DIY Beachy Wall Art

I loooove beach cottage decor and when I got a or letter from Shannon at Project Shannon, I couldn’t wait to share it with you.  It got lost in my inbox, but I just re-discovered it. or you would have seen this sooner (sorry Shannon!).  Here is her tutorial:

 

DIY Art: box frame

A few weeks back I came across a really interesting website, conveniently named, Pale and Interesting.  The website honestly deserves a whole post.  It’s full of home decor items, great gift ideas, and really unique things – all {almost} void of color.

But this post is about a frame I saw on P&I, and just loved.  I thought to myself, “Hey, this would look so great in my living room – perhaps one on either side of the TV?  Adorn that wall with something other than a plasma?”

 Pale and Interesting
But at 80 pounds (yeah, the one drawback, everything is expensive and is located in the UK) – there was
no WAY I would be purchasing two of these babies.  But it looks simple enough.  So I set out to make this, instead.

But the Hubby had the idea that white frames, with a white mat, with white sand dollars, might be a little…well, white for the wall.  So why didn’t we make the mat something more visually interesting?  Instead of buying special frame mats, which might cost a bit more, I could cover an existing mat in something with texture.  We visited a couple craft and specialty paper stores, before the Hubby decided that burlap was the look he wanted.


So I purchased two white Ikea Ribba 9″ square box frames, cost: $6.99 each.  I picked up a 1/2 yard of burlap fabric at my local Joann’s, cost: $2.99/yard.  I found a website where I could buy “cookie” sand dollars.  I needed 18 sand dollars for the two frames (and I bought a few extra in case some were damaged during shipping – but they arrived in great condition!), cost: $.12 each.  I already had Fabri-Tac on hand, cost: free.  So the cost
per frame totaled: $9.57.  Much better than 80 pounds – plus conversion cost!


First, I disassembled the frame, and cut a piece of burlap to size, with roughly an inch of fabric around all four sides.  Next, I cut an “X” from corner to corner within the center of the frame, so I could wrap the fabric from the inside.

I began wrapping and gluing….starting on the inside….(notice I snipped off the corners so the fabric wouldn’t overlap the outside edge of the mat.)
I also made sure to dab a bit of glue in each inside corner, so the burlap wouldn’t fray and look unkempt in the frame.

…then working my way to the outside.

Until I had nicely covered picture frame matting.


Then I assembled everything into the frame, but
removed the glass, so I could position the sand dollars, while seeing how it would “look” as a finished product.

I actually used the back of the Ikea paper template, and glued the sand dollars directly to it.  If you wanted to alter the hue of this backdrop, it would be easy to cut a piece of printer paper or card stock to size.  Fabri-Tac worked really well as an adhesive for this project, and I didn’t have any concerns about drying, ripple-effect on the paper, or similar.

But it came out great!


They are the perfect size for the wall.  Doesn’t my version look just as good as the original?
 
Isn’t that beautiful?  And – she did two of them for $20!  What a deal!  Definitely an idea I plan to use for our guest bedroom makeover!  Thanks for sharing your creativity Shannon!  I love it!  And I do like it better than the original – love the texture from the burlap matte!
Check out Shannon’s pretty basement dress up project too.
Niski says hi!  Bit of a set back yesterday with a UTI and more meds, but overall…hanging in there!
~*~*~
This post is brought to you by
With deck hidden fasteners you have no more worries about stubbed toes during your 4th of July deck celebration.

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