Home Bloggers' Crafty Ways to Save

Mastermind: Kate Riley, an attorney who left her practice to fix up her home in California's wine country and details the transformation at centsationalgirl.com.
inspiration: "I wanted a dedicated area in my laundry room to drip-dry delicates. When I spotted a pricey drop-down rack in a catalog, I thought, I could make that, and it would be better and cheaper!"
How She Did It: Kate sketched a design to suit her needs, making the rack smaller than the one she'd seen and adding knobs at the bottom for hangers. She spray-painted the plywood back a watery blue-green for a hit of color against her white walls.
What It Cost: $25 for wood, knobs, and hardware; the paint was left over from another project