Making Burlap Fabric Mats Meant for Frames

Since plenty of folks have asked for close up photos and more of an explanation about our little art switcheroo above the sofa, here it is. It is such an straightforward project that anyone can do (likely for under $5 if you have the frames and some small photos or prints that you enjoy (images from greeting cards or postcards could even work). So we figured we’d share the goods while we work on our backsplash (those goods will be up tomorrow am!).

Our frames above the sofa began out with colorful paper in them ($5 worth of craft paper from Michael’s to be exact). That brought in some lively oomph for a while, but the beauty of that $5 price tag was the freedom to switch things around and simply sort of go with the flow. So they sat as plain blocks of color for a while…

… and then we brought in some lively local art prints (simply taped in the middle of our colored paper)…

… but after our new rug arrived we were jonesing for something less colorful (since we had amassed a ton of colorful pillows and some bright accessories like the ceramic hurricanes on the desk). We also chose we could use some more texture, so that somehow triggered me to look in my fabric scrap bin and realize that I had sufficient burlap-ish textured linen-ish stuff to do the trick.

Sorry for that terrible description. It is simply a sand-colored fabric that sort of looks like linen or burlap (you know, it has those crosshatched lines running through it) that I got on especially clearance from JoAnn fabrics a while back – so I do not think it is in fact real linen and it is a bit too soft to be burlap.

Here is my fully not scientific framing method. I simply:

• unstuck my little art squares that had been taped to the colorful fabric with a loop of tape
• used the same loop of tape to stick them to the center of the eight 12″ x 12″ fabric squares for each frame
• taped the fabric to the back of the frame’s mat on all sides (to keep it from looking saggy and wiggly)
• regular old scotch tape worked for that part, but if you have heavier fabric, something stronger like duct tape might be better

That is it! Oh and these are Ikea’s ribba frames (with 12 x 12″ openings) if that helps. I enjoy that my compact polariod-ish prints make you look closer, and when you do, you see the texture in the fabric behind them. It is truly sweet, especially in person. I keep glancing over at them when I sit on the sofa.

Sometimes Burger takes John-sprawled-out-on-the-ottoman-taking-photos-of-the-art to mean that he’s supposed to sit on him. Naturally. So we took more photos and shared them over on the house Life. Naturally.

Anyway, so the art thing was a free swap and I have been using the colored paper that I took out for other projects around the house – like John’s boyscout badge Christmas present.

Oh and since a few folks also requested an open-ottoman shot to see how it is all organized in there, here ya go:

The big woven basket is my paint chip bin (yes I keep various paint decks in there and even save loose paint chips so I can later do weird things like make art or ornaments with them). The other three baskets are for various Clara toys. There is also a giant blanket in there (it can in fact stretch across the whole monster of a sectional that we have and cover me in one corner and John in the other corner, which makes me crazyhappy). It is simply a king sized blanket I found at HomeGoods a while back for 25 bucks.

So there you have it – two living room goings-on. What have you folks been framing lately? Any fabric “mats” or backgrounds? What about fabric as art? That is consistently lively too! Any ottoman organization? We learned truly fast that tossing things in without smaller bins and baskets = chaos. Like a small tornado hit ottoman-ville every time we cracked it open. So apparently it is all about sub-containment inside of larger containment devices. Lesson learned.

Psst- A reader (thanks Caroline!) sent along the link to this article about why people seem to be “wired” with the desire to Hands-on things, and it is so interesting! The “add one egg” thing is especially remarkable to me.