DIY Kitchen Wall Art

Every now and then it's nice to switch things up and start fresh with something new - that my friends, is exactly what the hubby and I have been doing with our place! In fact, during the blackout a couple weeks ago (Shout-out to #DarkNL), we sat down by lantern-light and drafted up all the changes we wanted to make to each room. Little-by-little, and day-by-day we've been making great progress and this past weekend, I crossed another to-do off our list, my very first DIY kitchen project - wall art!

After browsing Pinterest for some ideas, I came across a few that I really liked. Many of my favourites included silhouetted kitchen utensils/appliances and bright colours, patterns or recipes. Using the elements I enjoyed most, I created my own variety :)




You Will Need:

Note how well the yellowed paper matched the cookbook! :)

• 3 (8.5x11) Wooden Picture Frames, unfinished (I purchased mine at Dollarama for $1.50 each)
• 1 small bottle of Acrylic Paint (also purchased at Dollarama for $1, maybe $2!)
• 1 Paint Brush
• Printer paper - I used yellowed paper for the recipe portion (to give the aged look), and regular for the silhouette printouts.
• Recipe pages from your favourite cookbook (I used one of my Nan's old cookbooks)
• Scissors
• Black thick-tipped Marker 
• Glue Stick

Steps:

1) First thing you'll need to do, is determine which silhouettes you want to see on your wall. Once you've got an idea, have a look through your cookbooks to see which recipes you'd like to use. I themed my silhouetted objects with each recipe page, so it made the recipe hunting a little easier.

As far as silhouettes go, I opted for a rolling pin, a jar, and a hand-mixer. I then chose pages with a tea bun recipe to match the rolling pin, a mustard pickles recipe to match the jar and a fruitcake recipe written by one grandmother, and marked by the other grandmother (the one who owned the cookbook), to match the hand-mixer.


2) Once you've made up your mind on the recipe pages, scan and re-size them, then print on the yellowed paper.

3) Next do a Google-image search for the silhouettes you want. Once you've found them, re-size and print on the regular paper.

Tip: Google 'cartoon' versions of the images you need to ensure they will still retain the look of a hand-mixer, for example, once it's coloured.

Note: If you have a paint program on your computer, you can blacken out the images before printing to save yourself some colouring time.

This step may take a bit of trial-and-error to ensure you achieve the right proportions.


3) Once you're happy with sizing, neatly colour your image with your marker. Again, if you have a paint program on your computer, you can turn it black before printing.

4) Once all images are coloured, glue your recipe to the removable back of the frame, then glue the silhouette to the recipe. You can add whatever colour background you like, but personally, I liked the contrast of the brown backing the most.

Almost there!

5) Finally, it's time to paint! Remove everything from the frame and do several coats, allowing them to dry completely in between. The acrylic dries quickly, so when you're done the first coat on all frames, the first frame is ready for its second coat. I did 4 coats on each frame to ensure all missed or thin patches (revealed by the drying process) were covered.

Instead of painting each side straight up-and-down, I did quick short strokes on a slant to give it a nicer finish. Note the difference between the left and right side!

Once the frames are dry, put everything together and admire your work.

And there you have it, an affordable update for your kitchen. For me, it is a nice upgrade to some dated wall art I was sick of looking at, as well as a sentimental addition - now I have both Nans in my kitchen with me every day :)