The ultimate DIY hacks to take your home from summer to fall
It’s fall, which means colorful leaves and pumpkin-flavored everything.
DIY guru Brit Morin, the founder and CEO of Brit + Co, shared her favorite hacks on "Good Morning America" to transform your summer decor into some on-trend pieces for the fall. Read below for her hacks and to learn about how to make each project yourself.
It's officially fall, which means colorful leaves, windy days and pumpkin-flavored everything. It also means that it’s that awkward, in-between time, when the weather’s still warm and we haven’t quite packed away our summer decor. With all this in mind, I recently stopped by "Good Morning America" to show some of my favorite ways to repurpose classic summer essentials into fall-friendly goodies. Watch the segment below, then scroll on for details on each DIY!
1. Chai Ice Cubes
While we eagerly await the weather to get cold enough to justify a steaming hot chai tea latte, these chai ice cubes will do the trick. If you find it’s still too hot out to hop on the hot latte train, transform your chai tea into ice cubes instead. Make a strong batch of hot chai tea -- try 8 tea bags in 4 cups of boiling water -- then let it steep for 10 minutes. After the tea has cooled off a bit, add to your ice cube trays and freeze overnight. To serve, fill your glass with chai ice cubes, then top with your favorite kind of milk. As the ice cubes melt, the drink will get stronger.
2. Turn a pool noodle into a faux fall wreath
Yep, you read that correctly! Pool noodles are actually perfect wreath-making material. Make a circle by duct-taping the ends together -- you may need to trim the ends at an angle first -- and then wrap the noodle in thick ribbon. Use a hot glue gun to add faux flowers. And you're done!
3. Preserve summer garden flowers by drying them
Instead of letting your summer flowers wither away, try drying them for long-lasting indoor decor. Simply cut a bunch of flowers, trim the leaves, then tie them together with twine at the base. Hang the bunch upside down in a cool, dry indoor area for two to four weeks. Once they're completely dry, spray on a coat of aerosol hairspray -- this will prevent petals from falling off the bouquet. Voilà!
4. Too many leftover popsicles? Make Poptails.
Hands up if you've still got a freezer full of popsicles! I get it. Instead of tossing the tasty treats once the weather turns, transform them into poptails aka popsicle cocktails! This one is crazy easy. All you need to do is pour Prosecco into a wine glass, then add your popsicle to the drink. Use the popsicle stick as a stirrer and sip away. Here's another idea: Drop the popsicle -- sans stick, of course -- into a blender, add your favorite liquor. You've just made yourself a boozy slushie.
5. Use a pool floatie as a table at your next tailgate
I love the simplicity of this one! Put a pool floatie with edges onto a bench or table, fill the floatie with ice, then add your perishable dishes or cold drinks on top. That's it!
6. Make a seashell rain chain
I often find myself coming back from beach vacations with handfuls of seashells -- and nowhere to put them. Le sigh. So I came up with this simple and sweet DIY: Build a rain chain with the shells! Use rust-resistant wire to wrap the shells and attach them to a rust-resistant chain. Attach the chain to your rain gutter and the ground directly below. When the rain comes, water will travel down the rain chain out of the gutter. Now, every fall, I plan to add my summer's seashells to the chain. Neat, huh?
7. Create a dried-fruit wreath
Turns out, drying fruit is super simple to do at home. Create this live wreath with eucalyptus boughs, a wicker wreath frame and dried citrus slices. Simply slice grapefruit, oranges, lemons and/or blood oranges into wheels, then bake in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for three hours. When they're completely dry and cool to the touch, hot glue or wire wrap them onto your wreath.
8. Add seashells and sand to vases
Here's another use for those seashells from summer vacation: Add them to vases! Fill a tall vase with sand -- bonus points if this sand is also from your vacation -- and tuck seashells into the sides. Top the sand with a live air plant or a faux plant. There you go!