Top 10 DIY Projects of 2020 at The Handyman's Daughter

After being stuck at home for weeks on end, your existing furniture starts to look a little....boring. But painting directly over a clear coat of polyurethane or varnish is a recipe for disaster!

This tutorial shows you how to prevent peeling paint on finished surfaces, so you don't have to sand it all off and start again (like I did!)

Cornhole is the perfect socially-distanced game for family and friends! You have to stand far apart to toss the beanbags, and you switch sides after each round so you don't have to pass the bags back and forth between teams. And it all takes place outside in the fresh air!

The free woodworking plans for these DIY cornhole boards were one of the most popular downloads of 2020. All you need to make your own are a couple 2x4s and a half sheet of plywood!

A few years ago, I gave my beat-up old dining table a brand new look with my favorite grey wood stain. It completely transformed the look of the space without having to buy a new set!

I also have an in-depth tutorial on how to refinish a dining table that includes two different ways of removing the old stain before applying the new one.

Staring at all those cans of stain at the hardware store can be intimidating and confusing! Will the color on the can look like that on my project? How many coats should I apply to get good coverage?

I took the guesswork out of finding the perfect grey wood stain with this set of samples. I tested six grey wood stain colors on five different wood species, so you can see all the shades side by side. I still refer to this post whenever I'm staining a new project gray!

This year, I went through the same process with black wood stain colors. You would think that black is black, but there's a lot of variation between stains and wood species!

When the thrift stores and donation centers reopened after the stay-at-home orders were lifted, the line of cars wrapped around the block! It seemed like everyone had spent their time at home reorganizing and purging unwanted items.

Once the junk was hauled away, they were left with bins and boxes that needed to go back in an orderly fashion. These inexpensive storage shelves are perfect for all those bulky items! I keep all our Christmas decorations, camping and skiing gear on these shelves out in the shed.

If you need shorter, shallower shelves, check out these DIY garage shelves instead! They're perfect for smaller bins that you need more regular access to. I made three different versions to fit along the walls of our furnace room off the garage!

Over the summer, people started to miss the office air conditioning when they were working from home. If you don't have central A/C and your windows crank out, you might think you're out of luck. A regular window unit won't work, and portable units will leave huge gaps around the vent for bugs to come in.

Our upstairs bedrooms get unbearably hot in the summer, and I was determined to make our portable A/C work in our casement windows. I found three solutions that looked promising, and this inexpensive window seal was exactly what we needed to keep those rooms cool!

I've had this chunk of live edge spalted maple sitting in the workshop for ages, just waiting for the right project. It was a little too narrow for a piece of furniture, but it was perfect for these floating shelves! You can take any piece of wood and turn it into a shelf with the help of these simple brackets.

Pea gravel patios are an easy and cost-effective way to create an outdoor living space in your backyard! This tutorial shows you how to make one properly so you can keep the rocks where they belong and prevent weeds from growing through it!

Outdoor living was the only way to socialize while staying safe in 2020! This list of backyard ideas was super popular this year, and for good reason! It has everything from DIY outdoor furniture to gardening ideas, and fun things for the kids.

Year after year, this is my most popular post! I never thought putting sticky paper on my countertop would be such a hit, but it's a great option for renters or as a temporary solution while you save up for a full kitchen remodel.

In the coming year, I'm finally going to start renovating our kitchen (by MYSELF!) It'll be a gradual process, since I'm going to build the cabinets from scratch, but it'll totally be worth it! We cooked a LOT more in 2020, and there are a lot of small changes that will make a big difference in how we use the new kitchen.