DIY fabric wall decals

More fun with fabric stiffener. Here's how to make some easy fabric picture frames for your wall. Or cut out anything your heart desires: silhouettes of your family, animal shapes for the nursery, lettering, ornate designs, party decorations... the world is your oyster. Hey, maybe consider doing an oyster.

I'd heard of people ironing starched fabric to walls and wanted to try it out. Sure enough, I was able to stick my stiffened fabric to the wall with an iron and remove it without harming my paint job. This is super for renters, indecisive decorators, or easily bored people. Note that if your wall is really rough, you'll probably have a hard time making these stick. Also for what it's worth, my walls are painted with flat latex paint.

What to do:
Prepare a piece of fabric with fabric stiffener. See this post where I used Stiffen Stuff in a spray bottle.

Measure your photo and determine the size of the opening needed in the picture frame. I used 5x7 photos, so I wanted to overlap the photo by 1/4" inch on every side. Thus the hole in my fabric needed to be 4 1/2" x 6 1/2".

To make a template for your frame, fold a piece of scrap paper into quarters. You can design one quadrant of the frame and cut through the layers to make a symmetrical border. Mark off one quarter of your frame opening (in my case, 2 1/4" x 3 1/4"). Then sketch a decorative border for the frame.

Cut out the paper frame and unfold to see if you like it, confirming the opening fits over your photo. If you're happy, fold the stiffened fabric into quarters and trace your design onto the back side with a pencil.

Cut out the fabric frame and iron it flat to get rid of the fold marks.

Then iron the fabric frame to the wall. I tried to be quick about it, not leaving the iron pressed against the wall for very long. I'm pleased to report that this didn't harm my paint at all. Some outer bits of the frame weren't sticking at first, so I used the point of the iron to go over those again until everything was adhered well.

After the frame is ironed to the wall, loosen the edges around the picture opening with your fingernail until you've pulled enough loose to insert your photo. If too much comes loose, put the photo in and iron around it to stick the loose parts of the frame back to the wall.

Later I tried peeling these frames off the wall and they didn't leave a mark. Lovely!

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