Living Room Face Lift

We've always had a rather plain living room, but when we sold our TV the large empty wall screamed out for help! With five dollars and only an hours worth of rearranging furniture and painting fabric letters with corn starch and water, our home looks a lot better!

Before:

After:

When I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett, I was touched by her character, Aibileen Clarks, commitment to offer up consistent positive reinforcement to the little girl she looked after. Her phrase, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." caused me to related to the little toddler who was so lucky to have her. Don't we all need to hear wonderful truths about ourselves? I started whispering her words in my sleeping daughters ear, then I'd tell her them while we played, and finally I began to repeat the phrase whenever I was at my wits end dealing with the fussy mischievous version of my little girl. We all need to be reminded of our best, when we are at our worst! (I may or may not be referring to myself and not my kiddo here.) My husband and I rented The Help as a movie and I was so pleased when he told me, on his way out the door, that I was kind. I was smart. I finished for him, "and you is important!" We've adopted this as our family slogan and it only made sense to display it in our home with our family photos. I need to replace our daughters one day old picture with a more current one...

I traced stencil lettering onto black fabric and "pasted" them to our wall. Seriously, it really was that easy! I even did a tester dot around the corner to make sure it would peel off without harming the paint job. It did. I've seen this technique floating around pinterest, and even came across a blog where a woman "wall papered" a whole room using starch and fabric. Rumor has it, once you peel the fabric off the wall you can wash it and sew with it later! So, what's the recipe? 

I mixed 1/8 cup of corn starch with 1/4 cup of cold water and set it aside. I brought 2 cups of water to a boil and then added the corn starch mixture. I boiled it for about thirty seconds and then let it cool before using a paint brush to paint the back of the letters, stick the letters to the wall, and paint over the front of the letters.