Q&A With Casey Finn From DIY Playbook

I started The DIY Playbook in 2013. At the time, I was working as a TV news reporter and producer and I needed a creative outlet from my day job. My apartment wasn’t the nicest looking, and I didn’t have a ton of money to decorate it, so I turned to DIY to get the look for less. I thrifted, painted furniture, and created a cozy home on a budget. I then decided to share my ideas online through a blog. It was just supposed to be a way to share my projects with family and friends, but as my readership grew and grew, it eventually turned into my full-time career.

It’s important to create a home that reflects you and your family. A home should tell the story of the people who live there. It doesn’t matter if it’s “on-trend”. If you like it and it’s important to you, then that’s all that matters! A guest should be able to walk through your home and learn more about the people who live there. I display postcards from our travels, framed photos of special moments, and watercolors painted by my great-grandmother…I try to display items intentionally and thoughtfully.

Now that many people spend a majority of their time at home, it’s more important than ever to create a home that you love. It’s been fun to see people embracing DIY projects throughout the course of the pandemic and changing things that they’ve lived with for years to make it work for them. I also think you should make your home work for you. If you don’t have guests visiting very often, turn that space into an office or a home gym. Get creative so your home can be everything it needs to be for your daily life.

When spring arrives, I’m usually excited to do some deep cleaning, purging, and organizing around my home. I often swap pillows and blankets for lighter ones and I’m all about fresh flowers and greenery throughout the home. I also make a point to upgrade my front porch with a new doormat (the snowy slush of winter usually ruins my old one), a pot of hardy greenery, and a new wreath on the door. Small changes that make a good first impression.

The biggest mistakes I see are hanging art way too high and hanging curtain rods right next to the window frame. Art should be about eye level and galleries should be grouped with 2-3 inches in between each piece. And curtains should be hung high and wide off a window, which often means you need to opt for longer curtain panels.

I actually have an entire series on my blog called “Rookie Mistakes” where I share some of the common design mistakes I see, along with ideas on how to do it right the next time.

I’m not a big trend person. Instead, do what feels right for your home and it will always be in style.

I’ve been blogging 4-5 days a week for nine years now. I think it’s all about quality consistent content. That’s the biggest advice I give to people. Produce quality content over and over again and the right people will find you.

We find that we have to purge and organize now more than ever. As new stuff comes in, old stuff has to go out or else it becomes too overwhelming. I’m also all about hidden storage. I keep toys and crafts easily accessible for the kids, but they’re quickly hidden away after bedtime.

I’m most proud of our office built-ins. My husband and I built them ourselves over the course of many weekends while I was 8-months pregnant with my daughter.

We’re about to kick off two bathroom renovations in our house and I’m so excited about them. One will be a fun kids’ bathroom with a classic blue and white look. The other is our bathroom suite with marble, brass, and black accents. They’re going to be different, but both so good!