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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

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An Artful Display

October 15, 2012

There’s a reason I’m up to my wrists in fuschia pink RIT dye, but I’m not ready to go there yet. In fact, I’m hoping to make a lot of fun stuff out of a leftover supply of pink dye, but in a sort of backward fashion, I’m showing you the most recent of the projects right now.

I’m on a mission to display some of the photos and mementos that have been accumulating on the kid’s IKEA shelves; everything from birthday cards to postcards are meaningful/saved/cherished/protected. To give her an opportunity to present them in a rotating gallery rather than on a shelf or in a pile, I installed a simple clothesline-inspired cord above her bed using nothing more than a scrap string, thumb tacks, the cutest mini clothespins, and that never-ending container of fuschia dye.

String art decor in our little girl's room.

Starting with a piece of string (f-r-e-e from a stash at home) and a handful of the tiniest clothespins I’ve ever seen ($2 at Walmart), I customized each piece by dipping it into the dye reserve (stored in the basement where it can’t ruin much since it holds the power of transforming anything from our wooden floors to our couch to our deck). For the clothespins, I dunked the whole bunch in the liquid for a half-hour and retrieved them out with the help of a strong magnet (so as not to have to submerge my ungloved hand). The string, I folded in half and dip dyed to achieve a light-to-dark effect.

Scrap string about to become a photo clothesline.

Sweet little clothespins!

Dying the string into a gradient of pink.

I let all materials dry out for a day before installing them. Pretty pink-tastic.

Dyed string and clothespin.

Hung with some of my favorite pink thumb tacks into the drywall, it was a quick and easy way to add a little character to the room. It was immediately a new home to some of the most favored items and pictures.

I attached the string to the wall by looping it around a pink push pin.

The clothespins are really cute, and moreover, they’re easy for kid fingers to operate so Julia can update, move, and contribute to the ever-changing display herself; the proportion of them to the pictures is good (both in size and in strength – they’re surprisingly strong, but not heavy enough to add a lot of weight to the fine string). I still have 40 from the pack left undyed for future projects (or more string displays).

Little wooden clothespins, dyed pink!

It was a big hit. Make anything fun for yourself over the weekend?

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Bedrooms  / Decor  / DIY

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

2 Comments


Michelle
August 13, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Reply

Hi! I love this idea on displaying photos or in my case, my kids’ artwork. Where did you get the big thumb tacks?



    Emily
    August 14, 2014 at 10:09 am

    The pink ones? They’re just normal sized thumb tacks (cute though, because they’re pink… found them at a garage sale.)

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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