I turn $10 IKEA items into whimsy decor for my friends

Today, we're taking a trip to Ikea and picking out things that cost less than 10 euros to hack into Pinterest-worthy DIYs in order to add more personality to your space. Up first, we have the Grunew lamp. Somehow, I've never known the existence of this lamp until now, but it's a basic frosted glass lamp for only €7.99. I'm going to attempt to use some glass tiles to turn this into a cool bedside lamp. I got four different sheets of tiles, all in a blue-green colorway that will complement the wood tones in our bedroom. This is going to be a bedside lamp for my husband Pat and he ended up choosing the soft green colored tile which is no surprise if you've seen his office makeover. So one night I got really excited and started doing a test fit in the middle of my kitchen using a pair of scissors and some tape and guess what? One sheet of tile fits the entire lamp perfectly. Almost perfect actually. There is a small pot of glass here that can't be covered instead of cutting like a tiny piece of the towel which would be really difficult to do i'm thinking to cut and add some thin wooden trim here and this will also nicely tie in with all the wood in the bedroom as well okay we're finally ready to stick the towels onto the lamp i'm trying out this transparent mosaic glue for the first time i'm first adding a generous amount of glue to one surface and using a random plastic scraper that I already had to spread the glue evenly. This ended up working quite well because I could also peel off the glue from the plastic scraper once it dried out. Each side uses a sheet of 4x8 tiles and I'm aligning the tile to both the top and the left edge of the lamp in order to get a perfect fit all around the lamp. For the top, you can choose to leave it fully open or source a piece of acrylic with these dimensions. But since I do have access to a 3D printer at home, I'm going to 3D print a square using some transparent PETG and stick a sheet or 4x4 tile on it. This piece will just cap off the top and I'm not going to attach it permanently to the lamp because we want to still be able to access and change the bulb whenever needed. For grouting, I'm trying out this crystal grout that's from the same brand as the glue that I used. It comes with a little flat spoon that you can use to scoop the crystal grout and then fill in the spaces between the glass tiles. so according to this the instructions say to wait at least three to six hours for it to completely dry before you go in with a wet sponge do not listen to these instructions ignore them um i waited only one hour and the grout has completely hardened that going over with just a sponge doesn't like really do anything unless you like scrape incredibly hard so i ended up spending quite some time scraping off the excess grout, I would highly recommend going in with a wet sponge maybe just 15 to 20 minutes after the grout dries so that you don't have to go through the same pain as me. Last but not least, as I mentioned earlier, I'm cutting a 5mm piece of trim and then gluing the pieces to the bottom of the lamp. I'm also staining it the same colour as the headboard in our bedroom. For our second DIY, we are going into the bath accessories section to pick up the Hume Le Chon mirror. This mirror retails for $4.99 and I really like the fun, bulbous shape that it has. It also comes with a suction grip at the back that lets you stick into any glossy surface. This IKEA hack was actually requested by one of my friends who saw these adorable tomato mirrors done by minalu on instagram and of course i said yes and headed to the hardware store to pick up some red spray paint the mirror itself comes with a protective film but it doesn't fully cover the edge so before we spray the mirror i'm just adding some tape to protect the edge and cutting off the excess with a sharp blade i started out with a clear coat of plastic primer and let that dry for 30 minutes before spraying on the red color and finishing it with a matte Sealing spray. Priming and sealing is what's going to make the red paint last so be sure not to skip those steps For the tomato leaf, I thought about using felt But I didn't want to spend nine euros for a big pack of felt just to use a tiny amount So I decided to use some green yarn that I already had and we are going to make some pom-poms You can get these pom-pom makers at the craft store for like a dollar and they make it so much easier to make pom-poms simply line up the two halves of the pom pom maker like this and then wrap the yarn around one side until your desired thickness the thicker the yarn the fluffier the pom I wrapped it for around five rounds and then brought the yarn over to the other side and did the same then close the ring and you might need to give it a little squeeze in order to lock both ends use a sharp pair of scissors to cut along the gap to form the pom-pom finally using a separate strand of yarn, tie around the pom-pom and secure with a double knot. You might also need to give them a little trim to get that perfectly round shape. I decided to do a total of five pom-poms for our tomato and I'm attaching them with some hot glue. For our third and final Ikea hack, I'm picking up one of the iconic gusudare paper lamp. I'll be using the 45cm one that retails for $3.99 and customising it to look like these beautiful inspo pics. All you need for this DIY are some colourful tissue paper, crafting glue and a flat brush. I'm making this lamp for a sweet little girl named Lara, who loves the moon and the stars. Her room is filled with different shades of pink, so I'm leaning into that for our colour palette. At first, I tried to draw some star shapes but they all ended up too wonky for my liking so I printed out some outlines for me to easily trace onto the tissue paper and then just cut out the shapes using my pen knife. You can totally use a scissors as well, I just really prefer to use my cutter. I also gently erased any pencil lines later. For the moon, I first cut out the circular shape using a larger bowl then used another smaller bowl to create the crescent shape. The key here is to be extremely gentle since the tissue paper is so delicate. I think it took me about four to five tries before I got a perfect crescent without tearing the tissue paper. I found that the best way to stick the cutout is to first add some glue to the rough side of the tissue paper. Place it roughly where you want and then use more glue to stick down the edges. It also helps if you move the brush horizontally along the folds of the paper lamp. lamp. I think though the charm of this DIY comes from not overthinking the process and just placing the cutouts in a really abstract manner. I can also imagine that this would be a really fun activity to do with a group of friends or even your kids. Okay before hanging it in Lara's room, I wanted to make sure that the design looked good especially when lit up and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. For more IKEA content, you can click on this playlist on the right. If you would like to help keep this channel running and also become part of the Secret Vlogs Club, you can join as a channel member. But either way, thank you so much for watching and I'll catch you in the next one.