Doily Screen

Check out this fantastic Do It Yourself Arts & Crafts Project for the home. The result is a beautiful screen. Hang it on the wall, behind the couch, etc.

Your nearest party supply store should have packages of paper doilies. You’re gonna need lots! If you want a uniform look go ahead and get doilies in all the same size. However, for a more interesting patchwork look pick up a range of sizes and shapes. You’ll also need a package of white tie wraps or a floral wire in white. You can attach the doilies together with other material if you like, but this maliable wire is easiest and this is going to be a tedious project.

Once you are home and all prepared with lots of floor space, just open up your first package and start laying out your doilies in your preferred pattern. You might get hung up on this, so keep in mind the only decision that you really need to make is if you want it to be a geometric pattern or something more haphazard. Once you’ve got them laid out begin attaching the ends where they meet with the floral wire. Once you are done you might get your hands on a long piece of white pvc piple. You can use packaging tape to attach the top of your screen to the pipe and then just roll down a couple of layers and secure the ends using more tape.

Hang her up!

If you need an option that is a little less fragile, try cutting out circular shapes with cardboard and attaching them using the same method. I recommend selecting a color scheme and pre-painting the circles before attaching them together. While I think this option is even more tedious, I did see it executed in an Anthropologie store display, draped over a canopy bed. It looked pretty rad and that’s why I’m talking about it now.

Lastly, check out this beautiful floral screen. The piece resides in the Permanent Collection of SFMOMA. Its titled No Betweens, by artist Jim Hodges . This is the ultimate inspiration for this project. Hodges pieced his screen together by de-constructing silk flowers and sewing the flowers back together in a random pattern, attaching petal to petal.

Thanks for playing,