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.

Decoupaged Furniture for Auction

My first grader's school was having an auction and needed a classroom project. I was due to teach an art appreciation class on Rene Magritte with another mom volunteer. This seemed like a good opportunity to have the kids create something that could possibly be sold.

If you're not familiar with Magritte's work, he's a surrealist that rendered people and objects sharply - but arranged his images in unexpected ways. You've probably seen the man with an apple or dove in front of his face.

When I think Magritte, immediately blue skies with white clouds spring to mind. That's the backdrop in many of his surrealist scenes. I thought I could paint a sky like that, then have the kids découpage on images that the artist liked to use.

We reached out to other parents and received two donated pieces of furniture. My co-teacher hit thrift shops and found a little side table that could work. She also printed lots of images and painstakingly cut out their shapes so they were ready to be applied.

 

Tip: magazines usually have print on both sides, which can bleed through. We googled images and used a laser printer. Don't use an inkjet because that just sprays ink onto the page, which will bleed if it gets wet - which is necessary for découpage.

I painted the donated items with chalk paint (leftover from the mud room wall project, covered in an earlier post). Because that type of paint goes on fast, does not require primer, and doesn't generate  fumes, I could take care of this step inside on a cold winter day while my kids napped (or pretended to). Now I had the basic blue background for the sky.

Next I started with the smaller table, adding clouds. It took much longer than I thought it would; I was adding other blues into the sky and fussing around a bit. The larger piece, the desk, was still waiting for its clouds - and suddenly this seemed like a daunting task. I had to simplify. 

Using a gel medium, I thinned out the white paint and started on the desk. I got the shapes of clouds in, and they were smeary... but as each layer of paint dried I could come back in and brighten areas with white. That gave the low-lights and brighter areas I wanted, all with just white paint, so the background did not need to be touched again.

I repeated this on the round tabletop that was found at a thrift store. The strange thing about that was, it's 3 legs were slightly different lengths. That, or the hardware they screwed into was faulty. Ether way, the other mother and I tried sawing them, to no avail. So I thought - lazy susan! They are round and just require the spinning turntable. A quick search on Amazon yielded an inexpensive but decently rated option. When it was delivered, I used Liquid Nails to adhere it. The top was particle board so I was a bit nervous, but it seemed to hold on tight. 

Now the furniture was ready for the kids. The other mom and I met at school, taught the first graders a little about Magritte, then lined them up. Each chose an image, grabbed a sponge brush, and swabbed an area with mod podge. We helped them smooth the printouts and clean up extra dribbles and blobs. As creative as kids are, most mimicked the person before them, so we had several clusters of the same image. After each first grader got at least two tries at attaching images onto the furniture, we called it a day. It looked a little messy but we knew the mod podge would dry clear.

When I got home I attached a few more images to break up some of the monotony. You can only have  so many green apples in a row and keep the composition interesting!

Next I pulled out the spar urethane. I swabbed his on with extra foam brushes, starting with areas that were somewhat out of sight, just in case something unexpected happened. Good thing - something unexpected did happen. Some of the images were getting a "soaked" look on the edges - something that hadn't happened with the mod podge. I guess the extra chemicals in the varnish were seeping in and impacting the paper or printed color.

Tip: go back over all of the decoupaged images with mod podge, making sure each edge is covered so no moisture can seep in later. In the butterfly image above, note how there is a rim of white mod podge caught on each edge - that's what you want.

After that, the varnish went on seamlessly. The pieces were ready to go. Now I have to wait and see if they fetch anything at the auction.

This was a pretty easy project. Tedious at times, but not difficult. Minimal supplies are required. Try it yourself!

Medicine cabinet decoupage (spring 2012)

Late-night transformation of a stock medicine cabinet into something more personal

For some reason, near midnight on a Thursday I thought it would be a good idea to try out an idea that had been rattling around my head for awhile. When the mood strikes, I guess... What I wanted to do was take a stock white medicine cabinet and paper the interior with something colorful and patterned.

In its original state

I wasn't sure if I should try wallpaper; I did not need a lot of material, and I don't know of any local shop where I could see the patterns in person. I saw mention of scrap booking paper for decoupage cut-outs. So when I had a free moment I ducked into a Michaels store. Turns out the scrap booking craze has left some detritus in its wake, in the form of a clearance section with heavy, almost card stock patterned paper. I found a few books of about 20 sheets for less than $3 each and figured that was an investment I could safely make - even if I completely screwed up this project.

Supplies (plus Mod Podge)

When I was a kid, my Mom always had a pot of Mod Podge nearby, which we used all the time. I was glad to see they still make it (and have not changed the label in 30 years, so it was easy to spot). This would serve as adhesive and water-proofing, so the paper would not absorb steam from the shower and buckle. Of course, this is a permanent solution - if I wallpapered, I believe the paste is more forgiving. But I figured that this could always be covered over again.

In progress (a single piece would not fit the entire back so I opted for a collage)

I started by choosing a few sheets that had the watery colors already in the bathroom. Then I cut up the sheets into more manageable chunks. Intact, they were not wide or long enough to span the back of the medicine cabinet, and I did not want a noticeable seam. I figured, why not go for a collage, as the patterned pieces I chose were already busy. By layering them willy-nilly, there would be little expectation that things would line up perfectly.

Finished product

It was fun to slop on the mod podge and stick the triangles of paper on the background. It went up fast - immediate gratification. I'm not sure it is as attractive as I'd hoped, but I like it much better than the blank white background.

Now the odds and ends that collect in here sort of merge with the background...

Cost: <$5
Time to complete: a few hours