The Famous Rainbow Barn Quilt

The barn quilt originally created for me in a partnership with DIY Network is a special project–one that catches my eye daily.

The Designer

I’ve followed Buffalo-native Whitney Crispell for quite some time on Instagram, and when she announced that she was launching her own heirloom quilting business @localcolorquilts, I crossed my fingers and hoped she’d be willing to collaborate with me on a unique design. Her use of color! Her appreciation for modern design and pattern! So refreshing. Her projects always caught my eye and earned a double tap. She bit the bait, agreed to an interview for HGTV.com, and the rest is history.

Lucky day! 🌈 We had the pleasure of visiting with @whitneyarlene of @localcolorquilts and her lovely family. Whitney’s design was used for the barn quilt I created for @diynetwork, and it was fun to let her see it in person. We’re in total agreement that you should make one too. Barn quilt all the things! Thanks again, Whitney! #linkinbio. . . . #diynetwork #localcolorquilts #diy #barnquilt #heirloomquilt #painttherainbow #lovehome #makesomethingeveryday #merrypadathome

A post shared by Emily Fazio at Merrypad (@merrypad) on Sep 24, 2017 at 1:22pm PDT

For decades, I’ve admired the colorful, painted quilts adorning rural barns in my travels. The hand-painted wooden decor is a nod towards heirloom quilting, and quite literally can be described as an ornate quilt design that is applied to a barn as an outdoor decoration. Barn quilting became “a thing” with the help of Donna Sue Groves, as she sought a way to commemorate her mother. The popularity of barn quilting continued to grow as a means for community togetherness (so hygge!) and spurs agri-tourism around the United States and Canada. More than 7,000 barn quilts are mapped on quilt trails through both private and public property, and sought after by niche travelers.

A barn quilt can be anything you want it to be–simple or ornate–but its elements of color, contrast and symmetry are always prevalent, and visually tie it back to the art of heirloom quilting.

After I painted the barn, I knew I wanted to install a quilt of my own. Whitney had the vision and attention to detail that I was lacking and contributed the pattern and color palette. (She actually gave me a lot of designs – her reinvention of some classic quilting patterns is worth some gold. If you want a cool, original pattern for yourself, you might want to get in touch with Whitney).

Step 1: Select Your Design and Buy Paint

Whitney at Local Color Quilts in Buffalo, NY was the brains behind the design I used for this barn quilt. An accomplished quilter with a unique perspective on color, she modernized a traditional star design with a refreshingly bright color palette that would work perfectly on my dark brown-stained barn. Matching paint colors to the palette that she selected for the design was easy; many paint manufacturers have apps that help you match colors in your photos to paint chips in their respective line of colors, so I was able to go to the paint store armed with the paint codes for the 18 shades that I needed for the design. I only needed to purchase the $3 sample containers for the project – so keep in mind to choose the smallest samples sold in-store.

Step 2: Select and Cut Lumber For Your Barn Quilt

Bear in mind the size of the barn quilt you want to make when selecting your lumber. Many traditional barn quilts are 8-foot squares, but the space available on my barn wasn’t quite so big. I scaled down so that my quilt was built upon a 4’x4’ piece of 1/4” plywood base, and planed 1×8 pine boards. Before making any cuts, I dry-fit 7 of the pine boards together, and measured to find that the quilt could, at max, be a 50” square. I cut all boards to that length.

I was able to source the wood from trees cut down on my parents’ property, which my Dad had planed into gorgeous, red spruce boards. He had been saving them for a long time, and I managed to convince him this was the project that would do them right.

Step 3: Stain and Assemble Wood For a Barn Quilt

Staining is optional, really – It’s perfectly awesome to leave the boards natural since they will weather with time, and no judgment if you decide to paint the base either. I stained the pine boards in my project using the same color stain used for the siding on the barn itself but diluted with a little water to allow some transparency and allow the grain of the wood to show through.

If you’re applying stain, forget to coat the edges of the boards, as well as any areas of the 4×4 base plywood that might be visible.

Once the stain has dried, flip the boards over, line them up into a perfect square, and lay the plywood atop it. Drill 1-1/4” screws through the plywood and into each board, all the while making sure that the boards aren’t shifting. I put 6 screws into each board.

Step 4: Measure and Tape Before Painting

Following the modern star design from Whitney, I blocked off the base of the barn quilt into 16 even squares. For demonstration purposes here, I used blue tape in the first photo, but you’ll just need to make accurate marks using a pencil, ruler, and long straight edge (a 4’ level is usually my go-to for long straight lines).

Step 5: Paint Your Barn Quilt

Painter’s tape will be your BFF. The painting process will probably take you a couple of days, but it could be done in one day with some patience. It’s really easy to make quick progress at the beginning of the project because you can mask painter’s tape along your pencil lines in different areas of your design, and apply several colors at the same time. Towards the end of the project is where I started to slow down – my final spaces were in close proximity, so I needed to wait for one color to try before taping off the next section. Each space will require 2-3 coats of paint, but working outdoors with nice air flow helps the paint dry fast.

Step 6: Hanging a Barn Quilt

Certainly one of the most attractive pieces of art I’ve ever painted! Also one of the heaviest. As a 50” square, the barn quilt weighed easily 50 pounds, and I knew it would be a challenge to install it on the side of our barn.

I used no fancy joinery with this project. I briefly considered biscuits but didn’t think they’d be strong enough alone. There is no fancy hanging apparatus, either. I mounted the red spruce to a piece of plywood, and then straight to the wall of the barn with some 5″ bolts, and that’s where it will probably remain until the structure completely decays.

You’re definitely going to want to get the barn quilt of this size into some studs. You can probably trust some toggle bolts, but go for the studs if it’s an option.

I pre-determined where to anchor it by drilling out from the inside of the barn beside my target studs, and then installed a 2×6 board as a ledger for the barn quilt to sit upon while we attached it into those studs using 5” bolts. Once the art is installed–I used two bolts on the top and two on the bottom–you can remove the ledger and step back to admire your beautiful, modern barn quilt.

I can finally share this! 🌈 Last week I added some magical outdoor art to the wall of our barn. 22 colors from the rainbow as designed by the super talented Whitney Crispell of @localcolorquilts, and featured on @diynetwork. Votes are in: Barn quilts on all of the things! (There’s also an awesome interview with Whitney on @hgtv; search for it.) Shortly after we installed it, I found @dadandblog and his baby labor adding a nice paver edging to help guide rain water that drips from the barn roof (no gutters). 💦 . . . #thingswedo #merrypadathome #diynetwork #diy #makesomethingeveryday #barnquilt #handmade #crafty #teachthemyoung #barnmakeover

A post shared by Emily Fazio at Merrypad (@merrypad) on Aug 31, 2017 at 6:46pm PDT