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This Dollar Tree DIY West Elm inspired decorative bowl hits the mark. It’s possibly better than the inspiration!
I was recently scrolling through West Elm’s website and this bowl caught my eye immediately. I lucked out and had just gone on a Dollar Tree bender a couple days before so I had everything I needed ready to go.
Here’s the full YouTube tutorial if you’d like to watch that, including 3 other DIY’s, or you can scroll down for the tutorial.
West Elm Inspiration
Here’s a look at the inspiration from West Elm. I love how modern this bowl is. It has some of that Mid-Century flare as well, which I’m a total sucker for.
This bowl would fit right in with the rest of my home.

Unfortunately the original price is $40.00 and, as you all know, I just can’t get myself to pay that much for a bowl.
West Elm Inspired Bowl Supplies
12″ long dowel rods (I bought these at DT but also found some for less on Amazon, linked below)
wooden round from DT in the craft section
hot glue (I use gorilla hot glue)
glue gun
black spray paint
I initially planned on using a combination of E-6000 and hot glue. The Gorilla glue ended up working better by itself though.
You can decide which way to go depending on how strong the hot glue is that you’re using.
Dollar Tree DIY West Elm Inspired Bowl
Dollar Tree carries several wooden shapes in their crafting section. This round piece is perfect to use for the center of this bowl.
The dowels will hang about 3″ down from the bottom of the wooden round piece to create the base of the bowl.
To place the first dowel you want to run a bead of glue on the side of the round then place the first dowel rod in to the glue. Place the dowel with 3″ hanging below the round and with the dowel slanted at an angle, as shown below.


After you have the first dowel rod in place you can add another line of hot glue and secure the second dowel rod in place next to the first one.
Try to make sure it’s at the same angle with the same amount of dowel hanging below the wooden round. You want these dowels to be as evenly placed as possible.
Because they’re being glued on to a circle they will not look like they’re lined up perfectly. Each dowel will go off in a slightly different direction than the one before it, which is what you want.

At first the bowl will look odd and you’ll think this isn’t working out well. But as you work your way around it will start to take shape and look more like the inspiration.
Start holding the bowl upright as you add your dowels from here on. This makes it easier to place the dowel right were it needs to go to keep the base of the bowl even.
Each dowel should continue to follow the angle of the one before it.


Once I got closer to the end of the bowl I realized the first few dowels I placed didn’t look as good as the rest. I had gotten the pattern down pretty well after the first few and they just seemed to throw the entire thing off.
I decided to remove and replace them.

At that point I was able to add the last few dowels to the wooden round. There were no issues with them fitting next to each other after removing those few that were off a little bit.


After the dowels were in place I flipped the bowl over and ran a line of hot glue around the inside of the bottom of the bowl.
The dowels were secure without it but since I’m planning on using this bowl I wanted to make it as sturdy as possible.

Painting The Bowl
Lastly I spray painted the bowl.
You’ll want to spray from multiple angles all around the outside, getting in between the dowels as well. Spray from the inside doing the same, getting in between the dowels again.


In all you’ll want to do 2-3 coats getting the bowl fully covered. Set aside to dry.
West Elm Inspired Bowl - Finished Results
This bowl turned out so well. It’s actually bigger than the West Elm inspiration and I think it looks just as good.
What are your favorite West Elm dupes? Let me know what you’ve made down in the comments!

