Okay, so, these are a little bit of a take it or leave it deal. Obviously they don't look like super high end shelves as you get closer to them because you can see the Popsicle sticks...but these babies are hanging up in our Master bedroom and they're directly opposite the door. When you come into our room you can't see that they're Popsicle sticks and you can't see that they're stained slightly different colors, and you can't see that they're all a little misshapen....
Anyway, let's not look at the negatives. What I'm trying to say is that these are actually adorable if you look at them with a loving, uncritical eye and to be honest, whenever I look at them when I walk into our room, I never think about the negative things that can sometimes accompany a DIY project. I think, "Awh. I love having little succulents in our room. I love having cute little shelves in our room. Wow, I can't believe those shelves only cost me $3 to make." Okay, maybe I don't think all those things every time I see them, I'm probably thinking, "Thank goodness it's bed time/nap time for baby girl. I'm exhausted." But I should be thinking about all those positives I mentioned because these really add to our room and are way fun to have!
As you can tell, I made these from Popsicle sticks, but not just any Popsicle sticks...I made them from Dollar Tree Popsicle sticks. One bag of Dollar Tree Popsicle sticks made one of these shelves so I only had to buy 3 packs of sticks! You can leave the Popsicle sticks the color that they are, which is a light, almost yellow, wooden color. Or you can paint them a fun color! Or you can do what I did and stain them! The second thing you need to decide is what shape to do, I did a little hexagon because I think those are pretty popular right now but you can do triangles, squares, pentagons, etc. Then you just need a hot glue gun and some patience!
Like I said, I stained my Popsicle sticks but I didn't use a real stain. I had brown acrylic paint sitting at home so I put a little in a cup, added some water to make it really thin and then I painted each individual stick and waited for it to dry. That's why some of my sticks turned out darker than others because I didn't have an exact ratio of how much paint to water I used for the stain, but oh well, you live and learn!
Speaking of living and learning, after I hand-painted each stick I realized that I probably could have kept them all their original color, hot glue gunned them all together how I wanted, and THEN painted only the edges that showed, but *shoulder shrug*, I guess I know better for the next project! Plus, now I can say these shelves were truly made with lots of love.
Anyway, to assemble I used 6 sticks at first. I lined them up so each of the edges overlapped with another stick and then I started hot gluing them all together so the corners were made of two Popsicle sticks overlapped with each other. When the base is all done, you repeat this and hot glue each layer together until the shelves are about 10 Popsicle sticks deep (a pretty repetitive job but I listened to music and made silly faces at my baby to pass the time), which gives you the depth to place something on them. These aren't the strongest shelves out there so we used light-weight Dollar Tree succulents but use your judgment on what you think will stay and look cute; you don't have to put anything on them either as the fun-shaped shelves are decoration enough, especially if painted a cool color to give it that extra oomph!
Total cost of shelves: $3
Total cost of shelves + decor: $6
Recap:
Things you'll need for 3 hexagon shelves:
3 packs of Popsicle sticks (Dollar Tree had a pack that had 60 sticks)
Paint, if needed
hot glue gun and glue sticks
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