DIY Decorative Vent Cover | How To

Photo of the offending air vent     >: /

Then I saw these and my wheels started turning. What if I made a toilet paper art…thing and make it into a decorative vent cover? hmmmm, it just might work….

To the shop!

1) First I took dimensions of the existing vent cover in the laundry room then made an easy frame out of scrap wood I had laying about. Then gave it a quick coat of primer so I wouldn’t have to mess with it after filling in the center with cardboard. (I like saying cardboard better than toilet paper rolls)

2) I collected the ‘cardboard’ and stuck one end in to get a depth and marked it with a pencil.

3) I just started cutting strips until I ran out of cardboard, and then started filling in the frame until I liked the design I created. This process took close to an hour because I was rather picky.

4) Once I was satisfied with the design, I grabbed my amazing $2.50 hot glue gun (which could probably save the world too) and started putting the pieces together permanently.

At this point in the process, my husband walks in and asks about what I’m doing. I explained and told him the next step is to spray paint it. If you can believe it, the man actually tells me “ok, well don’t spray paint it in the house. Take it out to the shop.” ……………   Yeeeep, that happen. I was tempted to spray paint the outline on his pillow just to be funny, buuut it’s all projects and no fun with me. (or I didn’t want him to change his mind about cooking dinner)….; ) either way. I spray painted it outside.

Now. I might be biases…but I say that works. !!! It looks a little dark in the photo, but in person the details really stand out nicely. All in all, the most expensive part of this project was the brown spray paint, which was around $5.

Total Time: 2 hours
Total Cost: $5.00