Jess Lively

Ohmygoodness. I am so excited to share this project! I have had this idea floating in my head for months and now I get to share the results. The concept of painted chevron first came to mind after reading Kelly + Olive’s post about DIY Chevron. I followed their instructions and used the pattern linked to their post.

Here is how it works.

Materials Used:

• 3 22×28″ stretched canvases (each one cost about $22)
• Bronze gold acrylic paint ($10)
• Large, soft bristled brush ($10)
• 1 roll blue painters tape ($4)
• Chevron pattern stencil found on Sunset.com via Kelly and Olive (free)
  

First, I printed out the stencil three times to get the right length for my canvases. I carefully trimmed the paper to include just the zig-zag and then taped them together to get the correct width.

Do these canvases look familiar? I decided I can always recreate the string art look on new canvases, and in the meantime save some $$ by reusing the two I already had.

To transfer the zig-zag pattern from the paper stencil to the canvas, I used a thumb tack to mark each of the points on the zig zags. I did this for both stripes on the stencil and then used blue painters tape to fill in where the white zig-zag was on the stencil. The thumb tack prints helped me know where to start and stop the tape.

I found lining up a whole bunch of tape makes the process quicker.

Once canvas was complete with the zig-zag, I taped the sides as well to keep them white. I also used a credit card to smooth down all the lines and make sure there wouldn’t be any paint leaking into the stripe pattern.

A few people have mentioned they have had trouble with the paint not seeping into the tape. As I mentioned, I used a credit card to smooth down the lines pretty well before painting. Also, my paint was pretty thick, not runny, so it didn’t seep through very much. Of course there is a bit of bleed on mine, but not too noticeable from far away. I hope you find a method that works for you!

After that, I just needed to paint the canvases with a solid coat of paint. It didn’t take nearly as much paint as I thought it would. I got all three canvases painted with one tube of paint, and I still have paint left over. The canvases needed about 20 minutes to dry and then I removed the painters tape.

I love how the metallic bronze paint shines against the solid white stripe.

Voila! The finished product. Courtney and Lauren came over and helped me hang the art - with thumb tacks! Who knew.