Great DIY Projects that You Can Do in Your Home

Sometimes you may have to look into another culture for some new ideas. Take a look at these great DIY projects that come from all around the globe.

More Americans than ever are traveling to other parts of the world and that’s a great thing!

There’s no force as powerful as travel when it comes to fostering understanding between cultures. The more of us that get out and traverse the globe, the closer we will inch towards world peace.

When you take your first trip abroad, in addition to enjoying meaningful cultural exchanges, you’re also going to come across some pretty great DIY projects that you’ve never seen before. The creativity that we’ve witnessed on the DIY spectrum while on the road has inspired this post, so, without further adieu, here are 8 international creative projects that you might want to replicate at home!

1. Light Up Map

One of our team members saw this DIY project in a Singapore hostel. Buy a large world map that you can hang on your wall. Once it’s hung, punch holes through each continent and put a Christmas light through the holes.

When you travel to a new continent, tighten that light bulb so it glows.

This fun DIY project lets you illuminate all of the great places you’ve visited!

2. Suitcase Dog Bed

This great DIY project pick comes to us from Amsterdam. If you have a small dog and an old suitcase, add padding to the suitcase where you’d normally put clothes. Then, top the padding off with a decorative cushion that fits just snugly enough inside of the case that you can close it.

Just like that, you’ll have a portable dog bed that will look great propped open in your room and will turn heads on the road.

3. Stone Placemats

In a lot of countries throughout South America, you’ll notice placemats and coasters that are made out of stones. Replicating these natural, sheik mats is as easy as buying a clear, plastic placemat and gluing flat stones onto it.

If you don’t have a river nearby where you can find flat stones, here’s a pro tip: When your gutters are clogged, clear them out and filter through what you find to see if you turn up any stones. Sometimes, birds will pull smooth stones from bodies of water to build their nests and drop them on roofs. Rainwater then sweeps those stones into gutters.

4. Stone Garden Labels

Do you have a garden that’s growing different plant species? If you do, a fun way to label them is to get large stones, spray paint them fun colors and label each stone “cucumber” “tomato”, etc.

Place each stone in front of the correct plant species that you’re growing so you never forget what’s going to be popping up in your garden again!

5. Nail Polish Coded Keys

In Budapest, a number of hostels have keys that are labeled by color that get handed out to guests. The way that hostel owners color-code their keys is by taking different colors of nail polish and stenciling on perfect circles in the area where you’d hold the key while turning it.

If you have a bunch of keys that look the same, color-coding them with nail polish is as easy as getting a piece of paper, cutting out a small circle to use it as a stencil and polishing over it with your key sitting in the opening.

6. Homemade Lip Balm

Every craft/farmers market that you visit in Europe seems to be selling a variety of private label lip balms. Some of our team members have picked these balms up and swear by them. That got us curious to know how homemade lip balm is made.

While every lip balm is different, mixing beeswax pellets with essential oil, coconut oil, honey and Shea butter is a recipe for success!

7. Jewelry Hangers

All of us use clothes hangers to hang our clothes. In marketplaces in Bali, they use clothes hangers to hang their jewelry!

If you like the idea of showcasing your jewelry as opposed to letting it rot away in a little box sitting on your dresser, grab a wooden hanger and drill small holes along its surface. Once you’re done drilling, glue pegs in the holes (which you can pick up from any crafts store) and hang your favorite rings, necklaces, and bracelets off of them!

8. Shoe Holder Planter

Have you ever seen those shoe holders that you hang on the inside of your closet door where each of your shoes go into plastic slips? In Berlin, we’ve seen shop owners ditch the shoes and fill each of those plastic slots with potting soil. They then grow a different flower in each one.

This great DIY projects idea would look absolutely fabulous hanging on the outside of your patio door. You could even hang one of these creative fixtures in your greenhouse if you’re lucky enough to have one.

Note that you don’t have to grow flowers in your shoe holder planter. Many vegetable varietals can be grown as well!

Great DIY Projects Are Meant to Be Made

You could lose yourself reading about great DIY projects all day online. Our challenge to you is to stop reading and to start doing!

Inspiration is only good if you let it fuel you to do wonderfully creative things. So, take any one of the ideas that we’ve just hit you with, head to your local crafts store and start building!

Not inspired yet? No problem! Our team publishes a ton of content covering just about everything on the DIY spectrum. If you’re looking for more fun ideas, head back to the blog directory section right here on our website and check our additional content!