Farm Party Tutorial: DIY Painted Barn Doors

I made these DIY Painted Barn Doors for a Farm First Birthday Party project last year, and as far as easy-yet-high-impact projects go, this one has quickly became a new favorite! The doors are made from stretched artist canvases, which come in lots of different sizes and are readily available in most craft and art supply stores. They also go on sale quite often (at the store near me at least), which is always an added bonus! ;)

For this party, 9×12” canvases were used for the barn doors displayed on the dessert table, and the 11×14″ size was used to embellish the kid-friendly drink station. Here’s a closer look at the process:

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YOU’LL NEED:

– 2 Stretched Artist Canvases (of equal size)
– Painter’s Tape or Washi Tape
– Red Spray Paint
– Large trash bag or tarp for spray painting area

INSTRUCTIONS:

Start by taping a giant X onto the front of your canvas. (I didn’t have the right width of painter’s tape on hand, so I used washi tape instead… it worked like a charm!)

Next, tape off all 4 sides of the canvas, including the edges, like so:

The final taped off canvas should look like this:

Now you’re ready to paint this puppy! Lay a tarp or garbage bag down to protect the surface you’re painting on, then go for it…

The first coat will look very light and may absorb into the canvas. Let that initial coat dry, then repeat 1-2 times until you have a nice, even coverage on the finished design.

And now for the REALLY fun part…

Once your paint is completely dry, begin peeling the tape off slowly. I love unveiling those nice, crisp paint lines…

TA DA! You can use the finished doors in a few different ways. I made a pair that was a little smaller for the “barn” backdrop of this Farm Birthday Dessert Table…

… and used a slightly larger pair of the doors as a stand-alone backdrop for this simple & colorful Farm Party Drink Station:

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For a closer look at the Farm Birthday Party that inspired this DIY project, click here. You can also find all of the farm-inspired paper details from this party in our Hostess INK shop! :)