Family Quote Art

"Usually I'm behind you on this kinda stuff, hon, but I gotta tell you, not really feeling this one..."
"Looks like I should put some pushpins in it and use it as a bulletin board or something, Aunt Liz..."
These are two quotes from my husband and nephew, respectively (what's scary is that my husband made the bulletin board reference the day before my nephew did!). They were discussing my "wall art" in the family room, aka, something I was trying to pull off to solve my awkward space dilemma. You've seen our Gallery Wall above the sofa (if you missed that post, you can see it here). Problem was, what do I do about the wall to the left of the sofa? I needed to find something that wouldn't distract from the focal wall, but what? Especially since I had a wall lamp to work around also. I previously had some shelves on the wall, but even MORE stuff to look at just didn't feel right. So I bought a canvas, stretched fabric as tight as it would go and stapled it. It was a pretty muted fabric - just different shades of yellow in a paisley print - I liked it. And it definitely did NOT take away from The Wall. But what exactly was it? I have to admit, even I didn't quite understand it completely. It did fit the space, and covered up a looot of holes on the wall from the said shelves, which was a plus. But I totally understood the bulletin board reference, so I knew it was time to do something about it.

I had an idea...I love quotes. So I thought, "what if I stenciled on a quote about family on the canvas - on the fabric itself?! That just might do the trick!" Of course, it'd be a whooole heck of a lot easier if I had one of those fancy cri-cut or Silhouette machines to help me out, but I don't (ahem, hope the hubby's reading this and making a mental note for when birthday time comes around;) hehe), so stenciling was the next best choice. I found a quote online that I tweaked for our family, and here's how it turned out:

I chose to use the "rustic" stencil for this. I like that it's a little rough around the edges, so imperfect looks even better. I don't like to take my time and measure things out, so messy and uneven worked just fine. I'm a tad bit impatient. Ok, ok, a LOT. But the messy look kinda works on this, I think? First, I started with the fabric covered canvas:

I used the stencils and traced the quote on the fabric, using a pencil:

Then it was time to paint. I had some brown paint, and thought that'd be a good choice. I just used a thin paintbrush we already had:

Took a while! But here's the finished product:

Wow, that lampshade is crooked! oops.
Here's a shot of it as it plays against the gallery wall:

I like! I think it adds just the right amount of pop, without being overbearing, or taking away from the main wall. And the words are just perfect for us. And the room. This is the room where we spend the most time, and I think between this project, and the gallery wall, it reflects us pretty well! Another plus- it doesn't look like a bulletin board, or a big fat question mark in the room anymore - excellent! And all I needed to pick up were the stencils. I have to give it to my husband, in this case, he was right;)