If you’ve seen my last post about our living room, you might have noticed we have a big, bold, canvas hanging above the fireplace. Well, I’ve had quite a few comments about it since it went on the wall and as it’s homemade I thought I’d post the ‘how to’ in case you fancy something like it in your house too.
Liz sent me a photo of her canvas about 6 months ago when they overhauled their entire house (think knocking down walls, converting lofts, painting everything awesome colours, upcycling furniture!) She wanted a piece of art for her walls, couldn’t find one, so made one. I fell in love with the idea and vowed to make one when we had our house sorted. I couldn’t wait for the house to be sorted, but once we’d ordered the sofa and I had an idea of the colour scheme, I went ahead and did it!
What you’ll need;
- Large canvas – I got this 90x90cm one from Home Bargains for just £5.99. I know it won’t be the highest quality but it’s worked fine for me.
- Tester paint pots in the colours of your choice. I chose our colours to match the cushions on the sofa, and used some of the leftovers from picking wall colours!
- Frog tape – or a tape with paint sealed edges.
- Paint brushes.
What to do;
I started with by laying the canvas on the floor and taping out the shapes. I’ll be honest. I wasn’t sure what I was aiming for and just started throwing lines across each other. Liz’s tip was to use Frog Tape rather than masking tape and I’d suggest you do too as it doesn’t bleed.
Once I was happy with all the lines, (and I’d corrected the ones that had somehow curved) I started planning out the colours in my head. I probably should have thought ahead more and re-drawn the pattern on paper, but as my main plan was to make sure that none of the colours ‘touched’, and that giant triangle was always going to be the only red space, I thought I’d got it sorted.
The Crown paint I bought came in tubes with foam applicators, which made it super easy to apply, just squeeze and rub. The other testers I bought were Homebase own brand and didn’t come with the paint brushes in the lid like I expected, so I had to go and dig out paint brushes. For reference, B&Q own brand testers do!
I then painted my colours in the spaces between the tapes. This is where the plan would have been helpful as I kept forgetting what went where. I also made sure to paint right over the sides and to the edges so that it would be finished – I bought a canvas that didn’t do this and it’s pissed me off ever since. The most difficult bit of this stage was keeping Flash from walking over the canvas……he’s not that into crafting.
Once the paint was dried (I waited overnight as I really didn’t want to have messed up) I carefully peeled the painters tape away and marvelled in the frog tapes abilities to not let the paint bleed!
Then I waited 6 weeks for the living room to be plastered, painted and re-carpeted, to be able to hang it.
And you know what? I love it. It ties together the red and purple of the sofa (which I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure about – it’s a far cry from the yellow and blue I wanted) with the rest of the room, and as it’s so big, it doesn’t make the fireplace look all massive in the room which I feared it might.
And because I found the canvas in Home Bargains so cheap, it was all for under £15. What do you think? Love it or hate it?
Definitely love it! I might try a smaller size for our boring hallway!
Wow that looks amazing – so professional! Well done you! x
My SIL is doing a series of 3 for her hallway. The plan is to tape them all together so they match up, then split the 3 up. I think it'll be really cool – she just needs to decide on the colours!
Thank you. It came out much better than I imagined it might 😉
I love it – it is so super fun and bright.
I absolutely love it. It looks fantastic!x