Decorate with Patterns

By Pamela Acuff

Full Circle

A Hip Headboard will make your bed. Cut a piece of plywood to fit your bed frame and cover it with a grid of circle stickers. Roll an eye-opening shade of orange over the top and add a matching circle-stitched coverlet to tie it all together. Click here for how-to instructions.





Wall-to Wa ll Wow

A can of cocoa-colored paint, a level and painter’s tape turn a blah white wall into a Look-at-Me Accent. Give classic stripes an unexpected spin: Space random-width horizontal stripes at varied intervals to entice the eye up a stairwell. Click here for how-to instructions.







Posh Pillows

Colorful Decorative Bands, painted with fabric paint, give store-bought pillows custom detail. Tape off and paint a contrasting band, let dry and stencil a design on top. Or tape off a band, line up three adhesive circle stickers, bisect them with a strip of painter’s tape, roll on paint, then peel off the tape to reveal the design. Click here for how-to instructions.

Cut a Rug

Don’t pitch a stained rug—paint it and turn into Fresh Floor Covering instead. Using a ruler and painter’s tape, mark a rickrack pattern on a sisal (or any flat-weave) rug and paint every other row with yellow acrylic paint. No need to get it exactly even; imperfections are part of the charm. Click here for how-to instructions.

Have a Seat

A playful hummingbird turns any old chair into One-of-a-Kind Furniture. Center a ready-made stencil on a white-painted chair back and dab yellow paint in the cutout. Or personalize it by borrowing a motif from curtains or cushions and purchasing a stencil to match. Click here for how-to instructions.

Divine Design

Meandering vines on this Crisp Curtain Panel make a window look spring-fresh. Place material flat on a tabletop, tape off and paint a coral border, then use a vine stencil to apply fabric paint. Reposition the stencil and repeat to form a relaxed, natural pattern. Click here for how-to instructions.

Simply Floored

Why buy costly custom tile when you can paint something like it for hundreds less? Tape off and paint a 1- to 2-inch border using a standout shade of floor or porch paint. Alternate large round and square medallion stencils to make Hand-Painted Tile-Like Motifs and seal with polyurethane. Click here for how-to instructions.



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