Wall Art...sort of!

Another day, another project finished...well, that isn't exactly how it goes around here, but here is a quick little project I whipped up after staring at a huge blank space in my dining room for 6 months. My dear friend Brooke, visited me not long ago and told me that I really needed a big, bold piece for that wall. I sheepishly told her I had found one that I loved, but wasn't quite willing to spend the $149 on it. We talked about it and by the time she left, I knew I was heading back to TJ Maxx the next day to get my canvas. Fast forward to the next day...I was SO excited as I raced to TJM's and lo and behold my the canvas was GONE. I was so sad and was just positive I would never find anything to fill the empty void in my soul on my wall. As I was doing some ironing in my guest room, I happened to glance upon the fabric covered canvases that I had made for some eye candy in that room...and I figured, why not? Why not do the same idea in my dining room? It could be a fun piece that I could have until I really found what was supposed to go on that wall. So, the next day I went shopping for a large canvas...and I found them at HL for $50. Hmmm. I really didn't want to spend $50 on a canvas that I was going to cover up. So I decided to build my own canvas frame. Off to the big orange store...where I picked up the pieces I would need for the bargain basement price of...$1.40. It was only on my way home that I remembered the table cloth...no, I am not off topic here. I had purchased a table cloth from Target a few weeks earlier because I liked it...and because it was on sale. I don't use table cloths on my tables, but for some reason this one spoke to me and begged to be put into my cart. I knew that this cloth would be the perfect piece to make my wall art from. Take a look!

First, I built the frame...I made this frame 36x48 - I used some 1/2" lath, mitred the corners, fit them together, glued the joints and then stapled it all together.

Since my table cloth was round, I cut it into a rectangle (so that I wouldn't have as much excess on the back) and laid my frame on top of it. Given that the fabric was white, I was easily able to see the pattern through the wrong side, making it easy to line up the frame exactly where I wanted it placed on the fabric.

Then I started stapling. I worked at one end, making sure it was stapled tightly before moving to the other end and stretching the fabric as tightly as I could without making wrinkles. I did the same thing on the other two sides. Then I put up some nails using my handy laser level and hung it up on the wall. It is so light that I there was no need for hangers on the back of the frame...the frame itself sits on top of the nails in the wall.

I think it is beautiful! It really made my dining room pop!

It was only after hanging this fun piece on the wall, did I actually look around my dining room. It really wasn't working for me. Brooke had told me that she thought my ladder shelves needed to anchor the window, but I was adamant that I couldn't fit the china hutch in the room (due to a light switch) if the shelves were both on the window wall. So I had the disjunctive look of one shelf on the wall, one by the window, the china hutch jammed in the corner and my big square table taking up all the rest of the space. I knew it was time for a change. So, I took the leaf out of the table, reducing the size by about 20 inches. I don't use it often enough that putting the leaf in will be any great chore. Then I moved the china hutch out of its corner and moved the other ladder shelf to the window wall. Brooke was right...they needed to be together. But WHAT was I going to do with my china hutch? It was just too tall to sit on the one wall. Hmmmm...so I took it apart. I used the lower buffet part to anchor the wall with the new canvas and used the hutch as a shelf on the other wall...which was a last minute decision and is not shown in the picture below. I cannot believe how much it opened up the room and gave it a modern and classy feel!

">I am linking to :


Thanks for checking me out!