DIY Chevron Wall Art

Anyone else have stacks and stacks of paint samples lying around?  We went crazy collecting samples when we bought our house and wanted to paint just about every room.  Well, our enthusiasm for painting decreased after we covered up the worst offenders (hello deep orange and forest green two toned bedroom), and we were left with a bunch of samples that we don't need anymore. 

I caught the crafting itch last week and decided to take advantage. 

Read along to find out how I made this sophisticated fellow:

I started with an old canvas that I had previously painted grey, my stack of paint samples, and some decoupage finish.

After playing around with some different ideas, I decided to cut the samples across the three colors in 1-inch strips, like so.

The nice thing about this is that I was left with a smaller paint sample that still had the names of the paint colors, so I can still use them as samples for future projects.  Don't worry Valspar, I got your number.

Once I had a bunch of strips cut, I started laying out some patterns, and finally settled on this sideways chevron.

I thought my trusty decoupage finish would do the trick... but wow, it didn't.  The strips were peeling up and not sticking completely.  So either my technique was horrible (quite possible) or the painted canvas was not an appropriate surface.   So this happened. 

Next up was to move the whole operation outside and switch to spray glue.  I REALLY didn't want to do this.  I hate using spray glue.  So messy.  So sticky.  But alas, it worked like a charm.  Be sure you have an old drop cloth or something to put underneath for this. 

Note:  Be sure to spray the back of the strip and then stick on the canvas.  Don't spray the canvas thinking you'll be able to stick several strips at once and save time.  (Yes, I made this mistake.  It worked for the first row, but then the next time I sprayed, it of course went all over my nice row and made it gummy and splattery.  I know, I know, rookie mistake.  I told you I avoid spray glue at all costs!)

I matched up the darkest color of one strip with the darkest color of the next, lightest with lightest and so on.  Same for each row of various shades.  I like the finished product because it gives it another dimension with the dark and light stripes going up and down. 

See how my canvas isn't quite full?  That wasn't my original plan (I ran out of paint strips), but do I like it?  Yes, yes I do. 

The spray glue left everything feeling a bit sticky (probably due to user error, yours could totally be sticky-free), so I added a layer of decoupage on top to cover up the sticky and give the whole thing a nice satin sheen. 

From the close-ups you can see it's certainly not perfect (like I said, I had some troubles with the glue), but take a few steps back and it looks great!  No one else will ever inspect it close up like I did anyways... 

I love him.  Yes, he's a him.  A nice manly chevron. 

Total cost of this project?  For me, a big fat goose egg (I had all the supplies in my stash).  But if you have to buy the spray glue, canvas, and decoupage finish or mod podge... maybe around $20.

Total time spent?  For me, over an hour, mostly due to the mess ups and taking pictures along the way.  But you can probably do it in about 30-45 minutes if you don't have any troubles. 

So what do you think?  Anyone else feel like I do about spray glue?  Think you'll be trying out some paint sample wall art in the future?




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