Aluminum Foil Is The Trick Behind These Creative Home DIYs
Aluminum foil is a household staple for cooking purposes, but its uses don't end there. It's also a great commodity for various DIY projects completely unrelated to kitchen endeavors. Using a sheet of foil, you can improvise solutions to problems inside the home and around a yard. You can also experiment with projects to create homemade decor, enhance your interior design, and even repurpose aluminum foil for housecleaning.
Below are 10 creative DIYs that use this malleable metal as their main ingredient. In most of these projects, all that's needed is the foil itself, a few other crafting supplies or household wares, and a little guidance from online tutorials. You may have everything required already at home, or you might need to take a short trip to a popular retailer or order a few things online before getting busy making a huge difference in your home. Not to mention, many of these projects are budget-friendly and easy to do for people of all skill levels.
Create metallic flowers for vases and tabletop arrangements
First, fold a single sheet of aluminum foil in half four times. Press it down with a book or other flat, heavy object, and cut the foil into shapes. Wrap the finished aluminum foil petals around a wooden skewer and use invisible tape to hold them in place. Once finished, the metallic flowers are ready to display in a glass vase or hanging basket from your local dollar store. If you want to add color to your flower, you can color the foil using a few coats of tempera paint.
Repel birds away from gardens and patios
Finding all-natural ways to keep birds from nesting near your garden and patio can be tricky, but this aluminum foil trick can help. The foil reflects light and makes a crinkling sound in the wind, discouraging birds from hanging around. You'll need any generic foil and some all-purpose glue to complete this project. Cut and roll the foil into noticeable but reasonably sized pieces that can fit in outdoor ceiling corners and next to fencelines. Adhere the foil to surfaces using the glue, and replace or add to them as needed.
Use washable markers to make watercolor-esque art
To begin, tear off a piece of aluminum foil around the size of a piece of paper, 8.5 by 11 inches. Get a pack of colored permanent markers and washable markers from Amazon. Use the permanent marker to draw a picture outline on a regular sheet of paper, and use the washable markers to draw blobs of color over the foil. Gently squeeze a spray bottle filled with water to wet the foil lightly. Press the outlined paper side against the foil's colored side and pull it away to reveal an easy DIY paint project resembling a watercolor painting.
Create baking molds for kitchen endeavors
Baking molds of all sizes and shapes are found online and in local cookware stores. However, another way you can repurpose aluminum foil is to make your own baking molds. Simply fold or roll the aluminum foil into thin strips and curve it into your desired designs. You can mold letters, basic shapes, or more intricate designs. Try sketching a design on a piece of paper and following the lines with the foil piece to make more difficult patterns.
Curl the foil edges to make a paint palette
When painting multi-colored artwork, the various paint colors can dry out and leave uneven, chunky strokes. To keep the paint moist, take a small sheet of aluminum foil. Curve up the sides, add paint to the center, then add a few water drops to the paint for perfect consistency. Add paint to the foil as needed as you work on your art piece. You can use as many pieces of foil as you have colors, eliminating the need for a plastic paint palette. Cleanup is also easy — just throw away the foil when you're finished.
Transform glass jars into decorative vases
Ordinary glass vases are easy to find at local or online arts and crafts stores. To dress them up with a modern or industrial effect, wrap them with carefully pressed aluminum foil. Crumple a sizeable foot-long sheet of aluminum foil in your hands, then carefully unfold it and smooth it out. Wrap it around a vase using Mod Podge to affix it to the glass. Dress up the foil-covered vase with other artistic embellishments like fabric tassels, metal embellishments, and greenery arrangements.
Craft celestial room decor to hang from ceilings and walls
Add a whimsical touch to your room by molding aluminum foil pieces into celestial shapes — shape sheets of foil into thin half-moons. Wrap the foil in masking tape and color over it with acrylic paint in the color of your choice. Prop the moons up around your room, or hang them from the ceiling with a transparent fishing line. You could also hang the moons on a long line that drapes over one wall to create inexpensive chic art decor inspired by Amazon's "Phases of the Moon" garland.
Create textured metallic artwork for your home
Use an evenly cut piece of cardboard as the base for this classy art piece. Ensure your aluminum foil roll is the heavy-duty type, crumble it up, and then smooth it out. Use a hot glue gun, which you can find at a local or online craft store, to adhere the foil directly to the cardboard backdrop. Leave it silver for a modernistic, industrial feel, or spray paint it with multiple coats of acrylic spray paint. The best part about this eccentric aluminum wall decor is that it's lightweight, needing only double-sided adhesive to hang it up.
Build a shimmery backdrop for home photoshoots
It's going to take more than a couple of rolls for this project. Look for bulk packs of rolls on Amazon or have commercial kitchen-grade products shipped from a restaurant supply chain like Webstaurant Store. Getting enough foil is the most challenging part — you'll need enough for at least a 5-foot by 7-foot backdrop. Ordering one pack should do the job, although you may want to order extra if you plan to add a floor and ceiling to the backdrop or intend to crumple the foil. Hang the foil by adhering it to a cardboard or foam backing with adhesive.
Craft your own holiday decor
The holidays may be a few months away, but Christmas ornaments can be used year-round as embellishments in interior design. Make hanging large silver stars by downloading a 3D star template from a vendor such as First Palette. Use the template to cut out cardboard from cereal boxes, delivery packages, or other cardstock-like materials around your home. Once you shape the stars, fold scrunched aluminum foil over the 3D design. Hot glue curling ribbon strings to the top of the star, and repeat to make as many stars as you need to decorate your home.