A DIY twofer in one photo from Yahoo Homes’ Flickr group

Upstairs in Trisha Brink's 100-year-old bungalow, a nook that might have been easy to neglect has been turned into something special with a couple of surprisingly effective do-it-yourself projects. And when we say "surprisingly effective," we mean that they've held up for a decade already, despite being subjected to the loving abuse of two boys who were 6 and 3 when the photo was taken.

The first project is the most obvious: Brink used sheet music (from 1898, no less) to paper the walls. She gives instructions in her Flickr caption, but essentially she accomplished the task with simple matte Mod Podge, watered down. "I live in an old home, so I didn't care about ruining my walls for future wallpaperers!" she says in the caption.

The second project is those stairs. She says that the risers (not to mention her family's budget) were so small that she couldn't carpet them, so "I used felt pad wrapped in upholstery fabric and tacked it down with brass tacks." How durable could that be? Well, she says: "It's been there for 10 years now, and my boys slide down it on their bean bags daily!"

Brink was kind enough to share the photo with Yahoo Homes' Flickr group. She runs Trisha Brink Design (for which she writes a blog), where she's written about other DIY projects including a sweet bunting made of vintage playing cards. You can also find links to more of her work and online shops on Brink's Flickr profile page.

We'd love to see your DIY projects too -- and maybe even feature them here on the blog. Just click here to submit them to Yahoo Homes' Flickr group.