Have you explored Helene and Julien’s minimalist home decor blog, Heju? They might be our new design heroes, they are just the coolest! Helene and Julien Pinaud Schwartzman met while studying architecture in France and have been working together ever since. Their collective love of simple and functional design led them to create original DIY projects that they feature on their blog and in their new book Design It Yourself.

A lot of their work is inspired by Japanese and Scandinavian design, but with their own minimalist spin mixed in. Helene and Julien say it best: “We are fascinated by everyday objects and are always looking to find beauty in the simplest things.”

These DIY pegboard shelves are the perfect way to make your own custom storage. Heju teamed up with Designerbox (a monthly DIY subscription box service) to turn the wooden boxes Designerbox mails to their subscribers into awesome storage shelves and cabinets! We love projects that repurpose ordinary objects, and this one does it so well – no one would ever suspect these were made from recycled materials!

Inspired by the Spanish city Seville, they used colorful tiles and plants as a starting point for this project. We love the tropical meets mid-century modern vibe of these incredible DIY plant stands. Made exclusively for French travel publication Mint Magazine, Helene and Julien dreamed up yet another wonderfully simple yet functional project to keep us busy over the weekend.

Heju also runs DIY workshops in France – a few months back they showed participants how to turn colored cardstock into these geometric origami plant holders for air plants and succulents. Don’t fret if you missed the workshop – the template and instructions are all available on their website. Phew!

These DIY cork tiles are another project Heju did for Mint Magazine. Using the city of Istanbul as their jumping off point, they decided to turn pieces of cork into multipurpose shapes inspired by the ceramic tiles often seen in Islamic art. The awesome part is that they can be used individually as coasters, grouped together to form a larger placemat , or simply used as table decoration. Pick a few of your favorite paint colors, follow the tutorial over on Heju, and voila – enjoy your affordable, functional AND, of course, beautiful table tiles!

If you don’t already follow Heju on Instagram, go check them out for daily DIY inspiration! We can’t wait to see what they come up with next. :)