“DiWHY”: 81 Times People Tried To Do It Themselves, Failed Miserably, And Learned Their Lesson (New Pics)

Before you scroll through this lineup and swear off DIY forever, hold on. DIY can genuinely be a fun and rewarding experience, and a great way to cut costs or simply bring something you’ve been dreaming about to life.

The goal here isn’t to scare you away from picking up a paintbrush or a power drill. Sometimes, though, it helps to know your limits and to recognize when a job is better handed off to someone who does it for a living.

Because the truth is, a lot of people have been humbled by DIY. For example, a 2015 survey from home design site Zillow Digs found that nearly 40 percent of people regretted a DIY project they had attempted in their home.

It can also be more than just a disappointing result. According to research by Direct Line business insurance, over 3.4 million UK adults have sustained injuries while doing DIY at home. A similar number, around 3.3 million, admitted that their DIY efforts actually damaged their property or made an existing problem worse.

Failure isn’t always a bad thing, and sometimes it’s the best teacher, but some mistakes are worth trying to avoid.

Traci, founder and principal design consultant for My Simpatico Life, who has lived in ten houses and tackled countless DIY projects along the way, has a few thoughts on where people tend to go wrong.

One of the most common mistakes she sees is people jumping into a project without really knowing their own style. It sounds simple, but if you don’t have a clear sense of what you actually like and dislike, you’ll finish a space and still feel like something’s off.

Her advice is to spend time saving images on Pinterest, Instagram, or wherever you enjoy browsing, and look for the patterns that keep showing up.

She also points out that a lot of people design for how they wish they lived rather than how they actually live. A beautiful room that nobody uses is just wasted space, and real estate is too expensive for that.

Before starting any project, think about what you genuinely need from a space and design around that reality, not an idealized version of it. If you have young kids, for example, now is probably not the time to invest in delicate furniture.

Two more things Traci swears by are taking stock of what you already own before buying anything new, and measuring everything before you commit to a single decision.

That old chest of drawers sitting in storage might be exactly what a room needs, and a piece you already own will always cost less than one you have to buy.

As for measuring, the classic rule of measuring twice and cutting once exists for a very good reason. Write your measurements down, save them in your phone, and check them again before you buy.

When it comes to projects that can go genuinely wrong in a dangerous way, experts are pretty consistent about which ones to hand over to a professional.

Electrical work, plumbing beyond the basics, and gas line modifications are all areas where a mistake can cost far more in time and money than hiring someone would have, according to Nicole Hamil, a self-taught DIYer who spoke to Southern Living.

The same logic applies to anything involving asbestos, lead paint, or mold, all of which carry serious health risks and are best left to licensed professionals. 

Structural changes like removing walls or altering a roofline also fall firmly in that category, since getting them wrong can compromise the integrity of your entire home.

At the end of the day, safety comes first, and everything else follows from there. If you have the time to do your research and a realistic sense of your own abilities, DIY can be a genuinely great experience. 

And if it doesn’t go perfectly? Well, that’s what experience is for.