang them in a tree for a particularly whimsical effect.

You will need

Glass jars – jam jars would do, the main thing is that the jars need a rim, and the neck needs to be wide enough to fit a candle in.
Wire
Wire cutters
Bottle nosed pliers
Candles

Step 1 Cut a length of wire about 40cm long. Use the bottle nosed pliers to create a small loop in the wire about a third of the way along its length.

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Remember last week I was on a bit of a mission to brighten things up? Well I ended up getting a bit carried away, and after finishing the mirror I started to think of other things to do with the paint I have leftover from painting my flat.

In the end, I collected up a bunch of spare glassware, including bottle and glasses, and decided to give them a lick of paint on the inside. I was quite surprised by the results. If you use a similar palette for the different containers, and try to use glassware with different textures on the outside, the result is a set which is matching in tone but varied in texture. Which – I think – looks pretty effective. Also, using matt paint looks great because when you paint the inside, the glossiness of the glass really shows, which makes for another interesting contrast.

Try to use paint that isn’t too thick – although it needs to be thick enough to ‘stick’ to the glass.  I just used leftover wall paint and samples. You’ll need to get creative when getting the paint to cover awkwardly shaped bottles. I had to swirl, shake and swivel the bottles until, eventually, they were coated thoroughly. A paintbrush can help, but the only tool you really need is patience!

You will need

Old glassware – cleaned and dried thoroughly
Paint in complementary shades
Old newspaper
Paintbrushes [optional]

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Maybe it’s the onset of summer, but I just have an urge at the moment for everything to be fresh, white and bright. I’ve decided to take action on my flat, and it’s a double-pronged attack. First of all, it’s high time for a clearout, and I can barely contain my excitement at the fact that car boot season has arrived.

Anyone who thinks car boot sales are full of old tat and knock-off beauty products, well you’re half right. But if you tackle it the right way, a car boot can be a fantastic way to get rid of unwanted junk, make a few bob, and [most importantly], pick up a bargain that you can reupholster/paint/take apart and put back together again to become a beauty to behold. Watch out for some car boot transformation DIYs in the weeks to come. In the mean time, I was just preparing my car booty when I came across this old pine mirror I’ve had since I was about twelve. It’s nothing special, and I really don’t like plain pine much at all, but instead of giving it the car boot treatment quite yet, I thought I’d give it a face-lift first to give it that lighter, more organic feel I’ve been craving recently.

If you’ve ever wondered how to give wooden furniture that ‘distressed’ look- you know, like it might have just washed up on the shore- here’s how. There are lots of different ways to do it, but this is the way I think is the easiest and most effective. All it takes is a bit of Vaseline and some sand paper. Trust me.

You will need:

Old mirror/picture frame [or other furniture]
Paint – one colour for your outer coat, and one which will be the ‘peek-through’ colour
Primer, if you aren’t using wood paint
Newspaper
Paintbrush
Sandpaper
Vaseline
Masking Tape
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I was inspired for this week’s DIY tutorial by something I saw in a shop in Belgium. It’s another one of those stupidly simple ideas that make you think “why hadn’t I thought of that before?” This is part one of two DIYs I have prepared revealing clever things to do with spare picture frames, and in this first instalment I’ve used a plain picture frame (Ps: Habitat are having a 20% off sale on picture frames at the moment) and turned it into a summery tray. I was hoping to use it to carry my bits and pieces into the garden for a spot of sunbathing and postcard writing this bank holiday weekend, but as it’s so wet and miserable outside I’ve had to make do with the sofa instead!

You will need:

A picture frame [the wider the rim of the frame the better, and a Perspex cover is better than glass]
2 drawer handles [check they aren’t wider than your frame rim]
Screws [see Step 2 below for details of the length you need]
A drill
Ruler
Pencil
Tea towel/picture[s]
Needle and thread [optional]
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