The time has come to share with you one of my favorite diy projects that I've made for my home. I started this project back in December, but didn't officially finish it until last Saturday--which is why you haven't seen it until now :). Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the step by step creation of the project, but the concept is simple.
So for awhile, I have been trying to find ways to spice up the look of our bathroom. While it was clean and neat, it kind of looked drab and boring. I had been keeping my eye out for an inexpensive project that would make it look "homier" (is that ok to say for a bathroom?).
I originally got my project idea from a fall wreath that caught my eye on Pinterest. Isn't it just gorgeous?
If you go over to Yellow Mums, you can read a full tutorial (with beautiful step by step pictures) on how to create the twig base--and rolled flowers if you want to go that route!
Like I said earlier, the idea is simple:
- Go on a walk and collect lots and lots of branches. Devin was a great sport and trekked out to the woods with me to help carry them back.
- Snip your branches so that they are all approximately the same length. WARNING: this part can be messy :). My living room floor was a testimony to that! You can play around with the lengths. I like the look of having some shorter than others.
- Cut a circular ring out of cardboard. I used a heavy piece of cardboard from a box that I had lying around. Mine was probably 8-9 inches in diameter from the outside edges. The ring was probably 2-3 inches wide.
- Using a glue gun, glue the branches to the cardboard ring. This part is fun! I had a blast fitting the branches together for the best look. Almost like doing a puzzle!
- Embelish! Okay, so you want something to go around the middle of those branches--otherwise you'll have some ugly cardboard peeking through. Not to mention it just looks...well, unfinished. Back in December, when I completed the twig portion of this project, I wasn't sure what to put around the middle. I considered fabric flowers like the ones above, but I didn't have any fabric on hand. I did have some stems with tiny blue and white flowers on them that I had picked up at the dollar store awhile back. The colors were perfect for our bathroom, so I glued them between some of the branches and called it good until I could come up with an alternate idea for those rolled fabric flowers.
Enter coffee filters. Who knew they were GREAT for crafting flowers? Being that we are coffee drinkers, I had plenty on hand! So last Saturday while we sat around relaxing and basically doing nothing but watching crime shows all afternoon, I perused the internet and to find a style of flower I liked. Let me tell you--there are so many different kinds of coffee filter flowers! I finally settled on these:
Pretty, right? Two Shades of Pink has an excellent tutorial (video included) on how to make these. I chose to keep my flowers white--partly because I was too lazy to try dying them, and partly because white really does match our bathroom.
An hour and 45 coffee filters later.....ta da!
My only regret is gluing on the smaller flowers before I made the large ones. I tried pulling them off, but alas I used too much glue. If I could do it over again, I would put the large ones on first and then arrange the small ones so that they stick out further. But anyways, overall I love it! It matches my blue and brown bathroom decor, and helps add some color and interest to my stark bathroom walls!
Cost of the entire project: $1 (what I paid for those small blue and white flowers)
Folks, its a winner!
