Fabric Wall for Command Center

I know I have said this before but...I always thought when I had kids I would be THAT organized mom. I would have everything together. My house would be clean. My kids would be clean. Everything would be orderly. HA! Then I actually had kids and well...all that went out the window. I try, I really do. But have you ever tried getting something accomplished with two 18 month olds? It's counter productive. Folding laundry...yeah, they just throw it everywhere. Organizing toys, yup...take them out and throw them.

Anyways...so when we moved into our new (base) housing I was happy that there would be an area for me. Brett gets the garage. The boys have the playroom. I wanted an area for me to be organized, do projects, pay bills, etc...Again, everything in base housing is white and you can paint but what a pain to paint everything back when you  move out (and who knows how long we will actually be here) so I saw this awesome tutorial on using fabric on the walls using cornstarch and water at The Thriftness. Genius!



Before....don't judge! :)

I knew I wanted something grey because awhile back I painted an old filing cabinet  my dad had given me using this tutorial from Amanda (I think I even got the same color...yellow). I like grey and yellow together and knew I wanted that scheme somewhere in the house.

Off to Joann's for fabric. Originally I wanted a chevron pattern but I like pattern I chose. I washed it and ironed it. Measure it for the space and cut off any extra. Next you use a sponge brush and apply the cornstarch to the wall (4 cups of boiling water, then 1/4 cornstarch mixed with 1/2 cup cold water, slowly stir that into the boiling water. Let boil until thickens, almost like a gravy. Let cool then follow the last step). Depending on how big of an area you are doing, you will want to do small sections. I started at one side of the wall and worked my way over and down to get any excess fabric out instead of creasing. Once you have put all the fabric up, follow up with a coat on top of the fabric. Make sure to smooth out with something flat. I used a dry wall scraper (I don't know the technical term). Cut off an excess on the edges. While that was drying, I went around the edges with a coordinating ribbon then applied another coat on top of the ribbon. To keep everything in place until it was dry, I used push pins.


Measuring using push pins to hold it up

Cut any excess off

Now to complete everything, I used yellow accents. It is not completely finished as I am going to add some pictures and a calendar but all in all, I think it turned out pretty good and it was very simple to do! An easy way to add color without it being permanent! (Please ignore the ghetto chair...that is an upcoming project as well).

-Sabrina