I've been wanting to create a new gallery wall for the second bedroom downstairs for awhile. Something more modern. I love how Young House Love used white picture frames to create their gallery wall, but I wanted to add some eclectic elements as well. I saw this black and white swiss cross sign from House of Belonging on Etsy, and thought it would look cute with some white picture frames around it. However the $125 price tag was more than I wanted to spend.
I decided to DIY my own. I headed over to Michaels and bought an 8" X 8" square canvas and a 2 oz bottle of Americana acrylic paint, in lamp black. Overall I spent $14. I looked for a template of a swiss cross online. I found this one, which is actually a coloring sheet. I downloaded the pdf and resized in a word document to get the right size to fit canvas. Then I simply cut out the cross (or what my husband refers to as the giant plus sign) and traced it onto the white canvas background. You could also use a Silhouette or vinyal cutting machine, but I don't have one, so tracing is what I went with.
Before I painted it I had the hubby frame it with some leftover pallet wood. It has a nice weathered look and comes across as very similar to the inspiration piece from House of Belonging.
After tracing the swiss cross, I simply filled it in with black paint and a small paintbrush. You have to be very careful with the lines to get them straight. I used an angle brush for this.
I let it dry and tried out my gallery wall on the floor. I hope to hang it sometime this week. What do you think of the sign? Have you seen swiss cross designs other places as well?
Anne with an E