Placemat to Wall Art

Happy Spring DIYers!! I've finally emerged from hibernation a bit shaggy and worse for the wear, but enjoying this Seattle sunshine and ready to DIY. No joke, last weekend it was like waking up from a fog. The sun was out, the temperature was up and instead of laying on the couch and reading in the almost completed library (more on this upon completion), Jason and I started ripping things apart, cleaning out the very messy garage and listing our project priorities in the weeks to come. That being said, there will be some new cool posts in the near future but until then you'll have to be satisfied with this very very simple project!

So, last fall I was in my favorite store on Earth, Anthropologie (have I mentioned this before? Oh yes, I think I have) and was stoked to find that it was the greatest week of the year (a bit of an over-exaggeration but still....): THE ANNUAL SALE. I went a bit mad and bought a ton of random things for the house that when I sent the list of pictures to Carly she asked, "soooo what are you going to do with those things?" Like take for example the beautiful gorgonian (sea fan coral) placemat I found for $7.95

Gorgeous right?? Too nice to be a placemat in my opinion

We live a bit further from the ocean than we did in Carpinteria, CA but none-the-less, I love having ocean-inspired pieces of artwork throughout the house to make us feel at home. Back to Carly's question, what the heck was I going to do with a single placemat? Hmmmm good question, but I knew I would figure something out as it was just too pretty to pass up on.

I got it into my head that I indeed wanted it to be hanging on the wall but how could we do this? While visiting one of my favorite places in Seattle, Second Use Building Materials, we found some old baseboard that I loved the color and texture of so we though, hey, why not make our own frame for it? I'm sorry that I didn't take pictures of the baseboard before, Jason basically ripped into it and started chopping right when we got home before I knew what was going on. But to do the basic frame he did simple 45 degree angle cuts on four pieces to give the shape of a basic frame and then wood glued the thing together. Since I wanted this to be an open piece with no glass, I decided to back the placemat with a beautiful linen I picked up from Jo-Anns with a coupon. I got two yards and that was more than enough. Now for the fun part. With the frame assembled, I ironed out the fabric, doubled it up and began stapling it to the back of the frame, pulling to tighten it as I went.

This shows the fabric stapled on and trimmed up around the edges

Next, very carefully, I started sewing small holding stitches through the placemat into the backing linen to hold the placemat in place:

Doesn't look pretty from the back but just you wait

Not going to lie, this step was the hardest part of the whole simple thing because you have to be careful not to stretch the linen out too much so it won't sag in the frame. You could always do this step first but I felt more comfortable doing it this way, you're choice of preference. Once the edges were trimmed up and the placemat was securely in place, we just added a saw-tooth hanger to the top of the frame with small nails:

AND VOILA!

Finished and hanging like it never was actually a placemat

Now I have a beautiful custom piece in one of the hallways that reminds me a bit of diving in my beloved Santa Barbara every time I look at it. Lesson of the story, even placemats can be made into something beautiful so just be creative!