Bonk-Friendly Wall Art (Autumn 2014)

Ugly blank wall

Recently I moved my furniture around and shoved both of our kitchen benches along one wall. When I built the benches (previous post) I made sure they could go from an l-formation to a straight line. Moving them was my husband's suggestion, and that created much more seating around the long table we had just inherited from my downsizing mother in law. (If you read the previous post, you'll remember that the benches had feet. I had to remove them so people seated around the table didn't lose their knee caps).

Previous wall covering had frames with glass (detailed in another blog post)

Now the benches backed up against the frames I hung on that wall to fill a big void (see previous post). I did not think anything of that, until the next time I had people over. I noticed my father in law doing strange contortions and piling up pillows behind him to avoid bumping his head into the glass. I needed to do something! I really liked the colors, pattern and size of the wall covering... but I couldn't risk hurting someone.

I wanted to get something on this wall fast. What could heads safely bump into? I browsed through various tapestries and fabrics online, thinking I could hang one over that area... but they were either too expensive, too college dorm-ish, or just too much fabric (the bench already incorporates several loud motifs). Should I try to paint a small mural, either right on the wall or maybe on a spare piece of luan that I had lying around? Nah, I still haven't completed the large mural on the abutting wall. I thought of the decoupage project, but wasn't inspired. I had leftover tiles from the mud room wall project (see previous post) but did not feel like affixing something permanently in that area. A painting would not work, because a head would dent the stretched canvas.

So I grabbed the luan (this is a thin type of plywood/veneer) and held it up. Not perfect, but large enough to fill the space. No way was I going to bother cutting it - it had square edges already, which is more than I could achieve with my tools. I had to find something to cover it with, and then I could affix it to the wall as a temporary solution.

Scrap book paper and luan board that I had lying around

Next I dug up a sheaf of scrap book paper that I bought on clearance at Michael's awhile back (used in a previous post to cover the back of my medicine cabinet). I had chevrons in my head, a pattern that's probably almost past its peak but that I had not used yet. So I pulled together a cutting board, a metal ruler and a kitchen knife (I could not find my exacto... BTW I did eye the pizza cutter, but it was useless on the thick paper). Next I started to slice the scrap board paper into strips. If you attempt this, be very careful with your blade! I pulled it towards me while putting pressure on the straight edge, and a few times came close to jabbing my leg.

Laying out a pattern with the scrap paper strips

When I had enough strips, I started to assemble them along the edge of the board. There were plenty of colors and patterns to choose from, and I threw them together fairly haphazardly. I just wanted something on my wall, it didn't have to be a permanent piece!

Glue + paper = curling, so I grabbed whatever was handy to weigh the edges down

Now that I had a plan, I had to figure out how to adhere the strips of paper. Elmer's glue was handy, and it's pretty much the same as mod podge as far as I could tell - at least, I knew it would dry clear if I made any mistakes. I did not want a huge smear of glue under the paper, causing it to buckle, so I just dotted the edges. Still, the paper started to bend and warp, so I weighed it down.

Around this time my kids came upstairs and asked what I was doing. They wanted to help, of course, so I asked them to feed me the strips of paper that they thought I should glue down next. That made the process less tedious and much faster.

Strips of paper overlap the edges so they can be bent over and cover all of the wood backing

The kids got bored after the whole surface was covered and ran outside, which was good, because the glue needed to dry and this was taking up our walking area in the kitchen. A neighbor stopped by, so we had a glass of wine while I turned under the corner strips of paper to make a neat edge, then waited for everything to be dry.

Finally came the moment of truth: hanging this on the wall. Our walls are plaster with metal mesh behind it, which is a real nightmare when we want to attach anything. I opted for screws this time, in case the wood buckled, and thankfully they seemed to grip pretty well. I didn't know where our level was so father in law and husband eyeballed the placement and helped hold it up while I drilled.

When I finally stepped back I was... underwhelmed. For one thing, the dimensions are pretty awkward... There is a strange gap between the cushions and the bottom of the hanging, and it overlaps the light switch slightly. The other thing that bothered me was the colors - too pastel-y for the space. Everything else has rich colors, but this scheme was more seashore than hacienda.

Old wall hanging, arranged differently, now brightens one of the dark family room walls.

Oh well, it's done, and it didn't cost me anything, and nothing went to waste. Most importantly, people can sit against this without fear. I'll find a more permanent solution in the future.

Update Nov. 2015:

I couldn't live with the pastel chevrons for very long. I decided to go for fabric instead. I headed to the Calico Corners up the street and looked at the sale scraps (I only needed a few yards). None of the remnants would have looked cohesive. I spoke to a sales lady and described the problem, and the colors I was working with. She suggested a few fabrics and this seemed like it had the right scale and color scheme to cover that wall behind the bench:

Strip of fabric with similar colors but a different scale to add depth to blah area

Still not perfect but better than nothing. And no one is worried about leaning back when they sit on the bench.