How To Fix a Hole in the Wall

How To Fix a Hole in the Wall

Let me start this post by saying I am, in no way, shape or form ,a professional or have any formal training on drywall. I'm just a girl who loves to build and fix things with a husband who thinks he can (and usually succeeds) in fixing anything. 

Our friends put a huge hole in their wall and didn't want to pay an outrages fee for their landlord to fix it, so we volunteered to help. It was an easy, fun fix.

supplies to buy

• Dry wall joint tape
• Dry wall screws 
• 1x1 scrap wood (we used studs)
• Med and fine grit sanding blocks 
• Quick set or premixed joint compound 
• Decent size piece of dry wall
• level

supplies I had on hand

• utility knife 
• paint scraper
• drill/charger 
• pencil
• hand saw
• bucket if you use the quick set we mix our selves 
• old blanket to lay on floor when painting
• tape measure

The Hole

We started by using a box cutter to cut the drywall into a rectangle and expose the studs. We used a level to make the cut straight. 

We sanded the edges really, really well. This was by far the most time consuming part of the repair.

We bought a sheet of drywall at the hardware store, and cut to the size of the rectangle we cut. We cut the drywall slightly on the large size, just so we didn't error on the side of too small. Then we sanded the wall and the new piece of drywall where needed until it was a good fit. 

Insert the new drywall in the hole, then use drywall screws to secure drywall to the studs. Try not to sink the screws. Apply joint tape over all the seems, we used a mesh a tape. 

 Spread the drywall joint compound over the patch tapering around the edges. 

Sand and reapply compound, sand again then paint! This is the finished patch minus the paint. 

I think it looks pretty good! Once painted the wall will look good as new.

It was a relatively inexpensive project. Supplies cost around $25, plus the new tools we bought just because we had an excuse. 

The following links are the resources I used to make sure we knew what we were doing. I hope you never end up with a hole in your wall, but if you do, you now know how to fix it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=K37G2j0K8BA&feature=endscreen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmm02R7FSYM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_t7C3BGS2Q 

DIY Tile Decoration

DIY Tile Decoration 

       I saw the neatest idea, used several different ways on Pintrest, where tile was used as a dry erase board. Through my own experiments, I found out that it doesn't have to be the super shiny tile it can be the slightly textured tile as well. I didn't try the super textured tile. 

      For me this project was a two for one win. I had been trying to find cheap ways to spruce up my bathrooms and I had been searching for way to neatly display the bible verses I was trying to memorize. 




-My supplies, minus some embroidery thread that matched the ribbon I had to add when I figured how hard it was to tie a bow. The tile was .77 a piece, the ribbon was like $2.50,  and I had everything else, so this project cost me under $5. 

-I started by deciding how long I wanted my ribbon, then cutting all three pieces. 

-I cut the ribbon in half, hot gluing the back corners of the tile.

-I then glued the ribbon together to form a point 

I added a bow to cover the overlap of ribbon and I really like the way it turned out. I had to figure out how to tie a bow. This was by far the hardest part for me, I don't tie bows very often. I Googled a bunch of websites, the one I used seems to no longer exist , but this blog has a pretty good step by step. 
http://www.undertheinkfluence.com/?p=275


-After I figured out how to make the ribbon work, this was maybe a 20 minute project, probably less. 

- I hot glued the bow to the point

-last I used my dry erase marker to write the verses I want to memorize 




-My bathroom mirror before. I hated how tacky it looked and how annoying it was when I cleaned. 

-My bathroom now

-They make me so happy to look at! I tried to include a little bit of the shower curtain in the picture so you could see why I chose the colors I did.