Mod Podging the Least Decorated Room in the House

What’s your least decorated room in the house?  For me, every room has a new coat of paint.  Every room except the laundry room, that is.  The laundry room does more than laundry.  It’s also home to many coats and shoes.  Coats and shoes that will have to move one day because as the boys grow bigger, their bigger shoes aren’t going to fit in there.  It hadn’t occured to me that I might make this space a little cheerier until I met this fabric.

These fabrics are Michael Miller and are called “Mending Madness” and “Tidy Up”.  Cute, huh?  A few months back I Mod Podged some fabric to paper mache letter forms for my sewing room.  I really liked how they turned out.  And these prints are perfect for the laundry room (and other places, too…but one project at a time, folks).

Materials needed:

• Mod Podge (I prefer the matte finish because it has fewer fumes than the gloss)
• Plastic container for mixing the Mod Podge
• Paintbrush
• Paper mache letter forms (available at Michael’s or JoAnn’s)
• Cotton fabric
• Scissors that you don’t mind getting sticky
• Newspaper to cover your work surface

1) Lay your newspaper over your work area.

2) Mix the ModPodge in your container with water 1:1.  Mix it up with your paintbrush.

3) Determine which fabrics will go on what letter and cut pieces of fabric large enough to cover the front of the letter.  Be generous here, making adjustments for centering a design on the fabric, etc.

I positioned the words along the long line of the S.

4) Brush the front of the letter with ModPodge.

5) Lay your fabric on top of the letter.

6) Snip the fabric around the edges, making sure the fabric doesn’t slip around while you’re snipping.  The end result will be that the fabric is the exact same shape as the letter top.  If there are dry spots of fabric, brush the top of the fabric with ModPodge using your paintbrush.

7) Measure the depth of the letters and cut strips of fabric in this width (mine were 1-inch deep).  Soak the strips in Mod Podge, squeeze a little bit out between your fingers so that it isn’t drenched, and stick them around the edges of the letters.

8)  When the letter forms are completely covered on the front and side, the let them air dry on the edge of your plastic container.  They seem to stick too much to anything else.

9)Take a few moments to pick the dried Mod Podge off of your pudgy hand (who knew the camera added 10 pounds to each finger?).   This is my favorite part – I’m a big picker.  🙂  Look at that pinky!

The 4 of these letters took me about 2 hours from start to finish.  Please note that this includes clean up time and about 15 minutes of picking-glue-off-the-fingers time (oh it’s so addicting).

And I hung the letters with 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips.  They let me reposition my letters and can be removed without damaging walls.