4/21/11

DIY Awesomeness: Fabric Art

Going on the fourth day of DIY Awesomeness Series, I am proud to present a cost saving project from one of my closest and dearest friends, Brienn Darr! 



This girl loves DIY projects and is not afraid of any of them! (Like her couch and love seat she found on Craigslist for $50 which she is hoping to reupholster.) Brienn lives in Indianapolis with her husband, J.J. and dog, Moe.Together they brainstorm and master some major house projects!

Check out Brienn's easy idea for wall art:

Do you have blank walls that need some fun art? Well, usually my husband and I agree on most decorating ideas, but we just couldn’t agree on wall art. So, our walls stayed sad for a little while until we decided to look for some fabric and make our own art. We looked online and found some we really liked from Ikea and we knew we would be traveling up to Chicago sometime, so we could pick it up! So here’s our super easy, and cheap (for art that is) fabric art project. Enjoy!

Materials Needed:

Fun Fabric that you LOVE!
Canvases – from stores like Hobby Lobby
Staple Gun
A partner to help hold the fabric tight

Pick out your fabric. We picked some fun gray and white fabric with curvy lines and then some yellow and white stripes to even out the curves on the gray. Even Moe loves the fabric!


Buy your canvases. We went with craft canvases from Hobby Lobby that were on sale. You could probably just use a wooden frame – but we liked the idea of having the canvas already stretched across the wood so it would create a smooth finish with the fabric.

Next, iron your fabric if needed!

Then lay your fabric out and place your canvas on top. Before you cut and staple – carefully look at the other side to see what is centered. With our gray fabric – we tried to get certain canvases with larger designs and then some with smaller designs. With the yellow striped – we wanted to make sure everything was straight. Once you find where you want it, carefully cut around the canvas leaving extra inches on each side so you can staple it to the back of the canvas.

After that line up your fabric again and double check it is where you want. Then, staple one side of the fabric, making sure everything is staying straight on the front. The second edge we stapled was the edge opposite the first. This is where a second person comes in handy so they can hold it tight while you staple! Keep pulling tight and stapling around. The back doesn’t have to look pretty, so staple as much as you need!
Finally hang it! And just think, if you “grow out” of the fabric style in a couple years, you don’t have to feel bad about changing it because you didn’t spend a lot of money!



Simple enough Brienn! Thanks for showing us how to not only fill our walls but save some serious cash. These are especially great for college door rooms, apartments, or transitional pieces. Nice work, friend!

2 comments:

gina said...

Love the art. Love the artists. Love the post :)

Lena said...

I love the colors and the idea!