Badaboom Badabing Fabric Artwork!


The Mego Cave is officially under way! Wondering what the heck a Mego Cave is? Well, it started during Design Night a few weeks ago. Eric and I were having our Saturday date night in front of HGTV watching Design Night. Seriously, call us lame, but it is a favorite for us. So the new and delightful show Mom Caves was playing. All of a sudden Eric goes, “Why don’t you make the carport room your Mom Cave?” Ding ding ding! Light bulbs are just popping everywhere! That crazy, almost useless room immediately had purpose and potential. I think I shot off of the couch and did a little wiggle dance. I knew I married this man for a reason. Then, after calling it a Mom Cave for a few days I realized how silly it was since I am not a mom (if you don’t count the stuffed animals) so we changed the name to The Mego Cave. So much better, don’t you think?

Ever since that moment, I have been in a flurry of excitement planning my new room that is all mine. That means it can be completely sparkly and girly,  but in a grown-up way and not a teeny bopper sort of way (much, I’m still a teeny bopper sometimes). As I was thinking of colors and design, I new immediately the inspiration for the room. It started with a fabric piece my mother-in-law gave me. You can see it right here on the couch where it goes perfectly with the couch.

You can also see that above the couch the picture was not gelling with my style or vision of the Mego Cave. Although it is a beautiful picture given to me by my friend Cait’s mom, it wasn’t in the right place. Eric eagerly snapped it up for the basement since that boy loves everything snow!

Since the fabric was the inspiration piece, I thought it would be fitting to make it a showpiece by making it a huge piece of artwork above the couch. The space is between two closets and I really felt it could handle a large piece of artwork. My goal was to build a wooden frame that I could stretch the fabric around. Then I thought about how I could work smarter, not harder (can I get an amen?!). So my thought process moved on to just finding a big ole second hand frame. One weekend I went to Estate Specialists who has really nice items upstairs and then a really exciting and smelly basement where you can find stuff if you dig. I did know that they actually have a cage of old frames so off I went to dig around in the dirty basement cage. What a find I got – a step up from even a frame. Check out this $5 find!

Duh! Why didn’t I think of that before?! A canvas stretcher! I hadn’t really measured the space and just left it up to eye ballin’ it in the store. So I eagerly ran into the carport room Mego Cave when I got home to try it spacially.

Perfect! So after a little gussying up (sure was dirty in that basement) it was time to work on finding the perfect pattern to stretch across the frame. Easier said than done. This pattern can easily be so symmetrical, predictable and well, it can kind of look like body parts when it gets all straight and centered. Use your imagination. I worked on all sorts of ways to lay the fabric. It actually took quite a long time for me, as I would lay it out, step back and ponder it for a while. After a few hours of pondering and just a few minutes of actual work, I hit upon my pattern.

So here it is all laid out and ready to be cut. I cut around with a few inches leftover so I could wrap it around the frame. Next it was time to break out the tools. A staple gun is definitely one of my favorites! It feels powerful but it easy to use (just make sure you have the right size staples for your project). When you get to this step it is really important to stretch your fabric really tight so it doesn’t ripple and bunch when it is hung on the wall.

One side stapled and a few more to go. I recommend starting with the top and bottom, getting the fabric stretched tight in the frame. If you just started on the top and then the sides, it may bunch up easily. Also, I made clean corners by wrapping them like a Christmas present. Here is its  backside all stapled, trimmed, and ready to hang!

Since I got lucky and the canvas stretcher already had a wire on the back for hanging, all I had left to do was to hang it. Drum roll please!

Perfect! Love It! Couldn’t be happier! It just immediately brightens up the room and sets the mood for the new Mego Cave.

And now a before and after for the full effect!

How’s that for a $5 project! So have you ever made fabric into artwork? How have you handled it? Inside frames? Wrapped around something else? I would love to hear your ideas since this one was so easy, I might want to do a few varieties of fabric artwork!