DIY Windowpane pattern wall art tutorial with ribbon

DIY Windowpane pattern wall art tutorial with ribbon

• 2.24.2015

I've always loved decorating my bedroom.

You can see variations I've done over the years here, but in general in our new house I've stuck with pale colors, pinks, aquas, etc. with our pale grey walls, DIY headboard, and some gold accents.

But, I've been feeling like a more minimalist, contrast-ey look lately, and decided on a DIY windowpane print project with some Offray ribbon!

The windowpane trend has been in full force for a couple years, but I haven't worn it or decorated with it yet. A few inspirations...

Sources: drop waist dress, pillow, girl's tunic, shorts outfit, black dress, dress/clutch, shirt

So, how to make a DIY bedroom decor piece with this print??

DIY Windowpane Wall Art Tutorial

You will need:

• Canvas (or two)
• White paint (I used house paint)
• Offray velvet ribbon (I used 5/8", you could use 3/8" for a smaller canvas or wider for a bigger canvas)
• Staple gun
• Rubber cement
• Ruler or quilting ruler

Instructions:

1. Paint the canvases. Most canvases nowadays come primed with gesso, so you probably don't need to use primer first. Paint whatever color you want, of course!

2. Mark even intervals. My canvases were 18" and I did every 3", but you could space the ribbon more or less densely, as long as you use equal distance between all ribbon rows and edges. Mark all the way around on all four sides.

(Note! Not until the 11th time walking into my room to look at these did I realize... since the 5/8" ribbon is distributed on the even pencil marks, at the edges there is 1/2 of 5/8" (5/16") extra space! If you use any wider ribbon, it will probably be very noticeable. So, to use the split-ribbon-width-on-pencil-mark method, start measuring your even intervals at the edge PLUS half the width of your ribbon!)

3. Draw guides. Once you've marked all four sides, connect the dots with the long ruler. Do this both directions.

4. Staple ribbons. Centering the ribbon on each mark/line, staple down one end of the ribbon.

5. Rubber cement route. With the rubber cement brush, brush over the line in front of your stapled ribbon.

6. Wrap and staple ribbon. Pull the ribbon tightly, down on top of the rubber cement line, and make sure it's centered on the opposite pencil mark at the end. Pull tight and staple.

Repeat for other rows.

7. Staple-cement-pull-staple crosswise. Repeat these steps for the crosswise ribbons, but you can skip over each perpendicular ribbon with the rubber cement. Don't think it would work very well on top of the velvet.

Hang proudly!

Husband's first response when he saw them was, "Cool! Do we put things in them? Are they like picture holders?"

:/

No, but now that you mention it, they do look sort of bar-like. Maybe I should have spaced the ribbons farther apart. Oh, well! At least they're dramatic!

Try it with whatever color and type of ribbon you like, and with canvases of any size!

Thanks to Offray for sponsoring this post!