Tutorial: Float Mounting Art on a Fabric Mat

It's time for a southwestern gallery wall update! Inspired by both Sherry Petersik's self-imposed "Dude, Get on That Already" challenge and our impending ceiling redo (which begins on Wednesday), I finally decided to tackle one of the last frames on our gallery wall that still needed art. I mentioned in my first southwestern gallery wall post that we had a piece of art that Alex made (the cowboy kid screenprint pictured above) that was an odd size. We planned to mount it on a burlap mat, but it fell by the wayside and ended up sitting untouched for the past two and a half months while we were working on other projects-- until last night!

I bought a 1/4 yard of this burlap fabric at Jo-Ann, and I only ended up needing about half of it for this project. The amount of fabric that you will need will depend on the size of your frame, so be sure to measure your frame before purchasing your fabric. You can use any fabric you like, as long as it's not too thick, as you need to be able to get the backing board back into the frame.

The first step is to remove the backing board from the frame. You are going to use the backing board as a base for your mat.

After you remove the backing board, lay it down on top of the fabric. Your backing board may have art printed directly on it like mine does in the picture above. If that is the case, just turn the art right side up so that it forms the back of your mat and faces the wall-- you don't want to risk it showing through the fabric. Leave enough excess fabric around the outside of the backing board to fold it over and tape it down.

This is what the front should look like.

Use masking tape to secure the edges of the fabric to the backing board. This won't look pretty from the back, but it will look flawless from the front. Trim off any excess fabric so that the backing board will fit back into the frame.

Place some masking tape on the back of your art in order to adhere it to the front of your fabric mat. (I chose to use masking tape because it comes off easily and won't destroy the art in the event that I decide to remove the art from the mat.) Position your art and then gently press it into place.

Put the backing board back into the frame right side down.

This is what the finished project looks like! The whole project cost me less than $10 (frame included, since I purchased it for $2.99 at Goodwill back in January). I think that the texture and color of the burlap add more interest than a custom cut mat would have.