13 Stunning DIY Wreaths You Can Make Using Empty Toilet Paper Rolls

If there's one type of household trash that outpaces others in terms of sheer volume, it's toilet paper rolls. On average, a single American goes through 141 rolls annually. A family? That's a lot of tube-shaped cardboard cluttering up your recycling bin — If your municipality even offers paper recycling services. Sometimes, the trash is the only way you can deal with this abundant paper waste product. Or is it? Stop tossing toilet paper rolls and turn them into stylish home decor instead — namely, wreaths for your door, window, or wall.

Any rolls will do for this project. While some people use brown recycled cardboard and white cardboard rolls without any finish, you'll probably want to paint any rolls printed with the manufacturer's branding. Tools can be as simple as a pair of scissors, a glue gun, and glue sticks, but other helpful toilet paper roll wreath crafting equipment includes a pencil and a ruler, E6000 or a similar craft glue, craft paint, markers or colored pens, ribbon, wire, and additional card stock.

You can definitely use the rolls as is to create a wreath — just keep gluing them together until you form a ring a few rolls deep and perhaps add a lick of paint. More beautiful methods for repurposing toilet paper rolls into a wreath, however, involve cutting them into a series of small rings you'll later manipulate by folding, squeezing, or curling. You may also be fringing or feathering the roll, flattening the roll and cutting out shapes from the resulting sheet of cardboard, or even folding rolls origami-style.

People have been weaving flowers and leaves, whether fresh-picked or handmade, into simple circular forms for thousands of years. In ancient Greece, for example, they symbolized everything from glory in battle to memorializing the recently deceased. In this modern-day laurel wreath, the foliage is created with thin rings cut from toilet paper rolls and squeezed at each end to form a leaf shape. Add a cluster of cardboard flowers cut from the flattened rolls and colored with paint or colored pens. 

Search "bows" and "decor" online and you'll find an abundance of articles lauding the arrival (or re-arrival) of the bow in home decor. From banister adornments to Christmas tree toppers, this aesthetic essential is rapidly taking over. Adding a bow will elevate any toilet paper roll wreath you craft. Pop a ruby red and glittery or maroon-hued silk ribbon bow on a wreath made of cardboard pine needles. Go simple with a folded brown cardboard bow or festive with a plastic satin ribbon bow and shiny baubles.

Add a little sparkle to what would otherwise be a rather plain cardboard flower wreath by adorning the center or petals of your blooms. Dollar Tree sells bags of decorative acrylic gemstones in red, blue, or transparent for $1.25. We love Syntego metallic gold heart-shaped beads — 50 pieces for about $6. Or, upcycled buttons add some homespun charm, and faux pearl beads are decidedly more luxurious. Attach the embellishments of your choice using a hot glue gun or a craft glue.

A wreath in any style would benefit from some artificial greenery. This type of decoration can lean toward the extravagant, however, so you get more aesthetic satisfaction from adding it to a less ornate base. For example, contrast a white flower wreath ring with delicate silk flowers in pastel hues, like Kamang silk blue poppies — three stems for about $19. For more drama, add silver-coated foliage and berries to a wreath ring made from hot pink leaves or affix gem-colored plastic chrysanthemums to a lime green and leafy form.

If you're a Jane Austen fan, you really must try making a rolled paper wreath. Quilling was a popular craft for Regency era women, at least those in the genteel class. They took it up with gusto, covering everything from wooden frames to jewelry boxes in small rolls of paper. To ensure your wreath looks practically antique, pair a ring made from coils in graduating sizes glued together — the bigger coils at the bottom of the wreath — with a bouquet of cottage garden flowers also crafted from flattened toilet rolls or sheets of cardboard.

Here's a home decor idea to bring back the '70s: DIY a perfect-for-spring daisy wreath. These happy-go-lucky flowers are also at the center of a current bloomcore trend inspiring interior designs and fashion. There are a few ways to craft a daisy wreath from toilet paper rolls: Form the petals from large loops of cardboard and use thin strips for the stamen, cut cute button-style daisy shapes from a circle of cardboard and glue a bead in the center, or fray the edges of a toilet roll ring and press them back to create fluffier petals.

Do the typical wreath palettes of pretty floral pastels or festive reds, greens, and golds leave you feeling lackluster? Turn these color trends on their heads and lean into monochrome. Color drenching is, after all, expected to trend in 2025. Create an ornate base of branches and leaves from toilet paper roll rings and paint everything matte black. The "white" of this monochrome decor is actually discs of toilet roll cardboard covered in foil; glue these discs to the innermost circle of your wreath for a pop of shine.

Dig deeper into the resources that can be gleaned from your bathroom for crafts and take that tub of cotton swabs to your creation station along with those empty toilet rolls. Once again, start with a wreath ring in any style you prefer, then decorate it with teeny flowers made by dying six cotton swab tips with a colored pen, cutting them from their stalks, and gluing them to a central white tip. Glue these to your ring. Alternatively, leave the cotton bud swaps white and form them into snowflakes for a winter wreath.

For this extremely cute Easter Bunny wreath, you only use the empty toilet paper rolls to create the small and large rings that make up the body and head of the rabbit. There are a couple of ways to do this: Squeeze one end of the roll until it's so narrow it slots into the open end of another roll or thread the rolls onto tubes of newspaper. Secure everything with tape. The bunny's fur is made from crepe or tissue paper and its ears from twigs and twine.

Covering wall decor made from upcycled toilet rolls with glitter is arguably one of the easiest ways to make your own Christmas wreaths. Go all out and coat the entire surface of the wreath in glitter. For something more subdued, use a dusting of glitter to draw attention to the most decorative feature of your wreath, like the central petals of the blooms. Another idea is to only adorn the green toilet roll leaves that border your wreath in glitter while filling the center ring with baubles and pinecones.

Blue ribbons, with their floral adornments and familiar inverted triangle tails, denote success — from winning first prize at a craft fair to excelling academically. If you know someone award-worthy, why not show your appreciation for their talents by crafting them a blue, or in this case brown, ribbon wreath? Cut a ring from thick cardboard — this will be your base. Cut toilet rolls into quarters, then cut out a triangle from one end. Glue them to the base, then top the square ends with tissue paper blooms.

Given the flat nature of cardboard, many wreaths crafted from empty toilet paper rolls end up sitting flat against the wall, but they don't have to. Cut rings from toilet rolls and alternate painting them gold and red — or two other hues of your choice. Create a lay-flat flower by pinching the rings to form petal shapes and glueing them together. Then, take that bloom into the third dimension by glueing more petals to it at obtuse, reflex, acute, and right angles. Attach multiple 3D flowers together in a ring to form your wreath.

To turn toilet paper roll rings into hearts, flatten them lengthwise and re-open them. Keep one side pointy and press the other side downward to create the curves of your heart. Glue the top pieces so they hold their shape. Paint them a Valentine red or leave them plain for decoration later. Affix the hearts together to form the ring of your wreath, then add bows, glitter, beads, or other adornments. If you're really crafty, form the letters for the word "love" from individual rolls and affix it in the center.