DIY Herringbone Metallic Artwork: Easy & Cheap

So I don't know if I've said this before, but my husband and I are currently building a house. Well, we're not building it (I'm not that crafty... hot glue has its limits), some nice young men we pay are building it. We are, however, among other things, funding it.  Let me translate: we're broke for the next year or so. Needless to say, that scenario leaves no budget for current rental-house decor. And I thought that was fine when we first moved into this dirty white box. 7 months later, the walls are now beige (because I couldn't stand the dirty white box) and the great expanses of nothing-ness on the walls are starting to make me antsy. This is how the "Herringbone" Metallic Artwork came about. (I know it's not technically herringbone, but it kind of looks similar).

Supplies:
• Metallic Paint (I used Rust-Oleum spray paint)
• Some other colors of paint (I used whatever I had leftover from other projects)
• Canvas or something to paint on
• ScotchBlue Painter's Tape (Mine is 2" wide)

This is what I started with.

I bought this in a parking lot 8 years ago when we were first decorating our old house.  It's been moved around quite a bit and now I've just outgrown it.  I wrestled a little with painting over a perfectly good painting. But since I no longer find it beautiful, and it does not serve a function, it was either time to make it beautiful or get rid of it.

Step1: Paint some of the canvas with the metallic paint.  I tried to keep all my paint going in an up and down motion.

Step 2: Blob on some color and spread it around again.  Leave unpainted areas. My 3 year old did most of this. I helped him keep it going up and down.

Step 3: Blob on some other colors and keep going.

Step 4: Pick up older child from Pre-K... wait, I mean let it dry once you're happy with the colors.

Step 5: Start taping (and put on some Phineas and Ferb to keep children in trance-like state).

I started with that piece in the corner and just lined up the tape based off of that one.  No real pattern, just tried to keep the spaces even between each piece. I didn't measure anything. This may require 2 episodes of Phineas and Ferb.

Step 6: Paint over the tape with the metallic paint.

Step 7: Peal off the tape (we did not wait for it to dry).

I like that you can actually see him saying "whoaaa!" in this one. They thought it was very cool how the color showed up when you pulled the tape off.

That's it, you're done.  Hang it up!  I put it over my dresser in our bedroom. We now have at least one thing on that giant beige wall for the cost of tape and a can of spray paint. :)

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