My soon-to-be sister-in-law is in real estate development and she is getting married this year. It couldn't have been easier to pick a bridal shower theme for her — home improvement!

To really set the tone for the party, I made the invitations out of paint chips. Her wedding colors are black, cream, and red so I chose cards in those colors. I just printed the party details onto the lightest one and then sandwiched it between two others, holding it in place with a simple brad.

To decorate the wall, I started with a giant piece of blue art paper as the background and then used painter's tape to put up some house plans. The plans made a fun backdrop, and also happen to be the ones we used to build our house!

The tablecloths at the party were all painter's canvas drop cloths that Little Jo and Mini Me were more than happy to make splattered in the wedding colors. The cake, which Chica made in the shape of a classic red toolbox, sat on a wooden cutting board, with blueprints tucked around it.

The table was decorated with tools from the hardware store and some from my own stash. For an edible decoration, I put red and black Sixlets candies in wine glasses placed around the table. I like using Sixlets over colored M&M's because they are SO MUCH cheaper when you need a lot.

I used a clean, brand new, red paint tray liner to hold the flatware.

I used more paint chips and tools to decorate everywhere, choosing red and black whenever I could.

Around the party space, I decorated with blueprint images that I found online and printed as large as I could.

While at the hardware store, I picked up some paint stir sticks to use as decoration. Little Jo had the idea of using them to label everything at the party, so they were scattered around the tables. The best use of the paint sticks were as labeled stirrers for the two drinks I made, which were strawberry infused lemonade and peach sangria.

For a fun game for the guests, I asked everyone to design the couple's bedroom in their new home. I gave them two tables full of supplies and tools to make a mood board.

I included a ton of photos and clippings from home and design magazines...

...as well as a bunch of fabric swatches that I picked up for free from a local furniture store. Can you believe they were getting ready to throw all these samples away?

The guests had such a fun time doing this game that nobody wanted to stop. I grouped everyone in teams of 5, and one team member presented the mood board to the bride. She ended up picking a board that included one of her dogs in the design. She's a sucker for her puppies! There were quite a few of the mood boards I would have loved to have translated into my own bedroom.

We played two additional quick games. The first was called "Name That Tool". Chica was in charge of that game and found some very obscure tools in her garage and asked all the guests to identify them. It was a lot of fun trying to guess what they all were.

The next game was a pricing game for which the guests had to rank a list of tools from the lowest to the highest price. If you'd like to play this game at your home improvement themed party, you can download our tool pricing game (with answer sheet!) to print out.

One of the prizes I awarded the winners was a standard hammer tied with ribbon.

The party favors were red and black tap measures that I put in a red metal tool box by the front door

For serving lunch in a unique and fun way, I ordered a bunch of new, clean gallon paint cans, one for each guest.

Everyone thought the paint cans were a fun decoration, and then when we told them lunch was inside, they went crazy! We had prepped the cold lunch ahead of time, keeping it cold with a baggie of ice in the bottom of each can. We served wrap sandwiches that we rolled up in wax paper first, then wrapped in more of the blueprint images I had printed out. Some pasta salad and carrot sticks bundled with a zip tie rounded out the meal. So cute!

The paint can lunches were a big hit and I encouraged the guests to take the cans home to use for storage. Everyone had great crafty ideas for how they would use them.

This was such a great party and I really enjoyed throwing it for my sister-in-law. It was certainly a new party theme to everyone, so if you're looking for a really unique party theme for someone who loves home improvement, give it a try!