Cheap (really cheap) DIY Wall Art

I had another blank wall that glared at me as I walked up the stairs - so naturally, I started thinking up ways to make it look somewhat nice looking and cozy. I found this inspirational wall art idea on Houzz -
(which, is a great site by the way- and a bonus DIY section!)

What a genius way to use .... toilet paper rolls! I decided to throw in some scrap wood from my shelving unit project and this is what I came up with:

It took me a few weeks to collect enough toilet paper (and paper towel rolls) for this. I treated the wood with some wood stain I had lying around to give it a more polished look. I cut the toilet paper rolls in one inch pieces and used Elmer's glue. I used clothes pins to hold the pieces together as they dried.

Once dried I gave them all a couple coats of silver spray paint. I hammered tack nails on the wood boards so that I could hang the "leaf units" after I installed the boards onto the wall. This took about 15 minutes to assemble once I figured out what I liked.

I actually ended up making another one, since this guy looked a little lonely up there. I will have to take a new picture displaying both and post it on here later.

The rental challenge

I don't have oodles of money, and I don't own my living space.... and worst of all, I no longer live near an IKEA (about 2.5 hrs away!)

So, I am daunted with the challenge of decorating and furnishing a rental home, without investing a lot of time or money. Eventually I would like to own a house, since, as I am getting older, it is a wiser, more responsible investment. But... that can wait a few years! Until then, I'll use this blog to share my DIY journey of projects, ideas, and inspiration for my current home, and my future home.

For my first project... the living room and its bare, bare walls. I don't really want to paint... because, when I move I'll have to paint it back (I did this twice and promised myself never again!) So I started brainstorming ideas to add some interest to this bland space.

I needed shelving, for my growing DVD collection and pictures and other decorative knick knacks, but I didnt want to throw up a bunch of floating shelves on the walls, how boring.

I wanted the shelving to be centered around the TV, kind of like an entertainment center shelving unit. I checked out a few stores... call me stingy, but I just couldn't break open my wallet for something that I just didn't really like - and the stuff I did like, was out of my budget.

So I went to Home Depot - walked around a bit, in a daze and thought "People actually come here to buy raw materials to make stuff themselves?"

Light bulb. Why don't I make my own stuff?

I went home and made some measurements. Went back to Home Depot and I bought some cheap wood (had it cut there) and wood glue and screws. Went to WalMart and bought a few cans of spray paint - the total came out to be roughly $40 ish.

Took me a while to figure out a design - and how to put everything together (I'm no carpenter). But it wasn't too frustrating of a process despite my trial and error.

BOOM this is the end product:

I'm pretty happy with it. I wish I had some more pics to do a step by step tutorial, but I didn't think I would have been blogging any of this stuff either :)