Recycle Your Old Curtains And Disused Material Into Wall Art

How To Make Art Canvases From Old Curtains

I have purchased rolls and rolls of canvas over the years, and in Spain canvas is expensive, still, when I'm creating work for others, I do use canvas, but for my personal use, I make my own with old material, dust sheets and curtains.

I first thought of making my own canvases when a friend, moving back to England, brought some thick curtains around to my home for me to use as dust sheets, they worked well on large Frames.

I have created wall art from painting abstracts, adding colour to a room, to small paintings for the kitchen. I have even made some large Pop Art for my daughters room (featuring her of course).

Below are a few sequences of what I do to save a few quid, and make creating canvases more bespoke - I hope they are helpful. 

 

DIY Canvas

I make frames from wood, either recycling old pallets or buy some lengths, cut them to size, glue and staple them together. I also use damaged picture frames.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1. Frame
2. Material/Curtains
3. PVA Glue
4. Staple Gun and Staples
5. White Acrylic
6. Water
7. Paint Brush and Tub
8. Flat Surface

 

 How to make a frame for your canvas

 

Curtains/Material

 

This curtain was given to me, I didn't buy them with flowers on (Honest).

This material is thin, so I'm going to use it for two small frames. These paintings will be in Acrylic for the Kitchen.

 

 

Cut the material to size

Either, offer the frame up and cut around or use a tape measure - make sure you allow enough material to wrap around the frame.

 

 

Pva And Water

2 Parts Water 1 Part PVA Glue

If the material is thin, I lay it flat and give it a coat of Pva Glue water mix before attaching it to the frame
and then hang it to dry flat.

Position the cloth

Once you have done this, lay it on a flat surface and pull the material over the frame and push out all the creases.

It is now ready to be stapled.

Sequencing of Staples

Pull the material tight to remove any creases but not to much that it rips on the corners of the frames.

Stapling the corners

Fold the corners over and tuck them in flat and staple them - they should almost fold themselves, try to do them all the same way.

Sealing and strengthening

This also tightens up the material

Stapling finished - Coat it again both sides with the PVA water mix and stand to dry.

 

 

Finishing

1 Part PVA 1 Part Water and a small amount of White Acrylic

Mix and brush over the material including the side and leave to stand.

The picture is the finished canvas tight strong and ready to be painted.

Photo Gallery

Canvases made from curtains

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  Work in progress

  
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  Made from an old pallet with the fabric stretched across the back 

   

   

   

   

  

  Pop art