Homeowners Who Really, Really Messed Up Their DIY Projects
There's nothing like the satisfaction of finishing up a project and standing back to admire your handiwork. And it's even better if you've saved yourself a good chunk of change by doing the task on your own instead of hiring a pricey professional.
That is not a feeling that the people in this gallery have ever experienced. No, these unfortunate souls took on projects that were just too far out of their skill set. While you might feel bad for these folks, there's really no harm in laughing at the hilarious photos of their project fails. So sit back and enjoy!
Bathroom And Bedroom In One
Who needs a separate bathroom and bedroom when you can save space and put them in the same room? And before you ask, no, this is not an apartment in New York, though this probably does exist in some shoebox-sized apartment there.
Realtors want you to remember that not every bathroom adds value to a house, especially when it's directly beside to the bed and is only separated by a curtain.
The Space Saver
Ok, this is a cool trick, but what do you do when your toilet isn't working and you have to take apart a counter just to take a look? If you have a smaller home you want to save space wherever you can, but you also have to be able to actually use all of your appliances.
There's a reason your super cool inventive idea hasn't been done before on HGTV... cause it doesn't work.
Flawless Installation
This leads to way more questions than answers. Why is it so large? Why is there so much duct tape on it? Why is it installed directly over someone's bed leaving absolutely no room for them to actually sleep?
Whoever installed this one definitely got yelled at afterwards. Maybe some student came home from college for a break to find their parents had done a bit of renovation, or someone's husband was trying to help and made it a lot worse.
Feeling Tired? Have A Seat!
Are you tired of never having enough seating for your guests? You want to be able to throw backyard barbecues but you're feeling deflated since they always fall flat because everyone has to stand the whole time. Well, now you don't have to worry thanks to these handy tire chairs!
Here's the thing though: tires are expensive. It would probably be cheaper to go to IKEA and buy new patio furniture. Then you just need to struggle with the assembly.
Chlorinated Contraption
This contraption is the reason the phrase "an accident waiting to happen" exists. There is no situation where this will end well for whoever uses this slide.
Also, is this a temporary solution or are we keeping the slide there forever? You know some husband built this for himself and his kids while his wife was at work and when she comes home this new addition to the pool is going to seriously make her rethink her life choices.
Flip The Switch
You know on those older TVs when the buttons slowly start to sink into the TV after being pushed too many times? This completely solves that issue and definitely doesn't create any others.
Kudos to whatever house of young adults came up with this solution when they couldn't afford a new TV, they even taped up the extra slack on the cord to keep it neat! We're still concerned though, because of, you know, safety.
You Had One Job
Reddit user iRedditAlreadyyy shared this photo and an explanation. He tried to Macgyver a light bulb changing stick using a mop, a rubber glove, and tape. Unfortunately, the lightbulb got stuck in the socket and now he has a new chandelier in the hallway.
We've all been there, right? Well, not this exact situation. But we've all tried to save a bit of money and had it wildly backfire on us, so let's give the man a break... after you crack a few jokes.
Instagram Vs. Reality
Sometimes you just want to spice up your life with a little new furniture, or spruce up what you already have by adding some fun new fabric to those old chairs! Unfortunately, that doesn't always work out. Your Sunday afternoon craft turned into a Sunday afternoon panic instead.
Hopefully, they learned their lesson with this first try because it looks like they were trying to tackle the chairs in the background too.
'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas
What started out as a fun wintery take on a Christmas tree turned into something that will haunt you forever.
Imagine going into the kitchen late at night to grab a snack or a glass of water, turn around and that is there staring at you. This would certainly keep your kids from sneaking down to peek at their presents on Christmas morning, because they won't want to go anywhere near it. Who can blame them either?
Planting Seeds Of Doubt
People need to stop trying to make wreaths happen. Especially wreaths made out of things that were never meant to be hung on a front door, like socks or potted plants.
The reality of this wreath is that hanging heavy terracotta planters filled with plants and dirt is a bad idea all around. Do you have to water the plants? Are you going to end up being the weird neighbour who stands out front and waters her front door every day?
Feature Island
It's hard to say what exactly happened here. Maybe someone ordered the wrong product? Maybe the read the measurements in inches but thought it meant feet? Maybe they were trying to make a podium, not an island. It could make for a great cake stand or laptop desk in the middle of the kitchen...
At least it would make for a good conversation piece? And your wife could bring it up in every argument ever. "Your only job was to build an island and you couldn't even handle that, how could I expect you to handle raising our child?"
Mini BBQ Drop
Advice from Twitter user @LoebOttomi: "Never set a mini BBQ on a glass patio table, apparently heat can travel downwards. Who knew?!"
Imagine the noise that must've made. You're just trying to grill up some hot dogs on a nice summer day for you and your guests, you set the mini BBQ on the table which seems like a clear logical choice, and then all of a sudden it shatters. Guess it's time to head over to Costco for a new table and a new BBQ.
Makeshift Gear Shift
Your stick shift breaks, you don't have time or money to go get it fixed, so what do you do? You shift gears and adapt and work with what you have on hand.
The real question is how long did someone function with their car like this before they went to get it fixed, and what did the mechanic say when they saw it? It's also possible this person just scrapped the car rather than deal with the shame of showing this to a professional.
Stairway To Nowhere
One Twitter user shared this photo with the caption "it looked different in my head" but it's really hard to envision where she was going with this one.
Did there use to be a door there or some sort of passage that has since been removed or covered up without the Twitter user's knowledge? Does she have a secret entrance to Narnia that we can't see? We have questions, and no answers have been provided.
Clash Of The Counters
This is technically still a perfectly functioning kitchen. Well maybe not perfect. But it's functioning!
You just can't open both drawers at a time, which most people don't do anyways. You also can't quite open them all the way so you have to make sure you only place things at the front of the door. Also, don't close the drawer too quick or everything will slide to the back and be gone forever. On second thought, change the handle placement.
In Too Deep
It's a slippery slope okay? It only starts with one piece, then suddenly you need a second and a third. Now you have a dozen pieces of duct tape keeping your toilet together and you're too embarrassed to have to show that to any plumber or repairman, so you just live with it.
Would you feel safe using this toilet? Some of the guests coming over to this house probably decide to just hold it until later, rather than use this contraption.
Did You Buy It Like This?
When your tile starts to melt and crumble away, you know you have a problem. It's really hard to tell if this even started out looking nice, or maybe this was the finished product, to begin with.
Based on the grout along the windowsill it looks to be an old kitchen whose been severely mistreated in her old age, but this clearly wasn't that good of a tile job from the start.
IKEA Meltdown
IKEA. The bane of everyone's existent. People who can successfully assemble anything from IKEA without some sort of breakdown are superhuman and should be feared.
One Reddit user shared this photo of their cousin who curled into the fetal position in shame while trying to build this IKEA chair, and honestly, we've all been there. The best way to build IKEA furniture is to not. Convince someone else to do it for you, or buy it from a store that comes pre-assembled.
Bathroom Hack
Who needs a faucet when you could reduce, reuse, recycle? This particular project definitely feels like something that would be found in a frat house, and the residents would be very proud of themselves for their craft solution.
Plumbing seems to be one of those things that everyone thinks they can fix themselves, while simultaneously being one of the major things that no one should attempt to fix themselves unless they actually know what they're doing.
The Baby Gazelle Of Tables
This table looks like one of those projects that your son made in a sophomore woodshop class as a present to you for Father's Day and now you have to find a place to put it without offending him.
In reality, a woman posted this picture on Twitter labeled as "My DIY fail!!" so at least she understands that it wasn't her best work. Another Twitter user suggested it could do very well as a table for uneven ground, but shockingly, the woman had wanted to use it inside on a flat surface.
Projection Problems
This handy projector placement adds an air of mystery to any slideshow presentation. You don't know what the answer to that math problem is? Well, you're going to have to figure it out because it's blocked.
You can't remember what year the War of 1812 was? Well, it's a secret, you should've paid better attention. The worst part of this one is that it probably was a professional who installed this one...
You Tried Your Best...
Despite what Pinterest may have convinced you of, cake decorating is actually difficult and if you're looking to have a beautiful cake to impress someone on their birthday, consider paying a professional.
That way you don't terrify your daughter and all her friends when her Elsa cake turns out looking like it rose from the dead and you don't offend your mom by giving her a completely hideous cake that makes her question why she ever had kids.
The Handy Dandy Mid-Step Charger
A nice little mid-step outlet for when you're going upstairs and your phone dies midway. Now you can stop and charge it without having to go the rest of the way upstairs or downstairs to all those faraway outlets.
The important question is what came first? The outlet or the stairs? And you know when someone installed this they thought it was such a good idea. The one thing this could come in handy for is if you wanted to put Christmas lights on your stairs, so it's not a terrible idea.
New-And-Improved Ceiling Fan
Why spend your money on a fancy ceiling fan when you could just hang a giant box fan precariously from your roof? This is clearly the better option. Whoever did this was resourceful and they know how to use what's around them rather than waste their money on a ceiling fan from Lowe's.
And there's also no possible risks with this setup. There's clearly no fall risk or damage done to the ceiling. This is an all-around great solution.
For The Thrill-Seekers
A pro tip for all the daredevils in the audience who like to live life on the edge — add a cement step in front of your garage for an added thrill.
A nice way to start your day is by dropping off the edge and scraping the bottom of your car - the noise will wake you up for sure. And then you get the added excitement when you get home because you get to speed up and jump the curb! No downsides.
Taking A Half Bathroom To A New Level
This half bathroom should just be called a multi-tasking bathroom. You can wash your feet and take a shower while going to the bathroom. And for added privacy, you can just slide the door shut.
This is another one of those bright ideas that seemed great in theory but in execution, its flaws seem to be glaring. Again, there's a reason no designers have executed this on Extreme Makeover or Love It or List It.
Don't Cut Any Corners, Or Counters
Your wife has always talked about how she wanted a double vanity because she doesn't want to share a sink with you anymore, having two sinks makes the bathroom feel more luxurious, etc.
So you decide for her birthday you're going to surprise her by doing a quick little home reno but you forget one key aspect: you need two sinks, otherwise, you're going to end up with two floating corner counters, a sink in the middle and a one way ticket to sleeping on the sofa...
A Not-So-Private Suite
This is taking open concept living to a whole new level. You really need to love your partner or roommate because you're going to get to know them real quick. Even if you toss up a curtain or something to cover the section, it's not the same.
Also, imagine how humid that room must be. You take one hot shower and you'll never be able to get rid of the steam. That's going to be a no from us.
Taking The Trash Out
So rather than walking downstairs and going outside when they needed to take out the trash, they cut a hole in the side of their house and constructed a tube out of -- what appears to be -- garbage cans. Seems like a solid solution.
They must live in a warm state because no one who lives in Chicago or Minneapolis would voluntary cut a hole in the side of their house with winter coming.
Who Let This Person Own A House?
This is every electrician, house inspector, and firefighter's nightmare. We're positive all of them would tell you not to do this. In fact, regardless of their profession, everyone would probably tell you not to do this, including us.
Finding an outlet to charge your phone with would be like a game of Russian roulette: which outlet will electrocute me if I plug my phone in? Please just buy an extension cord.
The Wrath Of The Wreath
According to the original poster (and we're taking this one with a grain of salt) the issue with this craft is that the wreath drooped after being made, which she believes could be fixed by using an outline of a wreath to start, or a coat hanger, or something with a circular shape. We, however, believe the issue is this craft altogether.
Why would anyone want to hang a wreath of socks on their front door? This is one of those crafts that seems cute in theory but in execution, it's a different story.
Irony At Its Finest
They say that people never follow their own advice, and that seems to be the situation here. Every DIYer knows the motto "measure twice cut once" but maybe this particular one didn't, which is why they needed to make a sign to remind themselves.
Hopefully whoever made this one was able to laugh at themselves because that's really all you can do here. Then they can help someone else launch their business by buying this sign off Etsy from some woodworker in the mid-West.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
The problem with bolting your rake to a piece of wood is you've just made more work for yourself because now you have to go out and buy a new rake. Might as well have just gone out and bought a shovel, right?
This also doesn't seem to be a very effective solution, which is something that whoever took these pictures is probably telling him at this moment. You can hear his kids saying "dad we told you this wouldn't work."
Impawsible
Any DIY craft involving pets always comes with a risk element because you just never know how your 6-month old puppy or 12-year old cat is going to react to you sticking their paw into a container of plaster. In this case, it went exactly as most would expect: not very well.
In both cases you can see the moment the dog decided he was not going to participate in this craft and probably yanked his paw away, thus ruining what seemed like a really cute craft in theory.
Tread Carefully
Hopefully, this person doesn't have any toddlers or children in the house, or even anyone remotely clumsy, because this will go downhill very quickly.
We understand that sometimes something breaks and you maybe don't have the money to replace it so you have to...alter it a little bit. The question is what could've broken that left them with a sheet of glass? If one of those glass coffee tables broke wouldn't the glass be the first thing to break? We have questions.
Open For Burglars
Did they do this on purpose for extra airflow or did someone just not understand how windows work?
Let's say this was on purpose. You could never leave the window open unless you were in the room, right? Otherwise, anyone walking by could just climb on in because this is clearly a ground-floor window. And yes, you could just put a screen on, but in that case why not just install the windows normally? This must be an accident. Let's go with that.
Penny For Your Thoughts?
You can never have too much glue, except when you clearly have too much, like in this case. The penny-to-glue ratio is all over the place here. You can see that the first few rows started off strong, then they got too confident and a little too heavy-handed with the glue.
One user also pointed out that the 'expectations' picture definitely isn't made of real pennies, it's made of a foil. Pennies aren't known for their ability to bend around the edges of tables...
It's Just A Small Fire, Okay?
If we asked you to guess what happened here you probably wouldn't be able to.
One mommy blogger posted her attempt at trying to make homemade crayons, but instead she ended up making a small fire inside the microwave. Buying crayons at a craft store is definitely going to be cheaper than having to buy a whole new microwave after you set yours on fire. Stick to Crayola, it's easier for everyone.
Out Of This World
When your son asks for a space-themed birthday party so you decide to save money by making the cake yourself, it might look like this.
Remember folks, there's a reason you didn't go into a career as a professional baker. It is actually more difficult than it looks on the Food Network. Your only saving grace is whether or not it still tastes good. Focus on making a cake that's edible and no one will care what it looks like in the end!
Oh Deer...
Pro tip: when making a mobile for your baby, maybe don't use a sculpture of a deer's head, or real leaves from outside, or bullets. None of that seems like it would be approved by mommy bloggers or pediatricians. Or therapists.
We understand their resources may have been limited but surely there were some alternative options. Target has sales all the time. They must have a better option than this that won't break the bank.
