About DIY Design Co

Hi! I'm Penny, and with the help of my husband Tyler, we've created DIY Design Co.

I've always been drawn to aesthetics—I love making things beautiful, interesting, or at the very least better than they were. As a kid, I was all about arts and crafts. As I got older, hair and makeup became creative outlets. At fifteen, I had the opportunity to help clean and renovate a home, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

In my twenties, I lived in apartments where permanent changes weren't an option, so I leaned more into painting and filled my walls with art. Around the same time, I learned how to build a website out of necessity for a previous business. When I finished, I realized I enjoyed creating the site more than the business itself—so I quit the business and began designing and building websites for small businesses.

It wasn’t until I married Tyler and we moved into our 1950s bungalow that I really got into home design and DIY. I should probably mention: I’m very frugal. I don’t like spending money. If I can do something myself and save a bit, I’m all in. Luckily, Tyler is great at building and fixing things!

On our very first day in the house, we were checking out these built-in shelves off the dining room when Tyler noticed some empty space behind them. A few minutes later, he had his tools out and was demoing the shelves. We gained two feet of space and turned a set of useless, unattractive shelves into a sleek custom storage closet with floating shelves and a mirrored door.

That was just the first of many projects. The only untouched room in our home is the bathroom. I didn’t realize how many ideas we’d come up with—or how many projects we’d actually start—otherwise, I would’ve started DIY Design Co years ago.

When we hosted Christmas, my aunt (who hadn’t seen the house before) went crazy for the dining room banquette with the built-in fireplace. She noticed the custom built-ins in the bedrooms and loved how we’d maximized storage in a small home. That’s when I thought: maybe I should start a blog to share the projects we’ve done, the ones we’re working on, and the ideas we keep dreaming up.

And honestly, one of the best perks of running DIY Design Co is that I can tell Tyler we need to finish something faster—because it’s “for the blog.”