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DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art

Hi Everyone!! I have been diligently working on a piece of art for our newly renovated bathroom (see here for a look back at our renovation). I have painted before, in fact, I enjoyed painting a lot when I was younger. I wanted to make some pieces to go in our house for a few reasons: 1. I am picky, 2. I am decorating on a budget, and 3. Eric always asks me to paint for him.

I came up with this great geometric pattern for our new bathroom!

My first stop was Home Depot, where I picked up a quart of paint (Behr Silver Bullet). I actually picked this up for another upcoming project and decided to use it as the base coat for this painting as well.

DIY Herringbone Art

Tip: Using the same paint for multiple projects is a great way to save money on DIY projects!

I also picked up a 24″x36″ canvas from JoAnn’s for about $15 (with a 50% off coupon).

DIY Herringbone Art

I covered the entire canvas with the base coat, making sure that I fully covered everything, including the sides. Once the canvas was sufficiently covered, I let it dry for a few hours.

DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art

Tip: Covering the edges of your canvas with paint will result in a more finished look without the need for an expensive frame!

The next order of business was coming up with my herringbone design. This actually looks way more complicated than it was. I first divided the canvas into four equal sections with painters tape. I then used a level to pattern out equal sections for the herringbone design. This is the trickiest part because you have to be careful to make sure that the top and bottom of the diagonal sections match the top and bottom of the adjoining section. Once you get the first one right, the rest of the diagonal sections in that row will be perfect.

DIY Herringbone Art

Tip: Make sure you stick that painters tape down nice and flat to ensure that no paint gets under the tape. The idea is to get nice, clean lines using the tape.

DIY Herringbone Art

Once I got all of the tape down, I used my same base coat to “lock in” my edges. This will also help to make sure your lines stay clean when you paint your sections.

DIY Herringbone Art

As you may know from some of my other posts, I have an obsession with all things metallic (see here, here and here). I wanted this painting to have a silver metallic look, so using my Modern Masters Silver Metallic Paint, I painted alternating sections.

DIY Herringbone Art

DIY Herringbone Art
Since our whole house is done in neutral grays, I wanted to stay in keeping with that color scheme, but also add a pop of color. Eric bought me this great paint kit from JoAnn’s (also using a 50% off coupon). I chose three colors in varying shades of blues and then a pop of hot pink.

DIY Herringbone Art

I also added some Galeria Mineral Texture Gel to give my paint some texture.

DIY Herringbone Art

For the remaining sections, I just randomly filled in the colors where I thought they looked best. After looking at my final product, I realize it looks like I had a method to my madness, but I really didn’t. In total, I used 5 different colors: 1 metallic, 3 blues and 1 pink, but you can use more or less colors depending on the look you are going for!!

DIY Herringbone Art

Tip: Similar to the base coat, I also painted the sides of the canvas with my herringbone pattern colors to give the canvas a more finished look!

While your paint is still tacky, peel off the painters tape slowly. Pulling off the tape while the paint is still wet will ensure that you don’t pull off the paint and ruin your design.

DIY Herringbone Art

Even with all of the steps that I took to ensure that my paint wouldn’t bleed under the painters tape, I still had to touch up a few sections that did with my base coat. You don’t have to do this, but I found that my painting looked more polished, crisp and professional once I did!

I bought a picture hanging kit from Home Depot for $3 since most canvas frames don’t come with one and hung the painting in our master bathroom!

DIY Herringbone Art

We hung this in our bathroom and I think it looks pretty cool! You can see our full bathroom reveal here!

DIY Herringbone Art

Look how proud he is of my work!! So cute!

DIY Herringbone Art

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!! Check back for more of my attempts at decorating this crazy house!

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