DIY fabric wall art

We've been in our apartment for a few years now, and while it feels very lived in, there are still so many things we could do to make it home-y. For instance, we could fill the big white space above the television. Our open concept living/dining area is pretty awesome. It's rectangularly-shaped with windows along one of the long sides and one of the short sides. We get tons of natural light! The third wall is our photo wall, my pride and joy. The photo and window walls are also accent walls that are painted a rich and toasty tan {we were too lazy to paint the entire apt}. So three of our walls are covered and one is naked as a jaybird. 

After scouring the interwebs for some inspiration, I finally decided on DIY fabric art {and yeah, that should NOT have taken three years to settle on}. One type of DIY fabric art is simply stretching fabric over a canvas and slapping it up on the wall. This is the method I chose, and here's how it all went down:

Four 12x30 canvasses from JoAnn Fabric. They have a pretty decent teacher discount. 

2 yards of Kajsastina fabric from Ikea. I'm on a dandelion kick lately-- so I just went with it. I originally bought some fabric from Joann, but realized the next day it wasn't for me. {Word to the wise, do not shop for fabric after a couple glasses of vino.}

I laid the panel over my canvasses and cut enough to wrap around the back edges.

Hospital corners worked best for me... and they weren't too tough at all. I figured the mister {who spent some time at West Point} would have been able to bust them all out pretty easily, but he was too busy watching MacGyver on Netflix. 

After lots of pulling, folding and stapling, I had the first panel! 

Had a little mishap after the fourth panel... unfortunately, the staple gun was a casualty. 

I was totally OK with the original color when I bought the fabric, but once all the panels were done, something seemed a little off. I went back to one of the fabrics I purchased a couple days earlier, draped it over the panels and it looked like...

...this! I can dig it. {btw, this isn't the fabric that wouldn't work. That couple yards is still chilling out under our coffee table.}

So I had to drape panels all over again. Sheer fabric is a little more finicky to deal with— thus stretching this project over a few more days than I was hoping for. 

Thankfully, I had a little help.

And we finally got them done today.

Here are the panels on the wall. I promise, they're not crooked—I used a level and everything. {apparently I just don't know how to hold a camera}. 

So, I'm enjoying the covered wall, but now I'm thinking I'd like a shelf or mantle right below the canvasses. We actually have a few shelves we haven't put up yet, but THAT's a project for another day!

 

✳✳✳