DIY Chevron Canvas, Guest Post by A Blog About Everything

Hi there! I’m Leslie from A Blog About Everything. I write a lifestyle blog that’s full of a little bit of….well…everything. I’m so excited to be guest blogging here at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating! I’m going to share with you a little DIY chevron wall art project I did to spruce up my bedroom. 

 

The wall above my bed was seeming very sparse and the blank, white space just seemed to be calling out to me to cover it up with something colorful.

absolutely drab.

 

So I conjured up an idea in my head that I would become an artist and paint a giant canvas to slap up there. This canvas was to include chevrons. Are you sick of chevrons yet? Because I’m not. If I had it my way, everything would be chevroned. Including the canvas above my bed.

I didn’t have a spare canvas laying around, but if you did, you could just paint over it and use that. I moseyed on over to Hob Lob and used a 40% off coupon to purchase mine. For the paint, I knew that I would need lots (because I really have no idea what I’m doing) so I decided to use house paint. Its much easier to pick the exact colors you want without having to mix (or so I thought) and its much more cost effective. I purchased Behr sample pots in three different colors for about $3 each.

 

To make the chevron pattern I used painter’s tape and a right angle tool to mark off crisp lines. I found it to be easiest to start at the bottom and work my way up. I only had to use to right angle for the first row and then used the tape as my guide for each subsequent stripe. Using a craft knife, i was able to cut the excess tape used to mark off the chevrons in order to get a sharp angle.

To measure all of the other lines i used the width of the tape as my guide. I used painter's tape in a 1inch width. For the thickest chevrons i used two pieces of tape, side by side,  as a template for where to place the next chevron. Does that even make sense? If not, here's a picture:

two pieces of tape mark the two-inch space between chevrons.

I wanted the chevrons to gradually get darker as well as thicker as they progressed down the canvas. They start out at one inch apart, graduate to one and a half inches, then end up being two inches apart towards the bottom.  Measuring and taping took me about one episode of One Tree Hill (I’m embarrassingly obsessed with that show right now…it’s on Netflix instant play).

Once you’re taped off, you’re ready to paint! I had three colors I intended on working with for this project: a light gray (Stone Fence), a light blue (Newport Blue), and a darker blue (Heron) .

For the three upper rows I used my white base color and gradually added more Stone Fence for each row. I did the same for each color i used in order to make the colors fade in a uniform way.

The more i painted, the more i started to dislike the Stone Fence color. The gray was just too dark for the look that I was going for. It seemed to dry a lot darker than the swatch I had initially picked out. I wasn’t feeling the final product, so once i was finished I painted over the top 3 rows and started over. That’s what is so great about painting. Don’t like it? Do it again! Van Gogh did it all the time, I’m sure.  Its nothing to stress over…in fact, I loooove knowing that I can just redo it and nobody has to know. Except for all of you. Drat. Anyways, I tossed the grey color to the curb and used the lovely Newport Blue. Same strategy: pour a little blue in a lot of white and then add some more color as you progress rows.

I realized about three rows in that i wasn't going to love the gray.

 

Now all you have to do is peel off the painter’s tape and cross your fingers that you stuck it on well enough. Which I did. In most some places. 

i ended up liking the raw edges. i think it gives it character :)

Here is my end result:

  

I really enjoyed this project. It took me a few hours to complete (not counting a trip to the mall to wait for the paint to dry) and if you go into it with the Just-paint-over-it-if-you-don’t-like-it frame of mind I think you will do just fine. Is my painting perfect? No. Are the chevrons perfectly measured? Absolutely not. And remember how I was trying to pick specific colors to avoid all this mixing? As if. I mixed Every. Single. Color. I, however, really enjoy how it turned out. And it gives a perfect little pop of color to the empty space above my bed. Is this something you would try? Or are you just sick to death of chevrons? Either way, I hoped you liked this little DIY and that it will inspire you to do jazz up some of your empty walls.

 

If you liked this DIY, then pop on over to A Blog About Everything, follow me on twitter, or stalk my pinterest boards. I would love to hear from you!