After we were married, I moved into the apartment my husband
had just moved into prior to our marriage and of course I helped decide on it,
but one issue is the bathroom has two parts a place where the sink is and room
for a vanity but then an inner bathroom through a door where the toilet and
shower tub is. So the issue is where the toilet is around the corner from the
sink and I was housing the toilet paper under the sink in the cabinet but it
was like wrapping your arm around the corner and digging in the cabinet for
toilet paper and it was doable but hard lol. So I started researching different
DIY toilet paper holders and many were cool but I didn’t really want to spend
very much money.
So at Walmart where I work in the Lawn and Garden department
we have these boxes used for Suet Bird food, any boxes that had housed non-chemicals should be ok for these kinds of projects, and so I went up when I had an idea
and collected some empty ones from a co-worker. As you will see the boxes are
level on three sides but the front is much lower and I liked that a lot as it
would be easier to pull the toilet paper out. So what I did was I thought about
the different colors I could paint to cover up the sides of the box and I thought
I have an acrylic paint called Cinnamon Apple and it matches some of the colors
of my main set of towels and how I designed it matched the second set of
towels. Originally I was in a two bathroom apartment then went back to living back with my parents
and so when I went to my husbands one bathroom I just used all the towels
together. So I colored the outside of the box with the Cinnamon Apple colored acrylic
paint and it took several layers to cover up the work on the outside of the box.
The layers of paint made the box heavy and parts started
folding outward so I used some journals and books to hold them in as they dried
after the second layering and then it bent the box too much in so I had to bend
them back out so be warned just the right amount of paint and then pressure
should be used so it doesn’t bend too much in or out. Also some pictures it looks wet it's because I applied more paint even after decorating and then photographed them and so it wasn't dry yet.
After the paint had dried for a few days I measured out my
orange and white designed ribbon which I had gotten on clearance for a quarter
and measured it to the length of the top of the box and starting at the front I used
E6000 Adhesive spray and sprayed and applied the ribbon little by little till
the one side was complete and then I snipped it at an angle at where it had
begun so it aligned with the box. They I waited a few until it was holding
enough and I continued around the box spraying E6000 Adhesive spray and then applying
ribbon and holding until it held enough, it was a challenge at first to get it
to hold and so another alternative could be hot glue if you like. So after the top
ribbon was arranged I did like wise for the bottom of the box ribbon.
Once the paint and ribbon was dried I then went and collected
my clear and frosted white and green glass gems and before gluing, again using
E6000 Adhesive spray, I arranged them different ways until I thought of making
them look like flowers. So each flower had a pattern the center gem was either clear
or frosted green or white and the petals around it were then the opposite color
and went clear and then frosted. Then the stem and leaves were the same color
as the center of each flower so opposite of the petals of each flower. So I did
that on both side, though one side has the flower heads going toward each other
and the other side has the flowers going the same direction though I prefer
them facing each other, and then did just the flowers on the back of the box. With
the back of the box flowers you will see I did center of flower different color
as petals like the other flowers but this time instead of the petals being
clear and frosted I did one all clear and one all frosted and liked that. The small front area I just glued in a line a few alternating frosted and clear green and white gems. So
each side took some drying time as the E6000 Adhesive spray took a bit of time
to dry but so far I haven’t had to ever re-glue them since I made it, I mean I did
have to re-glue one right after the first set dried but since its been in use none
of the gems have fallen off.
The last element was how do I make the inside of the box look nice and brought
together and not look so much like a box. So I bought a Fat Quarter of Green
Printed Fabric at Walmart and measured and cut it to fit the box but my measurements and
such weren’t quite exact but it looks pretty good to me. So again I used E6000
Adhesive spray and going little by little I glued and pressed down the fabric
until it stuck and then moved onto the next section.
So once everything had dried I put it on the back of my toilet
and I think it works perfectly there and looks so nice! There are many different
methods to use for toilet paper holders but this one worked the best for us!
- Suet Bird Food Box- Free at Walmart
- Cinnamon Apple Acrylic Paint- $0.50 At Walmart
- White Clear and Frosted Glass Gems- $1 at Dollar Tree
- Green Clear and Frosted Glass Gems- $1 at Dollar Tree
- Orange and Printed White Ribbon- 3 Yards for $0.25 on Clearance was originally $1 at Walmart
- Fat Quarter of Green Printed Fabric- $0.97 at Walmart
