More wall art!

My apartment has really high ceilings which is wonderful and makes me feel glamorous, but it also makes it that much more glaring that my walls are empty. I put so much energy into getting furniture, and now that I have somewhere to sit I’m trying to make it look homey.

I also had a weekend to myself and needed something to keep me occupied. So I took a quick trip to Michael’s, put my Fire TV stick on (Transparent on Amazon Prime- I don’t love it), and got to work.

I used this for inspiration but mine didn’t really end up looking like theirs. Whether that was intentional or not, I’m not entirely sure.

First I bought the biggest canvas Michael’s had to offer, which I believe is 24″ x 36″. I bought a few different colors of paint, too. Navy, dark gray, white, teal, and something I would describe as “robin’s egg blue” if I’m throwing it back to my Crayola box.

The first part is fun. You just slap a bunch of paint on the canvas and mix it around.

The next part is the most time consuming. I cut five-inch long strips of 1″ painters tape. A LOT of them. (I used my quilter’s rule so that I could stretch out a big strip of tape and cut a few at a time.) And then I started sticking them on the canvas once it was dry.

I initially started using a AAA battery to keep them evenly spaced, but that was way too finicky so I decided to eyeball it. If you line up the short edge of one piece to the end of the long side of the other (to create a sort of stenciled “V”) you end up getting to the herringbone pattern.

There was some trial and error in the beginning to keep them relatively straight. But I wasn’t worried about it being perfect.

(Everyone who knows me and just read that sentence is thinking “HA! Lies.”)

Once it’s all taped, paint over with the white. I used two coats, but didn’t necessarily want it to be completely opaque. My apologies for the appearance of my toes in the photo below.

Peel off the tape- you don’t actually have to wait for the white paint to dry, just go kind of slow- and there you have it!

I’m a little obsessed with it. It’s hanging over my bed right now but I’m kind of considering making two more and hanging them on a bigger wall, kind of like a triptych.

Do you think it would make my eyes hurt? I’m undecided. If you wanted it to be more subtle, you could also use a color other than white.

I also had a beer while doing this so it was basically like one of those Paint Nite events. Except I was alone. Hmmm.