Paint Your Own Buffalo Check Pillows

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DIY Buffalo Check Pillows

Buffalo check is a whole thing right now and I am loving it! You may have seen the roadside recliners I (well my mom) reupholstered in buffalo check? They are fabulous. I wanted to bring a little buffalo check to the outdoor mix for the 4th of July, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune on outdoor pillows. Any easy paint job was in order and in no time I had the cutest pillows on the block!

Today I am joining some other fabulous bloggers to show you our outdoor spaces, I ‘m giving you a mini tour of our outdoor holiday décor with a tutorial you can copy if you’d like. Our front porch is long and narrow, I haven’t really done much with it as far as decorating goes, slowly but surely I am getting around to it.

 

There are big visions in my head, but it takes time to cultivate! I have always wanted flag bunting across the entire front of my house, but the budget doesn’t exactly match my dream so this year I bought one super large flag bunting from Cracker Barrel. No sponsor, I just always love how theirs looks when I drive by! Plus I love to shop there…anyone else?

In the hope of being more diligent about decorating our front porch space I added an easy way to hang and change out décor on a brick wall. I don’t want to continually drill holes in the brick on our front porch and I am sure my husband would be less than amused by my ‘anything for décor determination.’ I painted a 6 X 2 piece of lumber the same color as my house and using brick screws attached it to the large wall expanse we have out front. From now on I can hammer and nail on the piece of wood as the seasons change and only it will get holey and beat up instead of the house! You can barely see it here…The new flag bunting was the first display on my newly devised hanging board. I am in love. Now for the easy DIY tutorial on how to paint your own buffalo check fabric for pillows. You might be thinking why paint your own buffalo check instead of just buying it and I will give you a few reasons. first off is cost, this is WAY less. Second, you can make any color you want when you DIY!

I make tons of pillows and various home accents out of drop cloth fabric. For $20 or so I can get a ton of fabric to make all sort of things out of. Drop cloth is soft and imperfect with a great neutral color. You can follow my pillow tutorial here to see how to make the actual pocket pillow, this is just a tutorial for the painted fabric. Cut your fabric to the size you want, I made 20″X20″ pillows for the porch. You can watch the video painting here and below are a few more tips:

Using fat masking tape line up the first piece of tape with the side of the fabric, I taped mine to the counter for stability. Line up another piece of tape next to this one, it will act as your measuring piece. Line up a new piece of tape next to the second piece and press it down securely. Remove the second piece of tape and move it to the other side of the third. Repeat across your entire piece of fabric.

Dry brush your paint (I used acrylic craft paint, you could use chalk paint as well) on the fabric, keep your brush strokes in one direction and be sure to cover the tape edges for clean lines. Remove tape once complete and let paint dry. Turn your fabric and repeat the process with the stripes going in the opposition direction. Lightly paint bare fabric, you can hit the spots where the lines cross a little extra for added dimension. Remove tape and make yourself the cutest buffalo check pillow!

Decorating for the 4th of July is a favorite of mine, I love sticking flags anywhere and everywhere.

I have been collecting number 4 signs this year to spread around as a nod to this special day, peeking out of potted plants and on my mantel. I also added these to my potted plants for fun.

Not much else screams southern front porch like a big lush fern, so I always stock up on those and hope to not kill them off any time soon. They usually make it till the freeze. Maybe this year I will be better to them.

It doesn’t take much to gussy up your outdoors for the 4th of July – the flag never changes! I am so thankful to live in the land of the free! I hope you will visit my friends (see the links below) and see their outdoor tours to gather some more ideas for your home. Be sure to save anything that strikes your fancy!