Spray Painted Pillows

Why YES, You may think by the title of this post that I have taken a trip to the LOONEY BIN!  That I have finally taken my spray painting obsession hobby just a little TOO far! 

But wait till you see this:

Now are YOU a believer too?

I found THIS post over at V and Co (boy I love that gal--she has got CRAZY awesome taste and talent!  If you have not ever been to her blog--you MUST go DIRECTLY to her blog--after reading mine that is--and see all the awesome stuff she does!  Luv her!!) 

Anyhoo--She had this tutorial for spray painting up some awesome pillows.  And since I LOVE spray painting--and I also happen to be in the market for some pillows that I want for my living room and NOBODY on this planet seems to be selling what I want in pillow form OR in fabric!  (I decided to start on my outdoor patio pillows to practice first before I attempt the living room ones).  So I believe it was destiny that  we found each other I found her blog!  Now I can MAKE EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!!!  And for PENNIES!!!  Really once you start this process and see how easy it is...the possibilities are endless!

***I am adding this little side note because I have had MANY questions regarding the WASH and WEAR of these pillows.  SO--as far as washing--I have washed them--laid them flat to dry--and ironed them on the non painted side--and they come out PERFECT!  And as far as the WEAR of the fabric--It does make the fabric SLIGHTLY stiffer--so instead of soft cotton fabric--it feels more like an uphostery weight fabric.  I have rubbed and scuffed and scratched at the paint--and it does not flake or chip off  in any way.  Again--I used a light weight COTTON fabric.  If you are unsure about your fabric--you can always do a test piece first before you go full throttle ahead.***

OK--so I am going to show you what I did to create MY new outdoor pillows.  I had just purchased these old ones at a garage sale--but thought that it could use something brighter out here. 

The black ones I think will look better in the winter. So I decided to make covers for these same pillows and then I can have a winter and a summer look!

So this is what I started with:

Some Freezer Paper

Some Spray Paint

Some White Cotton Fabric

Painters Tape

Scissors 

First I measured my 3 pillows and cut out the fabric in squares to match--mine happened to be 15".  So I cute 3 squares at 15" and then 6 of 15" by 10" for the backs (the 2 smaller pieces get overlapped in the back to create the opening for the pillow to go through).

Next I traced around different size cups onto the non shiny side of the freezer paper to get my circles for both my circle pillows. 

Then I cut them out and laid them onto my fabric to decide on the pattern.

(Sorry the next few pictures are SO BAD--I am still without my camera and relying on my phone camera in BAD lighting without a flash!!!  AAARRRGGG!!!!)

So for the first pillow I wanted a grid of circles--so I found the center of the square and pressed my first circle there SHINY SIDE DOWN (The shiny side is the GLUEY side) and then measured up an inch and added another circle.

Then I moved on to the next rows and did the same thing until the square was full. 

Then it was off to the garage for some paint!

Just regular spray paint--again--notice the spray painting trigger!  LOVE THAT THING!!

I applied 2 light coats--trying to keep it as even as possible.

When I thought it looked good--I just peeled off the freezer paper.

Then I sewed it up into a slipcover and now it looks like this:

SO CUTE!!

Next I did the striped one using painters tape.

I just placed a clear ruler on top of my fabric and then followed the straight edge while laying down the tape every half inch. 

Because I wanted to try 2 colors--I then taped OVER every other whites space so that I could then paint those stripes a different color.

Then I spray painted the first color over all the white stripes.

Then I took off the second layer of tape and then repositioned it over the lines I just sprayed (once it had dried).  And then sprayed the second color over those lines.

When I took off the tape I realized that I must not have pressed the tape down well enough after I ripped off the tape after the first painting--because the second color bled through quite a bit. 

But after looking at it for about 2 seconds--I realized that I LOVED IT LIKE THAT!!!  The bleeding kind of gives it a fun water color look--which I think adds some dimension and whimsy--AND by loving it I don't have to REDO it!!  (There are advantages to looking on the bright side of things when mistakes happen!)

And now it looks like this:

The third pillow was almost identical to the first--I just did the circles in a more random pattern and used different size circles.

Cut out the freezer paper circles.  Iron them on:

Spray Paint:

After a second coat--peel off the paper:

Make it into a pillow:

And THAT is how I made all of these BEAUTIES:

I LOVE how they turned out!  And I LOVE how I can now have different pillows for the different seasons!  AND it only cost me a couple cans of spray paint--(which I didn't even use that much, so I have lots left over for other fun projects!)

And NOW that we all know that we can SPRAY PAINT FABRIC--THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!!!!

So in REVIEW:  Here You Have it:

My Winter Look:

My Summer Look:

I'll just say this once again,

SPRAY PAINT MAKES ME HAPPY!

Linking up to the parties listed in my LINK UP LIST found HERE.