West Elm Inspired DIY Throw Pillows for Cheap!

I am the type of person that falls in love with something even if it is totally out of my price range so I DIY it up. In love with some West Elm pillows but not wanting to pay the price they were asking I held off but couldn't get my mind off of them. So I busted out the Tulip Metallic Paint and got after it myself and saved a cool 70 or so bucks!

For this project you will need:

Pre-made pillow covers -mine were $5.99 apiece and half off of that at Hobby Lobby

Pillow inserts

Tulip Fabric Paint in Metallic Gold or Silver

Tape (I used narrow Duck Tape)

Soft bristled paint brush

I wanted to find a linen look pillow cover but had no luck. This one seen here worked really well, though.

To start this pattern you want a square smack dab in the center. To make a nicely shaped square, simply take a firmer paper and fold the corner in on itself to make a triangle that is half the size of the square you want. Trim around that triangle and unfold for a perfect little template!

Tape around your first square...

And follow around that square to make the lines extended out. Within those lines use your template to make the next one and so and and so on. You can make the entire cover shapes or leave the outer edges as stripes leading up to the diamonds like I did. Do whatever floats your boat!

To get that fun, streaky and distressed look, I took my paint and very thickly applied it in stripes and allowing the chunky areas to remain. This is crazy fast work and lots of fun, too!

And here you have this one! Up close the texture appears much chunkier than it does from a distance, but with Tulip fabric paint the texture is still soft to the touch and not stiff and uncomfortable.

For a simpler pillow I took my tape and ran vertical lines two inches apart on the next cover. For this spotty, distressed look I applied a lot of paint to the brush, really loading it up, and then brushed around like crazy within that area until the paint was all gone. And then I moved on to the next stripe!

And my striped pillow is much more understated and the paint is much thinner on the cover. It's fun and simple and seriously took about 10 minutes from start to finish!

I found the weave of my covers tight enough and my application of the paint quick enough that I didn't need to place anything inside of the cases to prevent bleed to the back. Test an area or just go ahead and put some cardboard inside to be safe if you prefer.

In the end I'm crazy about these pillows and so is my Momma. Because shortly after making these beige and gold cuties, I decided to make my entire living space tones of gray. Isn't that the way things always go :)

Thanks so much for reading and if you enjoyed, why don't you pop on over and give me a visit at my blog Dream a Little Bigger?

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