DIY Herringbone Wall Art

April 29, 2015 0 By EngineerMommy

Hello, friends! I am finally finished with Sophia’s room… well, mostly! I’m never truly 100% finished with any space, but for the most part, her room is practically done! Sure, I still want to update her light fixture, and probably do another piece of art on the other wall. And maybe a chalkboard feature on another wall. And well, you get the idea… However, when considering all the rooms in this house, her room is the closest to being complete! One of my most recent projects for her room was this DIY Herringbone Wall Art, which was so much fun to make.

If you’ve walked down the art aisles of any home furnishings store recently, you must have seen herringbone art. I love it- it looks modern and clean and neat. And I knew it could be handmade, so I started trying to figure out a way to DIY it! And it worked wonderfully! Here is the tutorial for making your own DIY Herringbone Wall Art!

DIY Herringbone Wall Art

DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art


Supplies:
Canvas (mine was 16×24, but any size would work)
Paint in various colors (I used a combination of acrylic paints and latex paints)
Painter’s tape
Ruler
Pencil

Directions:

1. Set up your painting space. Put a drop cloth underneath your canvas, or if you’re like me, you can also use an old plastic bag! 🙂

DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art


2. Paint your canvas a base color. This color will wind up being the color of the stripes on the finished piece. I used purple latex paint that I had on hand from re-doing her Ikea RAST dresser (post is coming soon). I used a small foam roller to apply the base color; it looked perfectly smooth and seamless – ahhh, so pretty!
DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art


3. Use a ruler (or a level, since that’s what I had on hand) to divide up your canvas into four equal sections. Apply three strips of painter’s tape from the top of the canvas to the bottom of the canvas, wrapping the tape around the edges as necessary. Next, for the herringbone pattern, I simply freehanded the placement of the painter’s tape. I just strips in one section diagonally upwards, and then in the next section diagonally downwards, making sure the ends will meet each other. See the picture below for details.
DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art


4. The next step, I forgot to photograph (sorry!), but it is very straightforward. Simply take your accent colors and paint random sections those colors, being careful not to stray into neighboring sections. I left some sections blank, and I kinda like the look of randomness.
Note: If you like the crispest, sharpest edges, simply paint the whole canvas with your base color again AFTER you place the tape on. This will seal the edges and make your lines as sharp as possible.

5. Remove the painter’s tape after 5-10 minutes, before the paint dries. Since my paint lines were not the sharpest, I sanded the canvas down a bit to enhance the worn or distressed look.

DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art


Here is it hanging up in Sophia’s room. Notice that purple shelf- it was a thrift store find. Only $2! Yay! I’ll post about it soon. And don’t miss that purple wall with the heart stencils– that was a blast, too!
DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art


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