DIY Book Page Wreath

Back in January I mentioned that I was wanting to make our rental house feel more homey and cozy. So for the last few months I have been working on it. Our living room seemed the most neglected. It seemed to be the coldest room in the house. But this is the room we spend the most time in, so it has been the main area of focus.

The problem:
It was just our furniture in the room, nothing else really. It is kind of hard to have a lot of the pretty nick-knacky items around on surfaces when you have a small child that likes to play with everything. Also, when you host a play date every few weeks, it kind of becomes a pain to pick up the breakables and put them away on a regular basis. So the things that make a room interesting just aren't possible right now. Also, this room is bigger then our last few living rooms and is open to the kitchen. This makes the room feel very open, which we love, but also allows for a lot of dead space.

The problem area:
* Our TV area. In our first house we had a larger TV stand. Then we moved to the Summergrove house and no longer had a need for it. So we gave it to my sister. In the Summergrove house, the living room was small and the TV was wall mounted above to fireplace. When we moved into our current home, the wall the TV is on is huge and empty! Our original plan was to wall mount the TV here too. Then we saw the damage the mount did to the wall at the other house, and did not want to do that to this house. So the search for a new TV stand was on. I wanted a large furniture piece that looked nice and had storage. I wanted it to make a statement. Matthew wanted something cheap. So we measured and headed to Target. We found a piece that I thought worked for both of us. When we got home and got the stand put together, it was smaller then I expected and I was underwhelmed... to say the least. But we had bought it and put it together, and so that is how it sat for months. Our large TV on a smaller then expected stand against a huge empty wall. It bothered me every day. I would watch TV and couldn't help but cringe. I began thinking about how to fix it. What could I do to make it look better? Matthew didn't want me to spend any money, so I needed to use what we had.

As it does sometimes I had an idea as I was falling asleep one night. We had a book shelf with 2 DVD racks that we attached to it from Ikea in Finley's play room. They were not serving a purpose in her playroom, so I decided to un-attach them from the bookshelf and carry them into the living room and flank the TV. Instantly I loved it! It made it feel a bit more complete. I noticed there was an empty spot above the TV that was begging for something to be put it in. So I began thinking and looking on Pinterest for ideas. Again, I knew it was going to need to be something I could make and not need to spend a ton a money on. (Are you getting a theme here? My husband hates spending money on home decor stuff.)

That is when I came across the book page wreath. It was so pretty and I figured it would work nicely above the TV. Recently we had a large item delivered to our house for our church and the bottom of the box was perfect to use for the base of the wreath. Next I needed a book. I had planned to use a different one, but when I went to get it I found a book that was already falling apart. So I used that one instead.

Here is how I made it:

What you need:
*Solid piece of cardboard
* A medium sized book, usually hardbacks have the right sized pages.
* A stapler and staples
* Hotglue gun and glue sticks
* Exacto knife (if your book is not already falling apart like mine was, you will need to pull the binding away from the pages and exacto knife will help.)

Step 1: I found a large plastic bowl and used it as my templet and cut out a round piece to use as my base. I also used a smaller bowl to make a center circle to cut out.

Step 2: Pull the book apart. As you cans see, my book was already coming apart so I didn't have to work to hard. If your's is not coming apart, you will need to cut the pages away from the binding part. You can see in my picture where mine was coming apart, that is where you want to cut yours.

Your pages will still be together, but it will be easy to pull them apart. Just gently pull the pages away from where they are glued.

Step 3: Roll the pages into a cone shape and staple. You will want to staple close to the tip to help hold the cone shape. I started the cone shape in a corner and started to roll to the other side. It took a few times to figure how to get the perfect cone shape. But once I got going with it, it started to go quickly. You will want to make a lot of cones. I would make several (maybe 50) and then still need to go make more.

Step 4 : Start gluing the cones to the cardboard base. Notice how I did not place the cones all the way to the center. I wanted the final product to be bigger then the base. I also placed the cones where they touched close to the top and didn't worry to much about what the points looked like. Repeat this step for as many layers as you would like. 

Ignore my awesome green socks...

I did 5 layers on mine. I made a second one for a friend and only did 4 layers. I personally liked how it looked with just the 4 layers. I felt like the 5th layer made the center look a little messy. I have enough materials that I could make another one if the center on mine starts to really bother me.

This is what the back looks like. As I made each layer, I folded the points around to the back and glued them down.

This is the final product! I really love it!

And this is what the space looks like now! 

Overall the project was really easy! It took maybe 2 hours from start to finish. So if you have an old book laying around, you should give this a shot!

Up next, my work area! I have needed one for a while, especially since I have started to do some work for our church from home.

Happy Saturday!