Acute How-To: DIY Art Canvas

I have a huge blank wall in my guest bedroom/studio that I needed to fill and decided to make a little diy piece of art.

I considered buying a large canvas, but could not find anything large enough that was also affordable…so I made my own.

This project is inexpensive and fairly easy.  If you are a renter like myself, it is an easy way to transform a room without painting or marking up your rented walls. 

This entire project cost me less than $40 – such a deal for a huge wall hanging!

What you will need:

• 8 wood crafter sticks – these can be bought at Home Depot or Lowes.  They come in a variety of lengths and you can have them cut the wood to your desired length.  I was making a 4 foot x3 foot canvas, so I bought four 4 foot sticks and cut them at home {a basic saw will cut through these thin pieces of wood}.  I also bought four 2 foot sticks as support to the back of the frame.
• A piece of canvas that is large enough to cover your frame.  I bought one and a half yards {or 4 ½’} of cream colored canvas.  You can find this at any basic fabric store.
• Staple gun and staples {or small nails and a hammer}
• Wood glue
• Paint, stencils, etc.

Step One:

Once you have your frame pieces {the longer sticks of wood} cut to your desired size, use your wood glue to glue them together in a rectangular frame shape.  Wait a few hours for the glue to dry.

Step Two:

Use a staple gun {or you could use tiny nails, but a staple gun is so simple and a basic one costs less than $20} to reinforce the four corners that you glued in step one.

Step Three:

Flip the frame over and glue the four shorter “reinforcement sticks” in order to create a hexagon like shape.  Once the glue has dried, again staple the spots for a little extra hold.

Step Four:

Lay your piece of canvas flat on the ground and set the frame on top of it.  Carefully fold over the four sides and staple gun them down.  Try to pull the canvas somewhat tight if you can {I found this hard to do}.

Step Five:

Use your creativity and paint the canvas.  I am not one that can draw or paint a beautiful picture, so I decided to do chevron lines.  I used blue painter’s tape and filled in the lines with a golden yellow paint. 

Once the paint was dry, I removed the tape and used a cherry blossom stencil on the top left corner.

If you decide to do chevron lines – make sure you have your patience on hand….the taping step can be a little tedious.  I had to stop and start over twice in order to get the lines somewhat symmetrical.

Feel free to be creative – stencil, create an abstract design, or even use a striped canvas for a simple and chic wall adornment.

If you decide to do this project – link up. I would love to see your creations!