There is one random wall in my kitchen area that blocks off the kitchen to the living room. If I owned the property I’d knock it down . . . but alas we’re renters for the time being . . . Since we moved in, it’s looked like this

I couldn’t get these letters from Anthropologie out of my head. And I really want to do something else with that mirror . . . But $18 a pop seemed excessive to me. So what do we do when the price is excessive . . . we DIY.

The supplies were simple. The letters I wanted, black paint, silver metallic paint, a foam brush, a stipple brush, and this tutorial. The DIY was simple too just the way this lazy, impatient girl likes it. First, I painted everything black. then I let it dry over night.

Then I took my stipple brush and dry brushed the silver paint on – see the tutorial from Jones Design Co. for how I did that. Let it dry over night.

Then it was time to hang them. I googled advice on that also, and most of what I heard was to use command strips. But I’m still not sold that it will last for heavier things and over a long period of time. So I did this instead . . .

I took some twine I had leftover and stapled it to the back of each letter like the picture above. I even put some tape over that just for extra hold, but it’s not necessary. When I was ready to put them on the wall for the long haul, I measured out where my nails should go and hung the twine on the nail.

Viola! I’m not much of a painter so I was a little skeptical my skills could pull this off. But this quick little project turned out better than I imagined. It really does look like zinc or steel! My husband didn’t know what I was working on and he was surprised they weren’t heavy – he didn’t expect craft paper letters!

Very successful DIY!