Influencers are all over our social media feeds, and some accounts have been consistently inspiring us to turn our homes into true representations of ourselves. This April 23rd is known as International Creators Day, so we want to give a shout-out to the influencers out there making good design accessible to the public, no matter the socioeconomic status or personal style.
Whether it is finding furniture out in the streets or researching Facebook Marketplace for hours on end until stumbling upon that designer furniture piece you’ve been romanticising for years on Pinterest, some DIY accounts show you that no furniture is too beat up to still make a statement.
Short video formats have revolutionised the way we look at content sharing, and there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a destroyed cabinet come back to life with a bit of love, a sander, and a warm-coloured toner.
Upcycling is not only great for the environment as it helps break down the cycle of consumerism but also helps give stuff a personal touch, making it more probable that one will stick to that one piece for longer. Yes, getting new decor items or furniture pieces is fun, and there is a lot of great stuff being sold out there, but there’s something special about leaving your mark and creating something you love with your own sweat and laughs.
With so many different influencers out there working their magic and sharing it with the world, it’s hard to choose a few—we love them all. However, we decided to put together six accounts that share their design journeys, either while decorating their homes or giving new life to old furniture and objects.
Nick Laciok (@nicklaciok)
Nick Laciok shares his home and projects on Instagram with an almost palpable passion. This influencer shows the audience how to ride the waves of inspiration while also leaving fears behind as he turns his home into his perfect little space.
Colours, art, flowers, and a gorgeous green couch are constant participants in Nick’s posts, joined by a constant influx of DIY videos where the designer can be seen creating tabletops from scraps of wood lying around or just re-transforming his home decor.
Vintage items seem to be a big part of Nick’s taste, showing that this designer believes that every piece has the chance to take on new ventures and that the old can be paired up with more modern stuff.
Lena Carola Werner (@allthepeachesplease)
Lena Carola Werner, or LC for short, is a furniture designer who loves to share her unique pieces with her audience. Not only are the beautiful results plastered all over her feed, but so is the entire process taken to achieve the result.
Side tables, mirrors, rusty chairs, vintage furniture—she does it all. As a furniture designer, she knows how to tackle different types of materials to bend them to her will, and she actively shares her knowledge with her audience. Some of the projects that require a bit more work are those where LC starts from zero and creates her custom pieces: turning plexiglass into side tables, creating shelves out of chrome, and carving glass holders from aluminium.
LC’s content isn’t shy of edgy and shows people that creativity has no bounds. Yes, perhaps you’ll need some tools to finish some of the projects, but anything is possible if you put your mind to it as you only need a bit of creativity to then watch it all come together.
Maisie Violet Rees (@maisieviolet_rees)
Maisie Violet Rees is a British designer who shares her work on Instagram, doing everything from design workshops to flipping furniture—all with a fun, eclectic energy to it. Maisie also shares the location of the charity shops in her region, promoting donations so that someone can give a new life to your old objects.
She’s mostly known for her collage projects, her maximalist and extra eclectic style, and her renovation of a vintage IKEA bench, which now has a giant mouth plastered on it—fun and unique. Shapes are mixed with colours and photographs, resulting in some of the most iconic pieces one can create, all thanks to the art of collage and good visual composition.
Perhaps not for everyone, Maisie rules with her confidence and personal taste, giving her audience the courage to try stuff out because, in the end, what matters is that you live in a space that makes you live life as your truest self.
Chris (@lappartneyap)
Chris shares his French apartment and unique vision with the world through social media, showing a home full of art, mirror balls, and custom-made pieces. Whimsical and suave, this influencer slowly crafts the necessary decor pieces to create a space that allows him to live his best life.
Heading over to his Instagram feed, one gets instantly hooked. Picture frames with cute little flowers all around, clay bowls, Lego flowers, and clay lamps make it hard not to get inspired and go straight to the closest store to buy all the necessary materials.
Even if DIY is only a small part of your home’s interior design, which isn’t a big deal since, in the end, you only have to do what you’re comfortable with, this page can get you inspired to start tackling small projects. We get it, not everyone has the DIY gift, but how cool are the disco balls on Chris’ walls?
Lauren (@laurenshandmadehome)
Lauren’s page is a vintage lover’s dream. This influencer shares her journey of decorating her family home with her audience, showing the process of renovating old wooden pieces and creating new furniture from scratch.
Lauren has many series where we can admire her work on her kid’s bedrooms, which end up looking like rooms worthy of a movie set. From a library bedroom to closet renovations, her series shows how wholesome working with wood is and how vintage furniture can still have a lot of charm. It seems like Lauren’s favourite hobby is purchasing vintage wood furniture and restoring every little centimetre, sometimes giving them a whole new design and others just stripping them back to their original glory.
Her videos are addictive and can get you hooked, so thread lightly if you fear getting too inspired and end up renovating all of the pretty wardrobes and mirrors you see hanging around in antique fairs and on Facebook Marketplace.
Geneva Vanderzeil (@genevavanderzeil)
Geneva Vanderzeil is a pretty well-known DIYer, upcycler, and renovator who inspires her audience to embrace the magic of creativity and always think outside the box. Her dollhouse renovation videos go wild on social media, as everyone can’t help but feel the sweet taste of nostalgia when she applies miniature flower wallpapers next to miniature wooden sets of furniture.
Apart from the gorgeous dollhouses, Geneva seems to live in a world where you can do whatever you want, no matter how hard or impossible it seems. One example of this is when she created a set of glasses out of thick bottles—difficult indeed, but oh so cool. Custom bookcases, beaded bags, fun-shaped mirrors, lamps made out of plastic bottles, you name it, she has done it.
Showing how simple it is to give everyday objects a new life is Geneva’s mission, and her audience seems to be constantly inspired since most of the comments left on her posts show an intense desire to tackle the designer’s DIY projects. If being an influencer has ever been a wholesome and positive thing, then Geneva’s platform is a great example of how simply sharing your passion with others can lead to a revolution of at-home creativity.