The Flower Vase Wall Shelf DIY That Turns Cardboard Into An Upcycled Beauty

Known for its protective packaging powers, cardboard is used for items like pizza boxes, paper towel rolls, and moving boxes. However, savvy decorators are taking this functional material and transforming it into beautiful home decor items with some clever DIY ideas. If you have some extra cardboard lying around your home, don't let it go to waste! With a little work, you can reuse cardboard boxes to create cubed storage solutions, craft unique wall art, shelves, and more out of this everyday material.

As a prime example of cardboard's potential, YouTuber DeepsCraft took a regular piece of cardboard and created a pretty wall shelf to hold little flower pots. The DIY is composed of just a few simple steps and requires an X-acto knife, glue gun, tape, paint, and some sort of decorative trim, in addition to a flat piece of cardboard that's at least 2 feet tall and wide. If you're looking for an easy way to spruce up a bedroom, living room, or hallway and decorate your home on a budget, you'll definitely want to give this project a try.

Depending on where you source your materials, recreating this project may cost nothing or simply require you to buy a few items at your local Dollar Tree. To begin, cut six strips of cardboard using an X-acto knife. Lay out four vertical strips a few inches apart and two horizontal strips over the top and bottom, then use a glue gun to attach the overlapping cardboard pieces. With the frame complete, use excess cardboard to make shelves that your flower vases will fit on, and mount them with hot glue to two vertical strips. Finally, apply masking tape to the edges for more structure, and paint the piece in the color of your choice. Since cardboard is a porous material, you'll want to opt for acrylic or spray paint, such as Apple Barrel or Rust-Oleum, and lay out newspaper underneath to avoid getting paint everywhere.

Once the paint has dried, you're ready to add some personality to your shelf. Using a glue gun, attach decorative trim, like sequin strips or rhinestone ribbon, to the edges of the frame and the shelves. From there, all that's left to do is hang it up and decorate it with flowers (faux or real) of your choice!

As a caveat, one YouTube commenter notes that the final result looks "cheap and tacky." If your cardboard shelf looks a little, well, like cardboard, you can elevate it for a more high-end look. For example, gluing two strips of cardboard together creates a thicker, studier shelf. You can also apply three coats of a joint compound with a palette knife on top of the cardboard for a smoother finish. MDF wood boards are another alternative to cardboard, although they have a higher price tag.