How to make your own large wall art using a shower curtain for less than $100 plus a round-up of gorgeous art design shower curtains for the job.
This project officially climbed to the top of the list of our favorite art DIY ever! And that’s saying something. Because we’ve done a lot. Like… a LOT of art projects.
We’ll print high resolution images from our home printer and stick them in a frame or run to Staples for a cheap engineer print any time. But those freebie/cheapo art solutions only go so far and the max size we can usually print is 24″x36″.
This time, we made a honkin’ 5’x4′ stretched canvas for less than $60! (Thanks to finding a shower curtain on sale for $40.) I swear if we bought this thing from an actual retailer, it’d be several hundred to $1,000-ish.
Total props to House of Jade Interiors and Angela Rose Home because we thought we came up with this totally brilliant idea until we discovered they are the O.G.s of this concept.
Here’s how we made it…
DIY Large Scale Wall Art from a Shower Curtain
(Some affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here.)
Supplies Used:
- 5 1″x2″x8′ boards
- 4 lattice strips
- Shower curtain with design of your choice (We chose this pretty abstract landscape one and I’ve rounded up a bunch of my favorite shower curtains to make into art at the end of this post.)
- Power drill & bits
- Hand saw or miter saw (You could definitely do this project with very basic tools.)
- Staple gun
- Hammer or brad nail gun
- Brad nails
- 6 wood screws
- Staples
- Wood stain (I used the color Minwax Special Walnut.)
The Steps:
1. Stain the lattice strips and allow to dry while you work on the next steps.
2. Decide the dimensions you want for your art first by measuring your shower curtain and allowing for 3-4 inches of excess for overhang. We decided to make ours 5’8″ x 4′.
3. Measure, mark, and cut your 1″x2″ boards to make the canvas frame (4 boards around the perimeter and 1 or 2 boards in the middle for support).
4. Use a drill to make a pilot hole at the corners where the boards meet and drive in wood screws to attach the boards. Staple the boards at the seams too.
5. Lay your shower curtain on top of the canvas frame and align it as desired. Place a couple of staples at the top of the shower curtain to secure it to the canvas frame.
6. Flip the canvas frame over so that the shower curtain is facing down with the frame on top of it.
7. Begin wrapping the top edge of the shower curtain, smoothing the fabric along the board, and staple it along the entire edge.
8. Repeat on the bottom edge of the shower curtain, this time stretching the fabric to eliminate any wrinkles.
9. Stretch and staple the fabric at both side edges.
10. Fold and staple each of the four corners.
11. Staple any excess fabric to the boards as well.
12. Measure and cut 2 lattice strips to fit the top and bottom of the canvas. Use brad nails to attach the strips to the canvas frame.
13. Repeat for the side lattice strips, making sure to account the side lattice measurements for the top and bottom lattice strips you previously added.
14. Anchor a couple of screws to the wall where you want to place the canvas, hang, and you’re done!
This whole project took less than 2 hours to do and it has made such a huge impact in our office makeover already!
Robert says he wants to make another one with a giant world map for our garage since he technically considers the garage his office. Poor guy needs a man cave. Haha!
What do you think?!
Here are a few more shower curtain designs from some of my favorite artists that I think would make gorgeous art! I had a hard time choosing just one for ours.
If you want more DIY art ideas, you can see a bunch more here.
Beautiful!!
This is absolutely genius! The finished art product looks amazing. Now I’m wishing that I still had a stair landing that needed a huge piece of art. I do have a big, empty wall over my bathtub. How appropriate would that be?!? Shower curtain art above the tub! Seriously, this is amazing!
ha! no, this isn’t new at all. In the 90’s, it was popular to do the same thing using favorite fabric patterns. Actually, I still see it – not often – but the fabric art is still out there. I’ve seen it using wrapping paper too. I’ve found that the ones that don’t just look like “you framed a bedsheet!” are the ones, like yours, where you use a scene. I’d suggest to other viewers to keep that in mind if they do the same thing. Buy one with a scene, or an object – those tend to look better.
You come up with the best ideas !
sounds like a great idea to me!
Well chosen landscape and simply beautifully and ingeniously done!
Genius, as always!
I love this so much!! You give me hope that I don’t have to spend thousands of dollars redecorating! So grateful!
Wow, outstanding fabulous. I just don’t understand how you keep coming up with these breathtaking, creatives ideas. I love, love, love this post.
Fantastic idea!!! We have a massive vinyl wall map for our summer cottage that we got at IKEA for about $50Canadian abut 10 years ago. It is the same concept. Now we are creating a bulletin board backing style map for our townhouse basement in the city. It is a HUGE 8’x5′ National Geographic map so we can put in map pins. We lived and worked overseas in international schools for 25 years so have LOTS of places we have visited. Our two sons in their 20s are super into this idea. Figuring out what glue to use to attach the roll of cork to the masonite board. What would you use?
Hmm, I’m not sure. I would research that one for sure. Just never done that personally so I don’t want to steer you wrong!
Wowza!!! Looks sooo high end! Thanks for the detailed instructions & a peek @ some of the other shower curtains! Luv your blog & your creativity ❤️
I love it. I love it. I love it!
Your office is so beautiful!! And totally YOU!!
I wanted to say I am looking forward to seeing wheret God takes you both in blessing others with your gift.
I will be praying for you !!
Love it! Do you think it would work with one of those ‘wall tapestries’ that teens pin onto their walls? Or does the shower curtain work because it is more sturdy?
Absolutely! Tapestries would work too 🙂
I’m looking to make a large piece of art and was looking at tapestries which I think would be the same as the shower curtain you did. I just across your post and LOVE how you did the wood strips around the frame. What a great idea to make it looked more finished. You just helped me so much! Yours looks amazing!!!
Awesome Dana!! I am so glad you are able to find this useful> 🙂
So I just attempted this and you can see the frame and middle support bar through the white parts of the fabric. I already have it stapled on. Would you have a recommendation on how to hide that without taking the whole thing apart?
Help!
Hi, Alli! I apologize for just seeing that I have not responded to you. I do not have any recommendation. Have you decided to use it?
Could you take a white bed sheet and staple it to the back top…then feed it infront of the support bar and just let it hang? Cut off excess.
This might be a silly question but can you tell me exactly where to find the lattice strips? I have been to Home Depot and Lowe’s and I am not having luck. Even if you could include a link that would be awesome. I am actually making 3 of these.
It can also be called lattice moulding. Here is a link to Home Depot https://bit.ly/3oJ5XRo
Where do you find the lattice strips either at Home Depot or Lowe’s? I went today and could not find them. Could you give more Info on that part? I am doing 3 pieces of art this way.
Hi Justin. Here is a link to the lattice strips from home depot https://bit.ly/3oJ5XRo
Thank you. I actually found it today. My bad.