DIY these industrial copper accents for your home

While we usually head to the craft store for our DIY supplies, this one will having you stopping by your local hardware store. Inspired by the industrial trend, Steven Sabados crafted designer-inspired decor pieces using copper pipes. Copper is everywhere these days, but pieces like this are proof that you don't need to switch out your faucets and taps to add a pop of this on-trend metallic. And if you're worried about working with copper, Steven promises that it's totally doable. He also shared a copper hack: to get the pipes looking super shiny, simply sand them down and wipe them with ketchup! So if you're ready to work some of this must-have metallic into your home, here's how to make a wall sconce and magazine rack.

Magazine rack

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Here's what you'll need for a magazine rack with three sections like ours:

• ¼" Copper pipe:
  • 3 x 13 ½"
  • 4 x 7 ½"
  • 1 x 14"
  • 1 x 16"
  • 1 x 18"
• 2 copper tee joints
• 10 copper elbow joints
• Pipe cutters (or a hack saw if you have one)
• Goop glue/ plumbers glue
• About 54" of leather, suede, or felt (or any fabric you'd like)
• Tape measure
• Leather hole punch
• Snap kit (3 caps and 3 sockets)
• An old wooden board or something similar to use a work surface when hammering your snaps
• Hammer

Here's how to do it:

1. First, create the base for your rack. We made our magazine rack tiered and the sides come first! Attach the two 7 ½" pipes together with a T joint and then attach elbow joints on each open end. Use a little dab of plumber's glue inside the joints before attaching them, since we don't want to solder the pipes together.

2. Next, attach the 3 different lengths vertically, from longest to shortest. The width is 13 ½". The height is 14" for the front piece and up 2" for every section after that, so ours was 14" at the front then 16" at the middle and 18" at the back.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to create the other side of your rack.

4. Hold both sides of the base upright and attach them together by adding a bit of plumber's glue into the open ends of the elbow joints and then inserting the the 3, 13 ½" horizontal pipes. Now you have your copper structure!

5. Next, measure the leather (or fabric of your choice) to fit the length of your magazine rack with enough of a scoop for the magazines to sit in, and a bit of overlap at the ends over the pipes so you'll have enough to snap the leather together. For ours, we used 54".

6. Now add snaps to your leather. You can hot glue it, but we opted for snaps. To do this, put your leather over your wooden board to protect your work surface. Fold over the end of your fabric 2" to create the section where it will wrap around the copper pipe. Using your leather hole punch, punch a hole through where you want your snap to go.

7. Then, unfold and you'll have 2 holes. Put the snap cap under face up, put it through the hole and then put the backing for the cap on top. Using your stylus from your snap kit, hammer the snap cap into place. Then, repeat for the snap socket.

8. Repeat step 6 to add snaps for the other end of your rack and in the middle.   

9. Attach the fabric around the pipe using snaps and voila!

Wall sconce

Here's what you'll need:

• Copper pipe: 1 x 8", 1 x 5"
• Pipe cutters
• Copper elbows (2 x 45 degree and 1 x 90 degree joint)
• Light cord (We used bright blue!)
• Wood block (drilled to fit the dimension of the pipe, we used a 8"x2" block)
• Drill and spade wood drill bit to match the diameter of your pipe
• Light bulb

Here's how to do it:

1. Cut your wooden block and drill a hole through it to fit the pipe. We made ours 8"x2".

2. Using the 90 degree and 45 degree copper elbows, attach the pipes together to create the lamp arm in the following order: 90 degree elbow, 8" pipe, 45 degree elbow, 5" pipe.

3. Thread the cord through the pipe and and the wood, since one end of the cord doesn't have the plug attached yet.

4. Slide the pipe into the wood.

5. Attach the plug to the end of your cord. If you're not comfortable with this step, consult someone who knows about electrical hookups.

6. When you're finished, attach a hanger hook to your wood black and affix the wood block to the wall with a screw and anchor and you've got a trendy sconce. As an added feature, you can move the cord up and down to adjust where you want the bulb to hang!