DIY “How Lucky Are We” Canvas Wall Art

I’ve been in this new apartment for about eight months now, and looking back at my old home compared to now, the walls are so bare here. And even without decoration, I was able to make my previous home feel comforting and welcoming by simply painting walls. Renting is a different scenario. There’s a lot of gray, which also means that there’s a lot of freedom in how I bring color into my new home again. 

Personally, I really dislike spending money on big decorations, and I love creating pieces I can display in my home. I found this canvas wall art project originally on Tik Tok. There are a ton of videos about how to go about completing this project. I spent some time on Pinterest looking at  different variations, and the 3D letters really stood out to me. My goal is to bring COLOR into my home and that’s just what I’m doing.

Supplies Needed:

• Cardboard Letters (I got mine from JoAnn Fabrics, they have different sizes and materials available)
• Canvas (big enough to fit the letters you choose, I laid my letters out on the floor in the store with the canvas before I bought everything)
• Paint (choose your colors, so many options for this)
• Paint brushes (I liked my bigger flat brushes, made it easier to get smoother coverage)
• Magazine paper or newspaper (for under the letters, no paint on the counters here)
• Tacky Glue (to glue letters to canvas)
• Heavy duty command strips (4)

Instructions:

I had some of the materials before starting this project, but I did run to JoAnn Fabrics to get the letters, a large canvas, and some tacky glue. They didn’t have the letter ‘O’ in stock, so I grabbed a ‘Q’ and decided to cut the tail off using an exacto knife. I used the pieces I cut off to enclose the letter and sealed it with hot glue (hopefully all the letters will be in stock when you buy them, or I could suggest ordering them online too).

After I got the ‘O’ ready to go, I spent a little bit of time peeling the label stickers off the backs of each letter. 

I used some colorful markers to plan out which letters would be which color and after many trials and a lunch break, I settled on the theme of pinks, purple, orange and yellow. 

I tried out one of the paint colors and didn’t like how it wasn’t as vibrant as I wanted, so I painted each letter white and let them dry. 

While I let the letters dry, I moved to the canvas that the letters were glued to. I mixed up a brighter color yellow than the bottle I originally had by adding white paint and checked to make sure all the colors fit together with the bottles next to the canvas. 

After spending what felt like hours painting each letter their designated color, I went back over them with a second coat and let them dry for a couple hours (I made myself some dinner and did some housework). 

I couldn’t decide if I wanted the canvas horizontal or vertical so I waited until the next morning. They both look SO good, but I decided to go with the canvas being horizontal because ‘lucky’ felt a little scrunched without there being a whole lot of space between each letter. 

After spending a tedious amount of time on placing each letter, I let it dry while I went to work so I could hang it. I decided to use some heavy duty command strips on each corner so that I can easily remove it without damage to my wall. 

Overall, it was a super fun project to do on my day off. I had music playing, my iced coffee, and a bunch of snack in between the steps. AND it brightened up my hallway so much!