Can you tell what it's made of?
Please ignore the crack in the paint - all of our walls are hundred year old horse hair plaster that expands and contracts with the seasons!
Yep, toilet paper.
And a little (maybe a lot) of hot glue...
And some ribbon and a thumb tack...
Voila! Cheapest wreath ever - I spent 0 dollars.
The idea for using pipe insulation for a wreath form came from Pinterest. I think this is the original source.
Now I'm going to tell you something embarassing. Mike and I snagged a "hot water efficient" shower head of some sort at a home show (before we even owned the house), and a bunch of pieces of foam pipe insulation was included in the kit. When we bought our house, I went on a rampage and put that foam on every single pipe in the basement. Yep, even the cold water lines. Hey - I was a new home owner, what did I know!
Other fun facts:
Our woodwork is not stained wood. It's faux bois - "fake wood". In other words, painted to look like wood. All of the wood in our house (with the exception being the kitchen floor) is pine. The wood in the living room, lower hall and upper hall is painted to look like quarter sawn oak. This was apparently all the rage if you were a proper Victorian but didn't have the cashola for nice wood like oak, mahogany, walnut, etc. Ontario is notorious for it's pine forests, so it shouldn't be surprising that A LOT of old houses have faux bois woodwork.
See the slide bolt in the last photo, that's keeping the french door in place? If you look closely, you'll see that it alternates in colour from bronze to black to bronze and so on. This is intentional, and is seen frequently on antique hardware. The look is called japaned (I don't know why!).
If you'd like more details on how to make a wreath outta toilet paper, check out the tutorial here.
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Now that's the kind of decorating I like! You'd never know your wreath was made of toilet paper. It looks so festive! Old house owners were very clever with their grained wood techniques. I'm sure if they had toilet paper rolls, they'd make these wreaths, too!
ReplyDelete-Pam
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ReplyDeleteHaha, thanks Pam! It actually took me awhile to figure out what was going on with the wood - I'd never heard of faux bois before. In some places it's done REALLY well. In other places...it's like they got lazy, haha.
ReplyDeleteShasha - a Pinterest invite is coming your way!
I never thought to use TP for a wreath!!! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteI'd never know your wood is not real ;)
I worked at the Homewood House, a Federal-style home (turned museum) in Baltimore, MD. It was built early 19th century--they used faux-galore despite having a huge budget. It was en vogue to fake it. So that makes your house that much awesome-er.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jessica!
ReplyDeleteStarr, how cool to have worked at a historic place like that. Colour me jealous.
Oh that's hilarious! Will you hang toilet paper garlands from your neighbors' trees, next?
ReplyDeleteThey may not appreciate my type of festive decorating ;) Especially when it rains...
ReplyDeleteWow! I wouldve never guessed toilet paper. Its so pretty! New follower here. Would love it if you would stop by and share this at my link party going on right now :) http://everything-underthemoon.blogspot.com/2011/11/bedazzle-me-monday-10.html
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!!
Hi Nikki,
ReplyDeleteI've already commented on your link party post, but thanks so much for "inviting" me over to it!
ohhh my goodness I LOVE this. I love how cute it is and how you would never know what you used to make it! :o)
ReplyDeletethank you so much for linking up!
Jaime from crafty scrappy happy
Hi Jaime,
ReplyDeletethanks so much for coming by and commenting, and thanks for hosting the link party!