Make your own DIY mini barn quilt art to go in your house – instead of on the side of your barn! Just kidding, I know you don’t have a barn!
Have you ever heard of a barn quilt? Until a sweet reader emailed about her barn quilt couple of months ago, I hadn’t either. But I’ve since decided I love them and wanted to make a mini barn quilt for our house.
Basically a barn quilt is a quilt square painted onto a board and mounted to a barn. Although they’re starting to pop up on sheds and houses too.
Now I don’t live on a farm and my house is definitely not a country house (we live in a suburb of Toronto with a population of 141,500+). But when I was in Michael’s looking for craft supplies I stumbled upon some square craft plaques and they made me think of barn quilts – rather, mini barn quilts.
Supplies
- Unfinished square plaque
- Cream or off-white paint
- Dark walnut stain
- Paint brush
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Paint marker (optional)
Instructions
1. Using a lint free cloth or foam brush, stain plaque with dark walnut stain. Let dry.
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to stain wood, check out this post.
2. Using a ruler and a pencil mark a grid of 3×3 equal squares.
3. Then mark off from corner to corner of squares as shown below.
4. Before painting, be sure to mark which triangles get painted and which stay blank. I did this by putting a white dot in the paintable triangles with a paint marker (see photo above).
5. Carefully paint the marked triangles. Let dry.
6. Lightly go over the whole piece with fine grit sandpaper to age.
Do you have a spot for a full size barn quilt? Or is this little one more your size?
xo,
Shannon
LOVE LOVE LOVE The mini quilt square. I do live in an old farm house with a barn in the yard. Our girls (all very artistic) have said they are going to make us a quilt square for the barn. BUT while I wait..I am heading to Michael’s to make my own mini square. Thanks for sharing such a great idea. By the way we live in the village now and have one of the very few barns still standing in our area.
Oh that would be so fun! And I wish we had a barn to do workshops and stuff in!
I love this! Such a great idea. Our farmhouse needs one of these!
Does your farmhouse have a barn?! Now I’m wondering how many if our readers live on a farm?!
Well I don’t live on a farm any more (acreage growing up) but I DO get to go to the ‘barn’ (stable!) about four times a week…..I am wondering, what are the dimensions of a full size barn quilt?? I would like to make one for the owner for Christmas, I think she would love it! Thanks for sharing!
you don’t know how inspiring this project is to me. I have been trying to think of a way to decorate an area in my house and this will do perfect! thanks for the information.
Awesome!!!