Catie has been crafty all her life, and now she's ready to share!
I got this tip from a friend a few years ago and was finally able to bring it to life in my home. We are 21 weeks pregnant and I was planning to paint a mural of blush and yellow roses on the wall of baby's room.
When I shared this idea with my mom and showed her some potential photos to base my creation on, she said, "Remember that fairy room theme you loved when you were four and hated it? when you were sixteen? Maybe you should spend your energy on something else for the baby. I knew she was right, but I was in love with the idea of the roses on the baby's walls. 've been looking for the perfect design that I wish I had painted as a shower curtain. This way I can remove the mural if I want (or if my daughter chooses) without being disappointed.
I searched on Amazon and Wish.I finally found the perfect shower curtain on Amazon for $25.The theory is that when a shower curtain is stretched like a canvas, large wall pictures can be created at a affordable price and with little work.
Step 1: Decide on the size and shape of your wall decoration
My shower curtain was 6' x 6' so I chose 5' x 5' as the size for my wall art. This gave me plenty of room to make mistakes. You can choose any shape or size, such as multiple smaller pieces, using a triangular shape as a frame, or mixing pieces of different designs and displaying them next to each other. The choices are totally endless.
Our range of wooden parts.
Step 2: Build the frame
My husband took my measurements and pieced together a frame with scrap wood from our store that was left at our house by the previous owner. The wood for the frame was exactly $0. It was extremely convenient, but if the wood had to be purchased, I would have just picked the cheapest, straightest wood at the local hardware store. Mine is Ace Hardware.
I ended up losing a few inches of my frame width, as we decided (of course after cutting the wood) to miter joints for stability rather than just square ends. We also installed gussets in each corner. This thing is not going anywhere, bring the toddlers.
Here is a preview of the finished frame.
Step 3: Prepare an old sheet and the shower curtain
You don't want any creases or creases to deal with once you try to stretch the shower curtain. BUT DO NOT IRON THE SHOWER CURTAIN. These repel water for a reason: they're plastic. less expensive ones are, and you don't want to melt your shower curtain with your iron. I just dried mine on low in the dryer for about half an hour. It came out nice and smooth .
When the shower curtains are pulled tight they can become rather sheer depending on the quality I recently upgraded from a queen to a king so I had extra old sheets lying around .I ironed the sheet with only moderate OCD.It doesn't have to be perfect, just not a hot mess.
Ironing the primer sheet.
Step 4: Stretch the Sheet and Shower Curtain
I "primed" the frame with the old sheet by stretching it over the frame with a staple gun and trimming off any excess. I already had a staple gun and staples lying around so this coin also cost me $0.
The purpose of the sheet is to make sure you can't see through the curtain. to the piece a more DIY look rather than finished and polished by professionals.
When stretching a canvas, sheet, shower curtain or whatever, staple the parallel sides first. This way when you go to staple the other two adjacent sides, you end up pulling the sheet tightly without any loose stitches.
Loosely hang the shower curtain over the primed frame to choose exactly which part of the pattern on the shower curtain you want to be your wall art.
Stretch the shower curtain over the frame using a staple gun and the same stretching technique as before: parallel sides first, then the others.
The corners are hard. They're just tough. I just did my best in trimming the excess and bending as well as possible. That's the only point about this project that had more swear words than d 'habit.
Cut off any excess shower curtain. You can leave the edges at the back as they are now, or you can fold the edges over and hem them inward.
Stretching the primer sheet.
Step 5: Hang your new wall art!
I haven't painted the nursery yet, so I haven't hung mine. But man, it's awesome! The whole project only cost me $25 and my time. The first result of wall art available for purchase on google is 48" x 48" (which is smaller than mine) and costs $227.49. So there are big savings with this project. Good luck!
The finished product.
comments
Catherine Berry (author) from Belgrade on April 28, 2019:
I'm leaning more and more towards the plum.
RTalloni on April 25, 2019:
Plum would look amazing, and it would be great to pair light green with your base wallpaper color.
Catherine Berry (author) from Belgrade on April 25, 2019:
I think we are going to go for the darker colors of the leaves with the roses. There is a dark plum color in some of the leaves which I really like. I also love the blush and creamy yellow colors!
Patty hoyer on April 25, 2019:
Looks great!! Hope your idea works. What are your main colors to use as an accent for the nursery...
Catherine Berry (author) from Belgrade on April 25, 2019:
Thank you!! I will definitely update once I hang it up!
RTalloni on April 23, 2019:
Well done, both your project and your article. Good tips for using the shower curtain and finding wood that can be reused.
Hope you can add a photo of the mural in place once the room is ready for baby. Congratulations everyone! :)
