A DIY Faux Gallery Wall
Happy Friday Cutting Edge Stencil friends! What better way to start the weekend than an awesome DIY Faux Gallery wall for you to try! A typical gallery wall can have several photographs, wall stencils, and framed signs placed at random upon the wall. In this case, we will be using our ever-so-trendy botanical stencils! Frames can be SO EXPENSIVE, why not paint your own for way cheaper? Cutting Edge’s stencils are reusable so you can repeat the same design in different canvases! This DIY project to create a Faux Gallery wall has several steps but is rewarding in the end! Grab some wall stencils, blue painters tape, your DIY mindset, and lets get started!
Our stencil guru, Erika, is definitely needed for this DIY project! She demonstrates how to paint and stencil this desired gallery wall using Cutting Edge Stencils’ botanical stencils. This video will teach you how to outline a faux canvas, faux frame, and allow you to creatively place your stencils so you get the gallery wall you always dreamed of! Check it out!
Step 1: Decide which sizes you will be using for your Faux gallery wall. It can be the size of frames or canvases you have on hand. The beauty about a gallery wall is that it is meant to be random! Trace each canvas against the wall in the size and placement you desire with a pencil!
Step 2: (Pro tip: we recommend using Blue Painter’s tape for all of our stencil projects!) Use that tape and place it on the border to layout faux canvas. The bottom of the tape should be touching the pencil tracing.
Step 3: Take more blue painters tape and apply it directly around the the first layer of tape! You are basically creating an outside boarder for it! Be sure they are side by side because it is important for everything to remain straight and even.
Step 4: Once the outside border is created, you can go ahead and remove the inside tape. Now you should be seeing the pencil marks from the outlined canvas with a little bit of space in between and then the outside boarder. The reason for the first tape placement is so we can paint a base for both the faux canvas and the frames.
Step 5: Miter corner with a putty knife. Tear away the excess tape so that you have visibly straight and crisp corners.
Step 6: Begin painting inside the blue painter’s tape. This will be the color for the basecoat of your stencil. Erika painted her faux canvas Navajo White to match the look of an actual canvas. Do not paint outside of the blue painter’s tape!
Step 7: Mask off inside edge of frame. Align the inner pieces of tape directly against the outside tape border. The purpose of this is when you begin stenciling, you do not accidentally stencil over the tape that is covered in paint!!
Step 8: You can now begin stenciling using your desired wall stencils! Erika chose to use a variety of our botanical stencils from Cutting Edge Stencils. Botanical stencils are a huge trend right now and the best part is you can mix and match the stencils however you want! We love adding a touch of the outdoors into the home in a fun and gorgeous way!
Step 9: After the stencil dries use tape to layout frame width. Use the blue painters tape and place each piece around the inside border!
Step 10: Again, miter corner with a putty knife. As you do that and shape the inside border, you can begin to remove the other tape next to it! The reason for the placement of this inner border is so that you can create outlines for your frames.
Step 11: You can finally paint your frames! Erika used several browns to mimic different wooden frames! You can have fun with this and play around with the colors to match the rest of the decor in your room. Be sure to paint inside the lines!
Step 12: Gently remove the remaining tape from the borders! If you aligned your tape properly, you will have clean lines for the frames without any bleeding! How gorgeous does this look?
Yes, this may look scary- BUT it’s quite simple and looks amazing upon any wall! Plus, you can take pride in knowing that you have stenciled and painted this entire gallery wall yourself! Who needs to go out and buy frames and signs when you can design your own right here!
Where would you place this DIY Faux Gallery Wall? Comment below with your thoughts! Can’t get enough of Cutting Edge Stencils:
- Check out Cutting Edge Stencils Facebook Page to see beautiful customer photos and interact with the people who created them!
- Buy these Botanical Stencils for your next room DIY gallery wall, and browse other wonderful stencil designs.
- Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest and share your designs using the #cuttingedgestencils. We love seeing your projects!
Thanks for reading and happy stenciling!
Karli and the Cutting Edge Stencils Crew