July 23, 2014

Huckleberry Love: ∙Pottery Barn Inspired∙ Fabric Wall Art

Hey you guys! This is Lydia, one of the ladies behind Huckleberry Love, and I am so excited to be contributing again here at FromG2B! We are having such a great time sharing our ideas with you and we are so thankful to Becca for having us!

Recently, I have been transforming my oldest daughter's room into her "Big Girl" room. We decided on a palette of blues, pinks and greens and I am having so much fun decorating with her. She gets so excited about the projects and her favorite one of all is this project I'm sharing with you today. 




I came up with the idea after looking through some old magazine pages that I ripped out for inspiration {please tell me I am not the only one with folders just full of magazine pictures}. This particular picture was from a Pottery Barn catalog.




I loved this patchwork canvas art but didn't have a place for it at the time. And now that I do have the space, they don't sell it anymore. Cue sad music. So, what's any good DIYer to do? Make it herself, which is just what I did. 




First, I found this amazing, ornate large frame {it's 35" by 23"} on a Facebook garage sale site. I picked this up for only $10, if you can believe it. 



I painted over the gold with some leftover Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint and I love how it turned out. Chalk paint can seriously paint over just about anything. 


After we hung it on the wall, using some heavy duty screws, I measured the inside of the frame to figure out how large my letters should be. 





Using my Silhouette program, I drew a rectangle the size of my frame and after I found the font I liked, I enlarged the words to fit within the rectangle. Once I was happy with size of the font, I printed out the letters {since the letters were so large, I had to cut them so they would fit on a page, then I just taped them back together once they were cut out}. 



I used my I-Beam Level and drew straight lines on the wall and placed my letters within the frame to make sure I liked the way it looked. Once I was happy with the placement, I ironed my fabric, traced the letters and cut them out. 


The fabric is Tanya Whelan's Sunshine Roses collection, which is the same fabric that Jill used in her DIY Fabric Hoop Art. Total coincident but just goes to show you why we love blogging together--great minds think alike. And apparently, decorate alike too. 


Now that my letters were cut out, I mixed up a batch of starch to apply them to the wall. I used the recipe recommended here which is:


1/4 cup cornstarch mixed into 1/2 cup cold water,then mixed with 4 cups of boiling water




I laid down some plastic to protect the bed and used a cookie sheet and a paint brush to liberally apply the starch solution to the back of the fabric letters. 


Then, using the pre-drawn lines, I arranged the letters on the wall and smoothed some more starch on top of the fabric. I worked out any wrinkles and bubbles with my fingers. 

And that's it! I let it dry, re-hung the frame and my daughter has a truly awesome piece of art for her wall. 




The cool thing about this process is that the walls are not damaged at all and I can simply peel the letters off when I am ready for a change.


I plan on moving my littlest daughter into this bedroom eventually {she is in the nursery/guest room right now} and when I do, I will simply save the L and the E from the word LOVE and reapply them over each of their beds, since their names start with those letters. Thinking ahead, guys. That's what I do. 



I love, love, love how this project turned out and how simple it was to make such a huge impact in my little girl's Big Girl room.







Lydia is one of four bloggers behind Huckleberry Love. She is the lucky wife and mother of 3 little rascals {ages 4, 2, and 7 months} who keep her days busy and her laundry basket overflowing. When she isn't running after her offspring, she loves to sew, re-purpose and makeover furniture, read {anything and everything!}, watch movies, go antiquing, and eat Italian food. A native Texan, she prefers the ocean to the mountains, beer to wine, and action movies to rom-coms. 





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