DIY Textile Wall Art

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Arrow. All opinions are my own.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with DIY textile wall art ever since I discovered an amazing textile artist on Instagram named Lauren Williams. Her work is beautiful and inspiring, so I thought I would create my own wall art out of cotton rope and wood. Today I’m teaming up with Arrow to share this simple tutorial with you! (My version is nowhere near as high-end and detailed as Lauren’s. I could never! Ha.)

Project Supplies:

• Cotton Rope (I ordered a spool of 109 yards)
• 1×2 Board (I used 2 and sandwiched the rope between them but in hindsight I would’ve just used one.)
• Saw
• Arrow GT30Li Cordless Glue Gun
• Arrow T50ACN staple gun (optional)
• India Ink
• Gold Spray Paint
• Paint Brush
• Painter’s Tape
• Scissors
• Plastic Drop Cloths
• Clamps
• Stain
• Staining Pad or Foam Brush

Step 1: Cut Rope

Decide what length you want your rope to be, as this will determine the overall scale of the piece. I cut mine to 3 ft. long and used the entire spool of rope. After it was glued to my wooden hanger, I was able to touch it up and trim the bottom to make sure all the rope pieces were even.

Step 2: Cut Wood

We will need something to attach our rope to, so I opted to use a 1×2 piece of wood to create a wooden hanger. I cut mine to 20″ long. For my art, I actually used 2 boards and sandwiched them together with the rope in between, which is an option, but if I were to do it over again I would just use one board and hot glue the rope to the back. No need to sandwich the rope between two pieces.

Step 3: Stain Wood

I opted to use a Provincial stain for my 1×2 board and applied it with a foam brush.

Step 4: Attach Rope to Wooden Hanger

I used spring clamps to attach my wooden hanger to a piece of plywood so I could work with it vertically, and then I used my Arrow GT30Li Cordless Glue Gun to attach the rope to the back of my 1×2 board. Since I sandwiched two boards, I used my glue gun to stick the two boards together and then reinforced the ends using my Arrow T50ACN staple gun. This step is optional since you can get away with just gluing the rope to one board and not adding the second one.

I am obsessed with this glue gun, by the way. I love the convenience of it being cordless and I can’t imagine going back to using a corded glue gun now. It heats up within seconds too.

Step 5: Paint or Dye Rope

This is the fun part and the portion of the project where you can really get creative and add your own design spin to this piece of art. I opted to dye my rope, but I only wanted to dye the bottom 1/3 or so. I used painter’s tape to tape off my design, and I used India ink for this and applied it with a paintbrush. I used garbage bags as drop cloths as this ink is pretty messy.

After my India ink dried, I taped off another stripe a few inches above the ink, and covered the rest of my rope with garbage bags. Then I spray painted this section gold.

Step 5: Hang

After it had fully dried, I hung my wall art using picture hanging hardware which I attached to the back of the wooden hanger. That’s it! There are so many ways you could customize this to suit your style. You could use bright, vibrant colors and create whatever pattern you choose.

For more ideas, check out my project gallery here!