Keep Toilet Paper Rolls Out Of The Trash: Turn Them Into Sunflower Decor

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When your craving for retail therapy strikes, instead of chucking items into your shopping cart, it might feel more satisfying to dig through your recycling or trash bin and look for items to upcycle into fall decor. There you'll probably find the makings for some cute decorations with an autumn garden theme. You can fashion adorable DIY sunflowers for your space. Stop tossing toilet paper rolls and turn them into stylish home decor instead. There are different ways you can take this project, and no one will ever know where your cute autumn display came from — unless you tell them.

One way to make a piece of stunning DIY art that you'd never know was made from old toilet paper rolls requires only scissors, glue, and paint, in addition to the paper tubes. You'll want yellow paint for the petals and black or brown paint for the center. To make a single sunflower, you'll need to find three toilet paper tubes and flatten them lengthwise. If you check your recycling bin and don't currently have any empty toilet paper rolls, you can use old paper towel rolls instead.

To get started creating your sunflowers, use two of the rolls to make eight petals for each of them. Start by cutting each tube into four rings, and then trim the ends of each rim into a point to create more natural-looking petals. Then create the center of the flower by cutting the third flattened tube into four rings. Turn the rings horizontal and make repeated short cuts to form a fringe, then at the end cut all the way through one end of the ring to make a long, fringed strip.

Start assembling your DIY fall decor by rolling the fringed pieces up, one around the other, gluing as you go. Some crafters use a glue gun to assemble the parts of their toilet paper roll sunflowers, but other types of glue, like Mod Podge Glue, would likely work as well, as long as you clip the pieces together while the glue dries. While the glue on the flower center dries, you can work on painting the petals.

You'll want to personalize your DIY sunflower art so it feels more you! Your first option is, obviously, to be realistic. You can either paint the various parts of the bloom solid colors, as in, plain yellow for the petals, and plain black or brown for the centers — or you can let yourself get more creative. Who's stopping you from adding touches of orange and brown to the petals to give them more depth? A combination of black and brown with dabs of pollen-like yellow for the centers will make your creation more lifelike.

Once the glue is dry on the bloom center, spread out the tines of the fringes to make it fuller. Next, glue the petals onto the base of the center and allow the glue to dry. Now that your sunflower is complete, you can attach it to a wreath or use several to make a table display. Or you may want to attach the bloom to a wooden chopstick or dowel to form the flower stem.

If you're feeling ambitious, you could even make a large arrangement of different types of sunflowers — in a garden you'll find different varieties in shades of pale yellow, bright gold, fiery red, and deep burgundy. Why not model your DIY decor on this diversity and make a stunningly varied bouquet? Once you're done, if you have any of this common household waste left over and want to add to your autumnal display, you can use a clever toilet paper roll hack to make the cutest DIY fall decor.