Wall Art From Broken Mirror Frame and Toilet Paper Rolls

Gavi
by Gavi
6 Materials
$5
6 Hours
Easy

Two weeks ago my husband was cleaning our room, knocked into the dresser and our mirror, which at that point was dangerously just leaning against the wall instead of being attached to it, fell on his head and broke. After ensuring he was fine (a few scratches here and there, and lots of glass on the floor!) inspiration struck and I realized I can repurpose the frame into something else! An artistic friend of mine had shown me in the past all these different things you can do with cut up toilet paper rolls (there are also plenty of ideas on Hometalk as well!) and so I decided to get to work!

(Some of the mirror was still salvageable and so I might attempt to save them and do another project another time)

I gathered up my supplies and got to work. I started with about 30 toilet paper rolls. I first cut them into 4ths, but one i started to messure I realized they would stick out (3D style) too much, and so I cut them down to 8ths.

After having carefully removed the broken mirror from within the frame (harder than expected!) I uncovered the cardboard backing which would become the new base for my creation. I wanted to spray paint it silver (inspired by the mirror) and so I taped off the edges of the frame. I didn't have any painters tape so I just used wide packing tape - i didn't press it down so that it would be easier to remove once I was done. I took it outside, and spray painted the cardboard.

Once it was dry, I removed the tape and lay out my new silver canvas.

I then took my cut toilet paper rolls and started to create some forms. When cutting them up, they were pushed down naturally, and they created this leaf/petal shape. I decided to create some flowers.

Once my flowers dried, I took them outside and spray painted them red. I was thinking to keep a black and white/silver theme for the overall look, and thought adding a pop of color would be fun!

While my red flowers were drying, I started to lay out my internal frames. I just printed different black and white "pictures" off the internet, cut them down to size and put them in the frames. I had bought these black frames at IKEA over a year ago, but they've been sitting in my drawer this entire time - They've finally found their purpose :) I used some E6000 to attach the frames to the board so that they would be steady - I just put a small drop in each corner, because I wanted to keep the option open if later down the line I wanted to change out the pictures, that I could relatively easily rip it off the board, replace the picture and re-glue. But for now I'm happy with whats in there.

Next, I took the red flowers and put them at each intersection and corner on the main frame. Because they are made out of a paper roll, they are super duper light - in order to attach them, i just put a line of regular white glue along the bottom and left it to dry. I then went to fill in the space in between with uncolored pieces of the paper roll. I created them little heart/swirl pieces by cutting the leaf-like piece by the fold, and taking each edge and roll it inwards, and gluing it at the meeting point. Once i glued those pieces down, I haphazardly created some more swirls to fill in the space and glued them down as well. I wanted to create a mix between well planned pieces and random swirls in between. I continued with the process of cutting the leaves, and rolling them around my finger to create the swirl, then adding glue and holding it in place on the cardboard for a few seconds to help it hold its shape. Important not to put too much glue so that it doesn't take too long to dry, but still enough so that it holds.

Fast forward a few swirling and gluing hours, and here is the final product! I love the effect it makes when it all comes together! And it goes quite nicely with the color scheme above the futon in our guest room!

Here it is from the side where the color pops a bit more! Always fun to re-purpose and recycle.


DIY toilet paper roll ideas

For more creative ways to repurpose cardboard tubes, discover Hometalk's best DIY toilet paper roll crafts here.

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