DIY Canvas Art

Hi friends! I hope you are all enjoying the spring-like weather we’ve been having over the last few days! Having returned from Ireland last week (pictures coming soon!), I was pleasantly surprised to come back to a mostly snow-less city!

And the sight of budding trees has got me all kinds of excited for spring! I have a whole bunch of projects around the house coming up. Oh, and I’ve taken up gardening. As of last weekend. Depending on how that goes, you may see some updates on the blog!

Anyways! Ever attempted a somewhat ambitious DIY canvas project you came across on Pinterest and been less than thrilled with the result? And wished there was some way you could salvage the canvas? Well, I had a few laying that I had attempted to paint over, without much luck.

On an unrelated trip to the fabric store, I came across this adorable Parisian inspired fabric! And since I remain obsessed with Paris, or anything French for that matter, I bought two yards with no project in mind.

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

And was dying to use it! Luckily, I thought of this before making more throw pillows. Not that there is anything wrong with more throw pillows.

But this was wayyyy faster and didn’t require me breaking out the sewing machine! All you need is some fabric, a ruler and pencil (to trace the outline of your canvas onto the fabric), scissors, and a glue gun (staple gun would work too!)

Just to note – I did zero measuring when tracing/cutting the fabric. I would estimate you  want your fabric to be about an inch larger than the canvas on each side (depending on the thickness of your canvas), but I was too impatient to get into all that. Basically, you need enough fabric around it to reach the back of the canvas.

Start by placing your canvas on the fabric and use the pencil and ruler to trace an outline about 1 inch outside of canvas border. Now, you can iron your fabric prior to this step, or once it is cut. For me, it was easier to iron the little piece for fabric after it had been cut. However, ironing the fabric prior to cutting will probably give you a more accurate measurement, and reduce wasted fabric.

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

Once fabric is cut & ironed, you can begin gluing it into place. If your fabric has a pattern which requires a specific alignment (i.e. stripes, chevron), use the ruler to ensure it is aligned properly. Once it is aligned properly, you may want to draw a line on the fabric along the edge of the canvas that you can use to ensure it stays aligned throughout the gluing process.  Use the glue gun to apply a small amount of glue to the center of the bottom edge of the canvas.

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

Pull fabric fabric over the edge of the canvas and glue into place. Continue applying glue along the edge of the canvas every 2 inches or so and gluing fabric into place, and stop when you are about an inch or from the corners.

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A TerrierNow, begin gluing the edge opposite to the one you just completed. Be sure to pull the fabric super tight over the canvas when gluing the second side! And leave a little room around the corners again.

You can then glue the remaining sides of the canvas, pulling the fabric tight as you go.

Now..for the corners. Unfortunately, I don’t have a very scientific way of describing what I did here. So I thought a picture might do the trick. Basically, I took the loose fabric at the corner and made a fold that would allow one edge of the fabric to remain flat against the canvas, glued it in place. And then I did the same for the other edge with the remaining loose fabric. Does that make sense? No?  Here is the picture..

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

This is what the back of my canvas looked like at the end. Not exactly a work of art, but I don’t think anyone is going to remove the canvas from the wall to examine the back of it..  You can always trim the edges with some scissors to clean it up if it bothers you!

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

I have to say, I do love the finished product! Well, I love the fabric..and any excuse to display it is a plus in my book!

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

And obviously it made sense to display it with my Eiffel tower souvenir on this (I like to think) French inspired end table. I made 3 in total and was planning on hanging them in the bedroom, but I guess this is a pretty good spot until I get around to that!

DIY Canvas Art - Tulips & A Terrier

I’d love to hear from you! Have you found any ways to repurpose an old canvas? Harbor an obsession with Paris and want to talk about how magical of a city it is? I’m always down for that convo :).

– Lusine