Restoration Hardware Eye Chart {knock off} Tutorial

There are some awesome creative links in this week’s DIY Project Parade. One of my favorites is this DIY Eye Chart by Becca from Gardners 2 Bergers…

I love her version.

It was inspired by this one from Restoration Hardware…

And I love.LOVE her gallery wall. In fact, everything in this picture…

She felt her “Tumbling E” eye chart would look lonely and kinda sad by itself- so she whipped up another eye chart. This time it was Restoration Hardware’s more traditional “Letters” chart.

If you don’t know Becca – she made her eye charts in Microsoft Word Publisher (free!). She wrote up all the nitty gritty details here – when she showed how to mimic Z Gallerie’s subway art.

Back to the abbreviated directions of her eye chart:

Making an eye chart is a piece of cake.
1] Select a font. Becca recommends fonts here.
2] Create columns on both sides of the page. This is where you will put the distances on each side.
3] Fill in the numbers/letters you want.
4] Choose background colors to create a worn/distressed or weathered look (tutorial for that stage is found here).

-TIP-When she made the 2nd eye chart {the “letters” version} she adapted the 1st “Tumbling E’s” eye chart by replacing the “E’s” with the right letters, using the sizes and spacing as a guide. She also changed up the shading effects for the background- to make sure the two versions wouldn’t look like clones of each other.

So cool!

Inspiration

5] Print’em up. Becca printed up her posters at Staples for only cost me $3.50 for black/white.
6] Attach them to a canvas. She used Mod Podge for a glossy finish.

7] The letters on RH’s eye charts are tan-ish. To keep costs down, Becca painted over top of her letters using craft paint mixed with a little glaze to turn them an off-white color.

I really like that it makes the signs look hand painted and it creates more dimension to the finished piece.

Canvases are 18″x24″ and cost around $5 for both. The prints cost $3.50. Restoration Hardware’s canvases are 24″x30″ and cost $345 EACH for that size!! (Yikes!) That’s a savings of $682.50!!!!

See more details and more DIY from Becca at