You won’t believe how I made this DIY Wall Decor!

Would you believe that I have lived in my home for five years without decorating my living room walls? As a closet artist and frugal DIY-er, I have great plans to create some art, but I never seem to get to it. Well, I finally did it! I was given several sheets of FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam and challenged to create some wall art. Would you believe those gorgeous panels are made out of foam? Want to know the secret to my DIY wall decor? (I’ll give you a hint.  It’s all about what I used to cover the foam. It’s so cool!)

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Look at the closeup. Can you tell? It’s not fabric. It’s paintable wallpaper! When I was cleaning out my little girls’ room, I found a huge stack of wallpaper sample books I’ve been “collecting” over the years for projects. (I should say, they’ve been collecting dust.) Before finally tossing them (my hubby will be so proud of me), I took one last look to see if there was anything worth keeping.

After carefully tearing out some favorite panels, I came across an entire book of paintable gems, and the idea for this project was born. Now, I know you don’t all have a book of paintable wallpaper hiding under a bed somewhere, but now you know that you can buy a roll and snip it up to create something cool!

DIY Wall Decor with Paintable Wallpaper

Ready to get going?  Unless you start in the morning, this project could take two days because of paint and glue dry time.  But, each step is fast and fun, so the whole project isn’t very time consuming. (Most of the time is spent waiting for things to dry.)

Materials:

• 3 colors of paint (I used $3 paint samples from Lowes.  There is plenty left over to use for other projects in the room.)
• Painters tape or masking tape
• Drawing boards or sturdy cardboard
• Paintbrush
• Carpenter’s Square (Optional–but it’s really helpful for measuring and cutting straight lines)
• FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam (You’ll find the foam and project ideas on MakeItFunCrafts.com)
• FloraCraft® StyroCutter® Plus
• Scotch Super 77 Multi-Purpose Adhesive (That’s not what’s in my picture.  I switched products half-way through, and the 77 worked much better. Do yourself a favor and get the large can.  I had to go back and buy more when I ran out.)
• Velcro Picture Hanging Strips

Prep the Make It: Fun® Foam

1. Choose the size you want for your boards. (My final boards are 12 7/8″ tall x 13 3/4″ wide.) To create the size I wanted, I had to do a little bit of piecing.
2. To trim the foam, use a serrated kitchen knife or the FloraCraft® StyroCutter® Plus. (The directions are on the package, so I won’t go into details.)
3. To connect two pieces of foam, use toothpicks.  For a lasting connection, you should probably use glue in addition to the toothpicks, but I skipped that step. (I know. I’m a slacker.) When you connect the two pieces, be careful to make sure that the two surfaces are flush. I didn’t pay attention to that, and I can tell on one or two of the panels that I missed that detail.

Working with the foam was really fun, and I love that my finished art work is super light.  I’m already planning more projects.

Get Painting!

This part is the most fun.

1. Cut your wallpaper rectangles slightly larger than your foam panels.  You will trim them down later.  You need extra length and width to tape down the edges.
2. Tape the wallpaper completely around all edges to your boards or pieces of sturdy cardboard. (I used old drawing boards from my past life as an art teacher. I knew they’d come in handy again one day!)
3. Paint away! Make sure to get the paint into all the grooves of the wallpaper. I had to go back after many of the sheets were dry and touch things up. When the paint is wet, the wallpaper will curl up quite a bit. Don’t worry. It will flatten out as it dries. That is why you taped it down.
4. Once the paint is dry (the paper should not feel cold to the touch), remove the tape and trim the paper to fit your foam pieces.  (I used a carpenter’s square to make sure all of my edges were straight.  It’s most important that the edges of your paper are straight, and less important that your foam is perfect.)
5. Glue the wallpaper to the foam using Scotch Super 77 Multi-Purpose Adhesive.  For best results, spray the foam and the back of the wallpaper.  Use a flat tool (a plastic spatula will work) to carefully smooth down the paper.  Start from the center and move outward toward the edges.
6. Allow the glue to dry.
7. If necessary, sand off any edges of foam that can be seen beyond the edges of the wallpaper.
8. Attach your artwork to the wall using velcro hanging strips. (That’s my secret to no nail holes!)

Enjoy your new artwork!

So, five years to get artwork on that wall.  I guess I’d better hurry with the rest of the house!  (It’s not decorated either!)

Disclosure: I was compensated to create a project using FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam.  All opinions are my own.

Here are some of the products I used for my project:

Thanks for stopping by today. While you’re here, check out some of my other DIY projects for the home.  (Images below are linked to posts.  Just click on the image to visit the post.)