EAT String Art

...as in string art that says "EAT" not actually eating string art (but I'm sure you already figured that).

Our poor little, bland, overly neutral apartment has been needing a little spunk. I actually love that the paint is bright white since it helps it feel lighter during the gray rainy months. I'm sure you've seen string art around the internet but I just got around to trying it out. Honestly, I can see why people are hooked on it. It's easy, fast, and pretty fun.

Fortunately I had a scrap board floating around so I didn't need to buy any lumber. All I had to get was a box of nails and some embroidery floss. I chose to use lime, tangerine, and peacock blue so that our lime green Le Creuset pieces that have to be stored in plain sight would tie in with it. First I whitewashed the board using leftover paint from when I did the striped nightstand diluted 50% with water. Then I printed the letters out on the computer and played with the layout.

I'd read other blogs that said making sure the nails didn't line up perfectly gave a better end result so I drew dots where I thought the nails should go and then counted up how many I'd need. This was a needless step however, since I have no idea how many nails are in 0.5 lb and a google search didn't help. I just bought the big box and called it good.

Hammering the nails was a beast - until I decided to pre-drill all the holes. Seriously. That was the best decision ever - and took this project from highly annoying to really fun. These nails are aluminum (only because the others were out of stock and I was too lazy environmentally conscious to drive somewhere else) and did not go in the plywood as easily as normal ones. Plus, I actually really like the white coating. I had planned to put drops of similar colored nail polish on the tops of each nail to make the color pop a little more, but come to realize I like it just the way it is.

It makes the weird white space above our fridge a little more charming. What do you think? Now I'm just a little bummed I have to put the baskets of baking stuff back up there. It's so cute and minimalist this way.