Pottery Barn Typewriter Key Art

Hello friends, I'm sorry you had to hang out so many days with my lamp shade project.  At least today, I have something new for you.  Okay, okay, this doesn't sound like anything new, right. I mean, this was around blogland about two years ago when I first saw it on Susie Harris's blog.  I thought "Wow!" and rushed right out and purchased some stencils.  Hmm.

Crickets.  Chirp...chirp.

They got used for other projects, but not for the keyboard.  Fast forward to last week, when I saw a neglected thrift store canvas leaning against the wall in my bedroom and thought, I need to clean my bedroom "I need to make that into Typewriter Art!"  So, even though it's "nothing new," it's all new because of the colorway.

Canvas is 18" x 20"

Bye, bye, landscape!

I painted over the original picture in white (it's the first time ever that I painted on canvas, it was pretty cool).  It was a little trial and error with the dots.  Instead of being all mathematical, I just grabbed glasses from the cupboard and experimented with the sizes for the horizontal line.  I did have to do some measuring for the vertical spacing.  Needless to say, there were a lot of pencil lines that I had to paint over.

I traced a wine glass for the dots.  For the pale colors, I put a puddle of white on a paper plate with a drop of a regular color (blue, green, peach, yellow) and mixed as I went along.  At first I was trying to mix the paint together to get a consistent color, but soon discovered I like the variation of the blending on the canvas.

For the letters, I used my stencil and mixed burnt umber and buttermilk to get a soft brown color.  The circles around the letters were made with the lid from my bullion jar, 'cause I have awesome art supplies like that.  (I had to scour the cupboards a bit to find the right size.)  For those, I used the same umber and buttermilk mix, and dabbed the lid randomly in the paint and pressed onto the dot.  (My inspiration fabric is in the top left corner.)

Since the background white was already splotchy, I opted not to give it a coating of glaze.  When everything else was completed, I went back in and used a ruler to add the grid lines using a fine paint brush and mocha glaze.  (Note:  I didn't realize till after I got all of the dots painted that the grid was a part of the design.)  Had I looked over someone's directions prior, I would have drawn them first, as you can see now they are perfectly imperfect, because, yeah, some of the grid lines bump into the keys.

I've gotta tell you, there was a point (or two) at during this project that I was ready to bag the entire thing, because I didn't think it would work out.  I kept plugging along and now I'm totally smitten with it!  Why did I choose these colors???  W--e--l--l, remember I mentioned I'm working on a baby quilt?  These colors match it perfectly!  Even though, you're not likely making something for a baby, I hope this will make you think "out of the box" to customize the colors for yourself.  I'm thinking a coastal blue or a pretty gray, maybe yellow...

The almost-completed, inspiration quilt is in the background, Healthy Chick, a.k.a. Mom-To-Be Chick selected the printed zoo/jungle fabric.  It's not ready for a full reveal, yet!

I have a frame that fits this, um, that would be the one the canvas came out of to begin with.  But, I'm going to get a ribbon and glue it around the edge and cover the hanging wire with it.  So much more fun for a baby's room, don't cha think?

This is one of those projects I'm crazy about--I like to walk past it just to internally Ooo and Ahh and how great these look together!  And, aren't ABCs great for children's room decor?!  One last note:  I opted to put 1 and 2 in the remaining dots since the Little One is being born in 2012.



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