Design-It-Yourself: Wall art

I am really pleased to say this Design-It-Yourself idea comes straight from one of Bemz's favorite PR reps, Sue of Fluency out of the UK. Sue had some leftover swatches which she put to good use:

I had some Bemz fabric swatches spare, in bright splashy colours – including two large swatches of Lisa Bengtsson designs, which I love. I’d been wanting to brighten up my hallway for some time – it’s quite wide, and decorated in plain white with a bamboo floor, so was a bit bare. I thought the swatches would make great pictures – so decided to use them to create canvases to fill the walls.

It takes just a few minutes to do. You'll need:
- a canvas to fit your fabric
- a staple gun – fairly robust, and spare staples
- a flat, stable surface to do it on!

I went off to an art shop nearby; they had a large selection of plain canvases in various sizes. I took a couple of swatches with me to make sure I got the right size – you have to make sure the fabric is big enough to fold over to the back of the canvas frame on all sides.

I then borrowed a staple gun from my sister, and set to it! It’s an idea to press the fabric first if there are any creases. All I did was place the fabric with the pattern facing down and put the frame face down on top of it. Then you fold the edges of the long sides first over the frame, fairly tightly, and staple to the wood – not too near the corners. Then fold over the shorter sides and staple them firmly. The corners were the trickiest bit: I found the best way – after a few goes – was to fold the fabric flush with the edge, rather than at an angle, but you need to try it yourself to get the neatest result. You need to get it as flat as possible, and staple firmly down, otherwise it shows when you hang it on the wall.

Then all you need to do is put up a picture hook, hang your wall art and stand back to admire!

I did two big ones – the Lisa Bengtsson fabrics: Baronessa - Pink and Sir Harald - Multi – and a number of smaller ones with Marimekko designs, and just put them up randomly to create a really colourful display. I’m delighted with my new wall art – and it’s a great way to show off the Bemz fabrics to my friends.

Have you got a Design-It-Yourself idea that you think is the bees' knees? Tell us about it; send me a description and some photos to bemz [at] blog [dot] com and we can feature it here on It's a Cover Up.