The Best West Elm Hacks That Will Change How You DIY
West Elm offers distinctive furniture and home goods that are sourced and manufactured with sustainability in mind. In addition to providing an extensive array of ready-to-go furnishings and accessories, the brand offers a rich selection of items that may become the centerpieces of your future DIY projects. For example, the elegantly made textiles found in West Elm throw blankets, tea towels, and placemats make them standout pieces in your home's decor. However, you might be surprised to find that they provide the ideal fabrics for your next DIY foray into reupholstering furniture or making custom window treatments.
Founded in 2002, West Elm is a member of the Williams Sonoma family of brands, along with Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma Home, Mark and Graham, and Rejuvenation. Rest assured that when you utilize the company's products for your DIY projects, you're supporting a business that takes social and environmental responsibilities seriously. Fox Business notes that West Elm supports thousands of workers and their families through employment in Fair Trade-certified factories. Additionally, many West Elm products are handmade by artisans and sourced from small businesses in the U.S. as well as craftspeople from around the world. The company offers products made from sustainably sourced materials and supports numerous environmental initiatives that are good for the planet.
Use West Elm key rewards to save on your DIY projects
Every DIYer understands the benefit of saving money while achieving stunning results on home decor projects. The West Elm key rewards program helps you exercise frugality without sacrificing quality. A key rewards Visa card from any of the Williams Sonoma brands delivers money-saving advantages on West Elm purchases. These include Pottery Barn, PB Kids, PB Teens, Williams Sonoma, Williams Sonoma Home, and Mark & Graham. The reciprocal program also means that you can get key rewards by using your West Elm card at any of those stores.
According to Best Cards, there's no annual fee for a West Elm key rewards card. With it, you receive 10 percent cash back in the first 30 days. After that, you receive 5 percent back on purchases from West Elm and all Williams Sonoma brands in stores and online. Additionally, the rewards program delivers 4 percent back on groceries and dining via $20.00 certificates. Extending the benefits, the card earns 1 percent back on all other purchases. While you're planning your DIY projects, keep in mind that the West Elm key rewards program includes free shipping on all items as well as special promotional financing on purchases valued at $750.00 or more.
Use gift cards from multiple stores to save on purchases at West Elm
If you're an avid DIYer, your friends and family probably know that stores in the Williams Sonoma family of brands are among your favorite retailers. Therefore, you might receive gift cards for those stores on special occasions. Did you know that you can use those cards for purchases at West Elm? According to Williams Sonoma, gift cards for Pottery Barn, PB Teen, Williams Sonoma Home, and Mark & Graham may be applied to purchases at West Elm. The gift cards work online as well as in stores.
It makes sense that Pottery Barn gift cards work at West Elm. Home of Cozy explains that these two retailers from the Williams Sonoma family offer similar furniture and home goods according to similar retail policies. However, West Elm is well-known for its superior attention to contemporary design. Their furniture and textile designs offer clean lines and a modern aesthetic that sets West Elm apart from other brands. If you want your next DIY project to present a slightly edgy and on-trend vibe, it might be wise to use your gift card from any Williams Sonoma brand at a West Elm store or online at its website.
Shallow baskets from West Elm make attractive wall art
West Elm offers a huge selection of baskets for storage and decor purposes. With multiple shapes, sizes, colors, and materials, the baskets fulfill countless purposes in the home. In particular, West Elm's millet baskets make attractive wall art. The set of three baskets features a large size with a 20-inch diameter, a medium size with a 16-inch diameter, and a small size with a 12-inch diameter. Each basket is only 0.5 inches deep, making them ideal for hanging on a wall. Handcrafted in Senegal and painted with subtle graphic shapes, these baskets lend texture and a natural vibe to your home.
After purchasing West Elm baskets, you'll want to experiment with a satisfactory arrangement for your wall. Boxwood and Spruce suggests tracing your baskets onto paper to make templates which you then attach to the wall with painter's tape. Reposition the templates on the wall until you find the ideal arrangement. Alternatively, Tantrums and Tools recommends hanging the first basket at eye level and then working your way outward, positioning the other baskets in relation to the first one. To hang a basket, you can weave a piece of thick thread or string through the edge and hang it from a tiny finishing nail. To avoid making holes in your wall, you can hang lightweight baskets via Command hooks or velcro adhesive strips.
Use a West Elm bookcase as a room divider
Bookcases provide useful storage options along with distinctive style for your home's interior. West Elm offers a wide array of choices in bookcases and shelving units. Some models feature open shelving where the displayed items may be viewed from all sides. Other options include shelves with a solid backing on one side. Additionally, the West Elm collection includes shelving units of varying heights, lengths, widths, and designs.
You might place a bookcase or shelving unit flush against a wall in your room's decor scheme, but it's not always desirable to use this type of positioning. Instead, you may want to place the piece perpendicular to a wall so that it extends out into the room and divides the space. Motif Motif suggests using bookcases in half-wall heights as room dividers. Additionally, tall, open shelving units function well to divide the space while allowing light to filter through the shelves. Note that it's important to attach the shelves to a wall via furniture straps or anti-tip wires. Another option is to fasten the shelves to the floor with L brackets and screws (via Central United States Earthquake Consortium). For safety, it's crucial to anchor a bookcase or shelving unit that is protruding out from a wall to serve as a room divider to prevent it from toppling over.
Transform West Elm placemats into window valances
Sometimes, a simple valance is exactly the right complement to add texture and color to a window frame. Did you know that you can use one of West Elm's placemat styles to fashion the ideal window valance? The placemats are available in a broad array of materials, fabrics, textures, and colors. Depending on the width of your window frame, you may need three or four placemats to fashion a valance in the right size.
This is a project that takes little or no sewing. Makely Home used hot glue for joining three placemats to span the top of a window. The valance was tied to a curtain rod with black ribbon threaded through the top of the three placemats. To create a different design, Beyond the Wood fashioned a valance by folding placemats over a curtain rod. For a cohesive design, you might decorate your kitchen with window valances made from placemats along with similar placemats on your dining table. Select complementary colors and designs from West Elm's collection.
Hang a West Elm rug as tapestry-like wall art
People have been hanging tapestries on their walls for millennia. The intricately woven textile pieces add texture, warmth, color, and shape to a room's interior design. Although West Elm rugs look fabulous on the floor, many of them function well as tapestry-like wall art. The chic abstract designs, gorgeous colors, and high-quality materials of West Elm rugs make them ideal for use as eye-catching wall decor.
Experts suggest several options for hanging a rug on your wall. Love Your Rug recommends hanging a rug with velcro strips. Start with a strip of muslin cloth and a strip of velcro loop tape that are long enough to span the width of the rug. Sew the velcro loop tape to the muslin and then sew the muslin strip to the back edge of the rug. Next, staple an equal-width strip of velcro hook tape to a straight piece of wood whose length matches the rug's width. Mount the wooden piece with the velcro hook tape on the wall, and hang the rug by attaching the velcro loop tape. Alternatively, you can hang a rug from a curtain rod via a sturdy cloth casing sewn to the back of the rug. An easy solution is to attach curtain clips or clamps that allow the rug to hang from the rod. Chairish notes that small rugs (approximately 2 feet by 3 feet) look best when they are encased in clear, acrylic frames for hanging on a wall. The acrylic frame protects the piece and provides added presence for a small rug.
Create a room divider with West Elm faux plants
In many interiors such as studio apartments and open-concept homes, the option of visually and physically dividing the space enhances the design. You can display a collection of houseplants in a grouping that divides a room without blocking the natural light from a window. In fact, the light filtering through the plants produces a lush ambience. If you don't have a green thumb or don't want to fuss with watering and fertilizing real plants, the faux plants from West Elm provide the ideal solution. Many of them include handsome pots, and the selection is huge. Choose from a large variety of plant types in numerous heights, widths, and shapes.
Of course, you'll need to decide how to display your faux plants to act as a room divider. Barbullianno Design suggests arranging the runners of trailing plants along the vertical pieces of a coat rack, shoe rack, or frame built from PVC pipe. This produces a screening effect. Decor United Kingdom recommends displaying potted plants on freestanding shelves to divide a space. For this purpose, West Elm offers many bushy, potted, faux plants in ideal sizes. On the other hand, it's easy to group several large, tree-like, faux plants in a row to act as a room divider. Alternatively, you can mix different sizes of faux plants from West Elm to create an artful arrangement. Use low plants for seating areas along with tall plants for screening.
Reupholster furniture with a West Elm throw blanket
Reupholstering furniture is a common DIY job. In fact, even DIY beginners can achieve striking results by simply recovering a chair or bench with a fabulous piece of fabric. If you're hunting for the ideal textile piece to complement your interior design, take a look at the gorgeous throw blankets at West Elm. The company offers an astounding variety of options in colors, textures, sizes, and materials. Many of these pieces are handwoven by artisans from around the world, adding to their unique value.
According to Savvy Apron, a simple, worn-out chair becomes the star of a bedroom makeover when it's covered with a faux fur throw blanket. Delicious and DIY achieved beautiful results by recovering a bench with a shag-like throw. A faux fur throw from West Elm can produce similar results for your next DIY project. On the other hand, you might want to select a throw blanket in linen, cotton, chenille, sherpa, or other fabrics. The West Elm collection of throw blankets represents a huge selection of fabrics to choose from.
Make DIY throw pillows from West Elm tea towels
Here's another simple DIY project that even a beginner can master. Select a tea towel that complements your interior design, and repurpose it as a throw pillow. West Elm offers a broad array of kitchen towels in linen, cotton, and organic cotton fabrics. They feature intriguing graphic prints and striking colors. It's easy to remake one of these tea towels as the covering of a throw pillow for your couch, bed, or chair. You don't need to own a sewing machine to accomplish this project.
To make a pillow, The Woodgrain Cottage explains that you simply fold the tea towel in half and sew the sides together, leaving a short opening in one side. Stuff polyester filling through the opening until the pillow is full and then sew the opening shut. If you don't want to sew, you can use double-sided, fusible tape to make the pillow. With heat applied from an iron, the fusible tape creates a permanent bond to secure the edges of the pillow.
Repurpose a West Elm laundry hamper as a table
West Elm curates a wide selection of handwoven laundry-hamper baskets made by artisans from around the world. Some of the hampers are handwoven from seagrass over a metal frame for added strength. Others are fashioned by artisans using water hyacinth over an iron frame. In some of the West Elm hampers, millet grass is the material of choice. These baskets feature one-of-a-kind designs, as the handmade process produces slight variations in the baskets. Although they function well as laundry hampers, you can use these large, beautiful baskets as the bases for side tables or coffee tables.
Liz Marie, creates a coffee table by simply turning two large baskets upside down and placing them next to each other. The bottoms of the baskets become the topsides of the coffee table, and decorative trays lend flat surfaces for displaying plants and curated objects. As an alternative, In My Own Style places a round, pre-cut piece of wood from a building supply store on the top of a large basket to create an attractive side table. Several of the West Elm laundry hamper styles feature woven handles for lifting the baskets. While remaking a hamper into a table, you can remove the handles with pruning snips or sharp, utility scissors.