Have you ever hung wallpaper? Some types are pre-glued and other kinds must have the glue applied by you. Either way, its very helpful to use a trough. The plastic troughs are often provided when you purchase wallpaper. If not, they are sold at home improvement stores. The troughs are cheap and long making them perfect for creating shelves for displaying your miniatures or other decor pieces for your home.
Although the troughs are not extremely sturdy they work well for holding quite a few lightweight objects. Collections of thimbles, beanie babies, tiny pictures, and similarly small sets can easily be held by the plastic trough. Paint the troughs first and youll have colorful or elegant shelving in minutes. Even though the trough can be hung as-is, without a paint job, most of them come in dull colors of black or gray. Use special paints made especially for plastics to cover the trough in bright colors or elegant metallic shades.
There are other ways you can create designs on the painted or unpainted trough. Colored electrical tape is just one example. The tape is found at any home improvement store and is available in different widths and types. Use the tape to make stripes, plaids or other designs. Its an easy way to add color and interest in minutes. Hang the decorated troughs by screwing them into the wall with the bottom of the trough against the wall. Set miniatures on top of the trough as well as inside. Turn the trough around, and hang it with the open side against the wall, and make a completely different shelf. The first design holds more miniatures but either shelf makes a big impact in most any room. Use a large sticker in the center front of the trough to create a touch of elegance. The finished shelves look great in a bedroom to hold small toys, in a den to hold a displayed collection, or even in a bathroom to hold soaps and wash cloths. Create a set of the shelves by attaching several of them to a wall. Place them, one under the other, or create a different design for the shelf arrangements. Create totally different shelves by hanging the trough vertically on the wall. Glue decorated cardboard pieces into the trough, from top to bottom on the inside, and space them far apart. Make several of the shelves and glue them in place. Set beanie babies or other miniatures on the homemade shelves. Make the above creation, but set it on a desk instead, to create a cool organizer. The cardboard pieces become separators and create compartments for holding paper clips, stapler and staples, pens and pencils, markers, cd roms and more. Set this trough on the floor of a childs room and the compartments can hold sets of shoes. Make something completely different by turning the glue trough into a planter for a fireplace mantle. Glue Styrofoam into the bottom of the trough then arrange flowers, leaves, vines and similar items in the trough. Allow some of the flowers and leaves to hang over the sides of the planter, in the front and on the sides. Glue on tiny craft butterflies or even fake bugs. The unique creation is simple yet beautiful. Make something similar for outdoors. Poke a couple holes in the bottom of the trough. Put in rocks, gravel, marbles or other weights so the planters can be set on window ledges of deck railings. Create the flower arrangement you want then set the finished trough outside. Make a little "Welcome" sign to stick in the arrangement for a front porch. If youve recently done a wallpaper job yourself, or you plan to do one in the near future, clean and keep the glue trough. Use it alone or purchase similar troughs to make sets of shelving or other decor pieces. Theyre so fun and easy to do youll soon have one - or more - in every room!
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