burlap letter wall art – a tutorial

I have had several people ask me about the burlap letter M I hung on the wall in my office  and how I made it. Ask, and you shall receive!

When I was deciding what exactly to put in our office for our makeover, I knew that I wanted to have a big letter M of some sorts, which is the first initial of D’s last name (one day mine..wink wink).

I was inspired by this one over at The Handmade Home but really wanted to use burlap because well, I love everything about burlap.

So I thought, why not stencil a big letter M onto burlap? And that’s exactly what I did! Such an incredibly easy yet fun and adorable way to add a personal touch to any room.

Wanna make your own burlap initial wall art?

Here is what you will need:

A piece of MDF board cut to your desired size

A couple yards of burlap (there are tons of different colors of burlap so the have fun with the color!)

Foam Glue

Scissors

Small paint brushes

Acrylic paint (the color of your choice)

And the most important piece: the letter you want to paint on your burlap. I just improvised and drew it out myself but there are so many stencil options out there to choose from

And now, how to make it:

One: Cut your MDF board using a table saw to the size you’d like. I don’t know how to use a table saw yet so I had someone do it for me. D’s still not sure if he trusts me alone with something big and sharp like a table saw. Especially since every time I’m in the kitchen cooking I cut myself.

No joke. Every. Single. Time.

Two: Cut your burlap to fit over the MDF board making sure to cut it big enough that you can fold it over and have about and inch of fabric on the backside.

Three: Using the foam glue, start with applying a generous amount to the first corner and fold the burlap over.

Four: Once all corners are glued down, start with one side and follow the same method. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the glue. It drys clear! You may need to hold it down for a few minutes until it had a good grip on the burlap. Once all sides are glued down, allow a couple of hours to dry before flipping it over to paint. ( But DO check to make sure you like the way the burlap lays over the MDF board while the  glue is still wet that way you can make any quick changes before it is dried.

Five:  Once dried, flip over. By now you should have your letter stencil ready to go. I centered my letter M in the middle of the board and quickly realized that outlining with pen wasn’t going to work so with a fine tip small paintbrush, I began outlining the stenciled letter with paint. I choose the color Burnt Umber because I love the contrast with the burlap and our wall color.

Six: Once you have outlined the entire letter, remove the stencil. At this point, I liked the way it looked but wanted it to stand out more so I decided to fill in the entire letter, leaving certain places a little lighter then others to give a shadow effect.

Seven: When I was happy with the way the M looked, I hung it with a small nail by driving it straight through the burlap and MDF into the wall. The MDF weighs next to nothing so I didn’t need a wall anchor and the burlap covers the nail.

And voila! The final product!

This post is linked up to some of the following here

as well as