The Chronicles of Home



{DIY} Canvas Pillows with Painted Deco Design

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As with so many projects around here, these pillows came out of a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right with a previous project. Something about the background color on the peacock pillows I made in June was a little off paired with the fabric on the upholstered bench.  It was too stark a white and I found myself coming back again and again to the idea of doing something with canvas instead.  Earlier this week I bought a $17 cotton canvas drop cloth and sure enough, the color and linen-y texture were virtually an exact match to the oatmeal background color of the ikat bench fabric.
I washed and dried the drop cloth then made two pillow covers out of the canvas fabric using the simple envelope closure technique described here and then sketched my design using pencil and a ruler directly onto the pillowcases.
All of the lines were 1/2″ wide.  The squares at the corners were each spaced 3″ from the pillow edges and were 3″ wide.  The lines that extend out from the squares were 1″ long.
Once the sketch was complete I got to taping off some of the edges.  I tried Frog Tape for the first time here since it’s supposed to give very sharp edges.  I used the edge of a butter knife to really press the tape edges down into the fabric and the painted lines all came out very crisp.

Michaels had no non-metallic grey fabric paint the day I was there so I bought a bottle of Linen (ivory) and a small bottle of Ebony (black).

I mixed black into the ivory a few drops at a time until I got the grey color I wanted.  I did find that the paint dried a bit darker than when it was wet so you may want to keep this in mind when choosing a color.

I painted the taped-off sections, then removed some of the tape and taped new parts of the design.  I had to do the taping and painting at intervals because there were times when I had to go over already painted parts, and that paint needed to be dry before I could continue.

I continued this process until the entire pattern had been painted, then removed all the tape and let it dry completely.

 

Once dry, I put the pillow forms inside the covers and placed them on the bench.  And I love them.  They look just like the Caitlin Wilson Deco pillow and the canvas and grey colors are perfect with the ikat bench fabric.

I think the geometric deco pattern is the perfect angular complement to the more rounded ikat design.

I recently sold our kitchen window valances and have been staring at bare windows for a few weeks now trying to decide which way I want to go with them.  I’m so happy with how this fabric painting project turned out, I think I may be jumping on the drop-cloths-turned-window-curtains bandwagon too.




Comments

  2. Wow, Jennifer, these look amazing – love pillows with the Greek key design and yours look wonderful!! Happy Friday ~

  7. Wow Jennifer, you did an awesome job on these pillows! No one would guess they’re homemade, I love DIY!

Trackbacks

  2. […] you happen to notice those lovely Greek key pillows sitting atop the upholstered bench from Jennifer at The Chronicles at Home that I shared this morning? Of course, those are another of Jennifer’s fabulous creations! […]