Transform Toilet Paper Rolls Into Decorative Kitchen Storage With A Savvy DIY

Looking for new ways to turn cardboard toilet paper rolls into stylish home decor so you can stop tossing them? Transform them into a floral-patterned bowl with a few common crafting supplies and your own creativity. Your bowl can display pinecones, moss balls, or repurposed Christmas ornaments. Or, use it to store fruit that doesn't need refrigeration, as long as you're confident your creation won't get drenched.

Once you've collected a grocery bag's worth of toilet paper tubes, remove any bits of toilet paper from the cardboard and gather your other supplies. A hot glue gun and a cutting tool are most essential. A pair of scissors is fine, but you may appreciate the precision a utility knife offers. Also grab a pencil and ruler to help you cut your cardboard into similar-sized pieces. 

Painting the final product boosts its durability and creates a polished look. If you want to store fruit in your bowl, choose a nontoxic, food-safe pigment. Because cardboard is porous, make sure to use a barrier like gesso if you reach for a paint meant for non-porous surfaces. It's also fine to spray paint your bowl if you apply a topcoat of food-safe sealant. One option is LEM Food Grade Silicone Spray. After amassing all of your materials, you're ready for the fun part: building your beautiful bowl.

To build your bowl, you'll slice toilet paper tubes into pieces, arrange them in flower shapes, and bind together the flowers. Start by flattening a tube and cutting it width-wise to create flexible, petal-like pieces. Strips that are about 1/2 inch wide will do. Repeat this process until you have a sizable pile of petals. Then, cut some petals in half to form smaller petals, both to add some extra detail to the design and create a more stable bowl.

Next, place the smaller petals inside the larger ones and attach them with hot glue. Place the combined petals in star-like formations and glue them together to form flowers. Once you've created a dozen or more, affix them to each other to form a bowl shape. Do this on top of an existing bowl to help you get the shape just right. After the glue has dried, paint your new bowl and apply sealant if necessary. 

You can also glue together cardboard flowers to create other home decor objects. After making your bowl, use leftover petals to craft a decorative mat for beneath a vase. To achieve this shape, place the flowers on a flat surface instead of a curved one when you glue them together. Or, use the petals to construct cozies you might otherwise knit or crochet. This approach can produce whimsical covers for cookie jars and plant pots, fancy coffee cup sleeves, and more. Running low on petals but have lots of uncut cardboard tubes? Use those toilet paper rolls to DIY beautifully unique wall decor on a budget.