Hester van Overbeek is a brilliant craft blogger, YouTuber and author of several books. She loves to work with DIY, home decor materials, such as concrete and wood, and always seems to be busy working on an exciting home improvement project.
With two new books - Wooden Furniture Hacks and Pallet Wood Projects for Outdoor Spaces - out now, we caught up with Hester to find out what she's up to and to hear a little bit more about the writing process...
From hair and make-up artist to DIY crafter and author, can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey so far?
I‘ve always been creative as a child, from making outfits for my Barbie dolls to teaching myself how to draw with library books. So it wasn’t a surprise that I ended up in a creative industry, doing hair and makeup on photoshoots all over the world.
When I left London a few years back and moved to the coast I got the chance to do up a house and, as the budget for this makeover was non-existent, I started DIY-ing and making things again. My friends found the house makeover so inspiring they urged me to start a blog so I could show others how they could make frugal projects for their homes. The blog, Hester's Handmade Home, keeps growing in popularity. Who would have known that beach house would be the start of a whole career change. I still work as a makeup artist but my main focus is DIY now.
Can you tell us a bit about how Wooden Furniture Hacks and Pallet Wood Projects came about?
I love upcycling furniture and and wooden pieces are the easiest to give a makeover. Saw pieces off, give it a lick of paint or simply sand existing paint off. Wood is the perfect upcycling material.
Do you have any favourite projects from the books?
I love the outdoor projects like the Apple Crate Table from Wooden Furniture Hacks and the pallet corner sofa from Pallet Wood Projects. I also really love the washi tape decorated chest of drawers, and I can't forget to mention the Four-Poster Bed hack that kicked off my whole DIY career (both Wooden Furniture Hacks).
You experiment with such a wide variety materials in your projects – wood, concrete etc. – do you have a favourite medium to work in?
I think my all-time favourite must be wood, it's so versatile. I love going to the reclamation yard and marvel at all the patina of old doors and floor boards - the more chipped the paint the better! Wood can also be easily adjusted, if you change your design half way through, or if your build just doesn’t work, you can take it apart and start again.
Aside from crafting, what is your favourite way to pass the time?
I have a 16 month old baby, so besides building projects for my books, blog and YouTube channel I don’t have much time left! I also still do the odd few days in my previous career, doing hair and makeup for fashion shoots. On my time off I love to take my daughter Kiki and dog Kermit to the beach for walks and sand castle building.
What are your favourite craft Instagram accounts to follow?
I love @fallfordiy, @burkatron, @grillodesigns, @thelovelydrawer and @thefrugality. In the US it has to be @sweetpaul, @studiodiy and @ispydiy.
Are you working on anything exciting at the moment?
I'm always coming up with new tutorials for Hester's Handmade Home - the list of future projects is long and I’m especially excited to be making more projects for children and dogs.
Hester's new book, Wooden Furniture Hacks, is available now. To get more fab blog posts like this one - direct to your inbox - be sure to sign up to our mailing list here.