Faux Iron Scroll Decor from Wire Hangers

As I mentioned, I have a grand plan for the pieces of wood left over from dismantling our box spring, but this grand plan has first led me to the adventure of the wire hangers.

You have probably seen the toilet paper tube art all over pinterest and the internet in general. I first heard about this idea from a co-worker and a couple years later, I actually made some of my own. I started simple, but I saw this blog post on Suzy's Sitcom and ended up making a much more complicated one along those lines. Unfortunately, I have never found where to hang that one and therefore never ended up painting it either. It may yet find a home.

So how does this all bring me to wire hangers? Well, I thought about doing the same thing for what I am creating, but I needed something a bit more durable. 

Toilet paper roll art.

I have never liked wire hangers, primarily because they tend to get bent out of shape as you use them, so it was great to find another use for them. I decided to replicate this piece for the section I am showing you. I skipped the flower shape in the middle, but that could be achieved with an ornamental button.

1.  Untwist the top of the hanger and use a pair of heavy duty pliers to straighten the kinks. I didn't bother with the very twisted ends; I cut them off (with Patrick's help a lot of the time) and put them in the scrap metal bin to be sold later.

2. My wire hangers are painted gold If you have this kind, you may need to remove the current paint with a wire brush. If you get a good primer and the paint isn't flaking, which it was on some of mine, you may be able to skip this step. If your hangers have a thick plasticy coating, remove the coating by slitting up the side of the plastic with a blade and pulling  the coating off the hanger.

I determined it would be best to make my design in four pieces--two scroll shaped pieces and two with the ends curled up and a loop in the middle. Since the piece has symmetry, I needed to make duplicate pieces, which was a bit tricky. After doing this, I learned what I should have done, so I won't bore you with what I did first.

3. cut two equal lengths of wire and marked the center. Then I could curl all the ends the same amount before adding the curl in the middle. I could trace one onto a piece of paper and then adjust the other as necessary using the pattern.

4. Once I had made all my pieces, I wove them together (my pattern called for it since several of my pieces crossed each other, but if your pieces don't cross just lay them out as they go together) and assessed how I wanted to put it together. Then I took it all apart and began to attach. I started in the center, which I would recommend for most designs.

5. I then wrapped wire tightly around my joints a few times.  I just put the pieces on one at a time. For my design, I wrapped the very middle of the two scroll pieces first. I then added one of the loopy hangers and attached it to the scrolls and then added the other in the same manner. Last, I wrapped the two loopy hangers together on the ends. The numbers in the picture indicate the order things were wrapped.

6. Finally, paint. I would recommend spray painting. You could really do these any color. Mine is just a glossy black, but you can purchase metallic spray paint in a wrought iron color or do a fun accent color to make it stand out. You could even spray paint other accessories like in this blog post from Savvy Sugar in the same color to tie the room together.

I am not actually making a wall hanging; I have something much bigger in mind that may yet fail and leave me with a bunch of wall hangings. But at least they are pretty. In any case, I was just so excited about how well this was working I really wanted to share it with you. I have a long way to go before this project is done.







Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish with a wire hanger and a good pair of pliers?

Wax-dipped Paper Snowflake Ornaments

Baby Food Jar Apples