Over at ATSF, Lisa posted on the top 10 tea/dish towels, which prompted Muhtari (whose blog is in Turkish and English) to send in this great pic highlighting the most affordable approach to art we have yet to see (not counting your own art). As she says:
I just bought an apt and after the closing I hardly had money in savings. But my father used to say "a woman without a scarf, a man without a tie, and a wall without an art" is not totally complete. So with my limited budget, I was looking for inspiration. Soon enough a trip to anthroologie...
That's really nice, Muhtari! I always feel a bit sad mucking up my pretty dishtowels. Yours looks stretched - did you attach it to a board or canvas to keep it flat?
congrats on the new digs... how did you mount the towel to the wall?
That is a beautiful corner you have there.. I would never have guessed it was a towel! I'm also curious to know how you stretched it and hung it up.
Yes, please share your methods! I've been saving some vintage vera tea towels and cocktail napkins for years with the intention of hanging them, but haven't yet figured out the best way to do so...
What a great idea! I don't know why I never thought of displaying tea towels like that. I would buy a canvas from art store and staple it on that or I have a frame that I could use - I broke the glass on it. A tea towel might not fit in with the glass anyway.
I think if the towel is like a painting, then it's on stretcher strips.
A stretcher strip is a piece of wood, behind the canvas, that has grove and slots on either end so it can be easily attached to another stretcher strip. So, she got 4 strips, and stretched the towel over the square. maybe tacking the towel in place (as the other option is stapling). It's a similar method to re-upholstering a dining chair seat with new fabric.
This is all a guess on my part, but stretching a towel over stretcher strips is a cheap, easy way to properly set the fabric and make it look incredible!
Thanks for your comments.
Please click my name regarding your questions about stretching.
And some Good News. Crate & Barrel has an amazing Marimekko Table Cloth (Red on Red).If you happen to be in their SoHo store area, please stop by, as they did an amazing job, turning the table cloth fabric, into a wall art, all over their store. And this is my next project, I just ordered the small one to use it for the same purpose and cannot wait to share it with you.
Jamie,
I quess the mystery is solved. :-)
You are right , it is really easy and that is exactly how it is done.
That's a cool chair! Was it upholstered in that fabric when you got it?
Piebald, It is a treasury-hunt finding from Craigslist, if I tell you how much I paid for those two identical orange chairs, you would fall of the chair. :-))
In Turkey, new upholstery is really cheap, I thought it would be a good idea to get pricing in US and give my new apt a little treat. But the funny part is, new upholstery pricing in US was 25 times more than what I paid for both chairs. 6 vendors told me that getting a new chair would be a better & cheaper solution , because the chairs were tufted.
So I cleaned instead and they still look awesome.
i did a similar thing with this same tea towel. i framed it in an inexpensive frame from michael's. i had it in my kitchen so i needed it to stay clean. we're redoing our kitchen though and changed the colors, so it moved to the hallway.
yours looks great!
I love your tea towel wall art. I adore using marimekko fabric as art! txtlart.com has wonderful wall kits you can purchase and they are so easy to put together. For about $150 you can get a 54"wide x 60"tall fabric with the frame. I have the Tuuli kit in green and the Ho Hoi kit in yellow and I'm trying to make wall space for more!
Nice idea New York Muhtari : )
Maybe I will stop drawing on the walls at home...
Of course people don't believe it's a tea towel... it looks like something Jonathan Adler would release as Art at a boutique price-point, with a paragraph on how it will bring you special joy and fabulousness.
And he probably will do so next year, and you can preen about how you thought of it first.
wende in phoenix, you are funny.
Well having a limited budget did not give me much of a choice but be creative. I will post some pictures of other corners of my apt where you can see a drawer, turn into a bookcase, colorful scarf as lampshade ;-))