The Hour

In these times of bleak economic recession, customising everyday objects may be just the thing to brighten up your home. For those who fancy a change, craft expert Rachel Henderson explained how old picture frames and dull lamps can be refreshed with some simple tips, with comedian Jack Whitehall and presenter Stephen Jardine in The Hour studio to help her along the way.

"We are going to be doing some customising your home projects," said Rachel, "which is a very ‘in’ thing to do right now. Not necessarily making things from scratch but really just adding bits and pieces to home ware."

To demonstrate, Jack customised a lampshade while Stephen decorated some canvas.

Rachel said: "With your lampshade you can do your trimming around the bottom, you can do lovely stencils on your lampshade as well, and you can also just stick some buttons on and make it lovely and pretty."

Using a glue gun, black paint, sequins and buttons, Jack transformed his everyday house lamp into what he describes as a "gothic chic" item.

For the canvas print, place the canvas on top of a piece of material, slightly bigger than the canvas so that you can fold the edges in and staple them to the back.

As well as the canvasses themselves being really cheap, Rachel has another top tip, just use old pictures frames!

For those more adventurous DIY fanatics, decoupage vases can be created by mixing glue and water with paper, painting the mixture on to an everyday vase and varnishing.

In these times of bleak economic recession, customising everyday objects may be just the thing to brighten up your home. For those who fancy a change, craft expert Rachel Henderson explained how old picture frames and dull lamps can be refreshed with some simple tips, with comedian Jack Whitehall and presenter Stephen Jardine in The Hour studio to help her along the way.

"We are going to be doing some customising your home projects," said Rachel, "which is a very ‘in’ thing to do right now. Not necessarily making things from scratch but really just adding bits and pieces to home ware."

To demonstrate, Jack customised a lampshade while Stephen decorated some canvas.

Rachel said: "With your lampshade you can do your trimming around the bottom, you can do lovely stencils on your lampshade as well, and you can also just stick some buttons on and make it lovely and pretty."

Using a glue gun, black paint, sequins and buttons, Jack transformed his everyday house lamp into what he describes as a "gothic chic" item.

For the canvas print, place the canvas on top of a piece of material, slightly bigger than the canvas so that you can fold the edges in and staple them to the back.

As well as the canvasses themselves being really cheap, Rachel has another top tip, just use old pictures frames!

For those more adventurous DIY fanatics, decoupage vases can be created by mixing glue and water with paper, painting the mixture on to an everyday vase and varnishing.