This has to be one of the most drawn out projects I’ve ever worked on! All the way back in February, {yes February!}, I posted some pictures of my kitchen wall as well as a bunch of Photoshopped art ideas and asked you guys to help me decide what to do by voting on your favorite concept & layout.
The consensus seemed to be that I should move the junk off both walls and do several pieces following the coffee theme.
About a week later, I kicked off March with a trip to Hobby Lobby to get my creative juices flowing and to get some supplies to start my project! Originally I was trying to find some frames the right size for my wall, but frames are just SO expensive. Instead I discovered Hobby Lobby had packs of 2 16″x20″ canvasses for only $7.99 and decided that I wanted to figure out a way to make them work.
I knew I wanted to give the canvases some sort of background texture, so I decided to cover them in book pages from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It took a few days to get them all covered, but it was definitely worth it!
After I had the canvases covered, I sketched out what I wanted my different coffees to look like on graph paper {scaled 16 squares by 20 squares, so each square represented an inch on the canvas}
I also played around with paint trying to decide if I wanted to do coloured cups or not… so glad I did!
Next I typed out my titles in word, using the grid to make sure the letters were the correct size. At first I wanted to use the letters as stencils, but I realized I might as well just use the letters themselves if I was going to do all the work of cutting them out!
I used a flexible measuring tape to lay out my letters on the canvas and glued them on with regular ‘ol Elmer’s glue
Using the same measuring tape, plus an additional ruler, I referenced the grids I had drawn my coffee cups on and drew out the big versions with pencil. Once those were finished I “coloured them in” with paint. These steps probably took up the biggest chunk of time, mainly because I was nervous to attempt the large scale drawings, then nervous to paint them! Moral of the story: just do it!
After I had all the cups painted, I thought they still looked a little plain, so I added more texture with stencils, hand drawn swirls, and by lightly glazing over the pages with a couple colours of the coffee coloured paints. {In order to make “glaze” you just add water to your paint, depending on how transparent you want it to be.}
And then finally I got to hang them in our kitchen! Woohoo! They’ve actually been up for at least a week now – maybe even two. But between being sick and desperately needing to do some cleaning, it took a while for me to get around to taking pictures of them 🙂
And here’s where the little cart ended up that had been on the wall before. {Recognize that strawberries sign??}
So wonderful to finally have these done and up! Here are some close ups:
35 Comments
Heather C
May 9, 2012 at 4:28 amThose are awesome Kate! I love them!
Laura
May 9, 2012 at 4:33 amI envy your creativeness, they look great 🙂
Allie
May 9, 2012 at 9:17 amThey look so great! I especially love that you used book pages as the background texture. And this is definitely one of my favorite DIY projects! Perfect for a coffee lover 🙂
Valerie Griffin
May 9, 2012 at 11:00 amwow, these look amazing!~
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 1:28 pmThanks! Feels good to finally have them done 🙂
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 1:28 pmaww thanks 🙂
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 1:30 pmThank you! Yeah, I love how the book page thing worked out. That's also part of the reason I was so nervous to actually paint them – there wasn't a lot of room for error lol!
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 1:30 pmthanks dear 🙂
Clara Hodgin
May 9, 2012 at 1:54 pmI love them! You are talented! I love the brown with the pops of color!!!
Cortney
May 9, 2012 at 2:09 pmOh wow! I absolutely love them!
Shannon
May 9, 2012 at 2:29 pmThey turned out amazing! I've been waiting to see the finished product.
Kasey M.
May 9, 2012 at 3:25 pmLove the way it turned out.
Oh I spotted a breadmaker! Are you interested in another gluten free swap? I could use a good bread recipe 🙂
skye @ neathering our fest
May 9, 2012 at 5:43 pmI love the way those turned out!! The color is awesome and I love the book pages in the background. So worth all the hard work!!
Lisha
May 9, 2012 at 7:00 pmYay! I'm so glad you were able to get those done! Oh my gosh! They look so cute! You did such a great job! They all make that back wall look great! 🙂
~Lisha
Sarah Benson
May 9, 2012 at 7:07 pmYour so talented, it's amazing!! Your kitchen looks beautiful now! Also wanted to let you know that I awarded you the Liebster award on my blog today!
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:18 pmthank you 🙂 so glad I decided to do color! they would have been a little too bland without it 😛
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:18 pmthanks!
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:22 pmthank you 🙂 it certainly took long enough! && totally glad I decided to do three on each side… so thanks for that suggestion 😉
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:23 pmthanks 🙂
YES! we totally should 🙂 I was just thinking how it's been ages since we've made bread, and that would give me a great "excuse"
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:23 pmthanks! Yes, they were definitely time consuming… but so totally worth it 🙂
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:24 pmI'm so glad they're done too! lol. & thank you… they really are the perfect size for the space 🙂
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 9, 2012 at 8:37 pmYou are too sweet! && thank you, I'll be sure to check that out 🙂
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication
May 9, 2012 at 8:51 pmYou did a fantastic job! Those are absolutely adorable!
heather
May 9, 2012 at 10:23 pmVery Cute!! They look adorable 🙂
Lindsay
May 9, 2012 at 11:22 pmYou are so creative! Love these!
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 10, 2012 at 12:41 amthank you 🙂
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 10, 2012 at 12:42 amthanks!
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 10, 2012 at 12:42 amaww thanks 🙂
Cassie @ Live.Laugh.L0ve.
May 10, 2012 at 2:15 amOh my goodness! I love it! You did such a wonderful job!
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 10, 2012 at 2:37 amthanks my dear 🙂
All Things Luxurious
May 10, 2012 at 5:20 pmWow, those turned out amazing! You are quite the artist!! 🙂
Kate @ Discover. Create. Live.
May 13, 2012 at 7:39 pmthank you 🙂
DIna
January 18, 2013 at 7:22 pmthese are just so cute. Can u help me too. I wanna lift up a lot of areas in my home but i just dont have any ideas. PLZ HELP.
Sirena Sanders Phillips
May 7, 2013 at 7:53 pmI'm unfortunately not very original, but can copy the heck outta most things. Maybe i'm asking an obvious question but would it be ok to replicate this idea for my own kitchen?
Kate @ DCL
May 28, 2013 at 1:21 amTotally! Sorry for the delayed response, I've been super out of touch with this blog lately after having our second child last month! But yes, you may absolutely use this idea (& I'd love to see pictures if you do!!)