Fabric Panel Wall Feature | Tutorial

Today I’m sharing how to create a fabric panel wall! It makes a big impact with little effort and it can be renter friendly too!

Materials:

3 Yards of fabric
6×9 drop cloth
1/4″ x 3/4″ wood molding (two 7′ sections)
Spray adhesive
Iron
Fabric scissors
Permanent fabric glue
Tape measure
Staple gun with 1/4″ staples
Drill and screws (or 3M command strips)

My panel measures, 84″ wide x 54″ high, I used 3 yards of fabric (42″ width) 2 yards across and 1.5 yards up. Referencing one of my favorite prints, I drew the pattern in Photoshop, and got it printed through Spoonflower.

First, you want to iron your fabric (with steam) to remove any creases. Try to iron it where you’ll be working on the entire piece, moving it will create wrinkles and you’ll have to iron again. *Cut the top and bottom flush and leave the selvedge edge on the sides to wrap around the back. Iron the selvedge edge up, even with where the print starts.

Next, measure your fabric and make your cuts.

To stiffen up the fabric, I purchased a drop cloth (6×9 for $10). I was originally going to use interfacing and iron it on the back, but I couldn’t get it to stick well and it was wrinkly ..

Again, iron it well with steam to get all wrinkles out. I did this in the garage, directly on the concrete, which absorbed water .. I had to place a scrap piece of wood under and spot iron some spots so that they would dry .. so I’d recommend placing something under it if possible.

To attach the fabric to the drop cloth, start away from the edge and plan to trim the excess drop cloth (since it’s very tricky to get it perfectly straight). Enlist an extra set of hands to hold it up, (I started at the top) work in small sections smoothing it from the center of the fabric, remove all as you go. If you get wrinkles, lift it up and re smooth. *Don’t attach the outer selvedge to the drop cloth.

To get the width, I needed to join two two widths of fabric. For the center seam, leave one center seam raw. On the other center seam, fold it under about .25″ and overlap it. Iron it lightly without seam. Prior to moving it, let it dry for about 30 minutes.

On the top and bottom, cut off the excess drop cloth even with the fabric.

For the edges, with the outer selvedge edge ironed up (to use as a guide), carefully trim the excess drop cloth on the side.

Flip it over, using permanent fabric glue, glue the outer edge on the back of the drop cloth.

Attach the top and bottom trim to the panel to hang it. Using 1/4″ staples, fold the top edge of the fabric over and staple from the back. Repeat on the bottom.

Attach it to the wall, measure and confirm that it’s level. We used small screws since we can put small holes in our rental walls (two on the top and two on the bottom) If you’d prefer not to put holes in your wall, use command strips at the top and let it hang loose at the bottom. It won’t be as tight, but as long as it’s pretty heavy, it should hang fine.

And that’s it!

Total time spent was a few hours and about $50. So, not too bad!!

I hope you’ll give it a try 🙂

Fabric Panel Wall Feature | Tutorial

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