How to Make Lighted Wall Art

by Susan Myers

5 Materials

$15

2 Hours

Easy

Search for any home decor option on Pinterest, Etsy, or even Amazon, and you will likely see hundreds of cutesy canvases decorated with lovely stencils or unique artwork – all beautifully backlit with LED lights.

What if, instead of dropping hundreds on seasonal decor you could make your own?

What you will need

A blank mounted canvas (For this project, we used a round canvas, but any shape will work).
One or two packages of LED lights, depending on the size of your intended project. (To make life easier, opt for battery operated lights with automatic timers.)
Acrylic paint, watercolors, or any other paint medium you like.
Paint brushes
Precision knife
tape

You have a wide variety of options with which you can choose to decorate your canvas, including cardstock, calligraphy pens, twine, pom poms, and glitter. Get creative and put your own stamp on this project!

If you don’t already know what you want to do, browse Google or Pinterest for inspiration. You can print out images and cut them out to trace around, or use stencils if you have them. Painting with drywall or thick layers of acrylics can give you amazing texture and add another dimension to your imagery. If you use extra elements like cardstock or twine, use mod podge to adhere it to the canvas seamlessly so you won’t have to worry about pieces falling off.

It is a simple matter to light up your canvas. Once everything is dry, flip the canvas over and cut tiny slits into the fabric with a precision knife and insert the LEDs into each spot. Make sure your slits are small and tight, if they are too big, your lights will fall out.

If you accidentally cut a larger incision than necessary, close it up with some tape or glue after inserting the LED. Tape your battery and timer to the bottom corner of the canvas so that it is out of the way.

That’s it, you’re done. All you need to do is mount your canvas on the wall or shelf, and enjoy the view! The best part about this project is that it is easy enough to recreate without much effort year-round so that you can swap out canvases in different seasons and holidays.

This was a guest post on Suzy's Sitcom from Callum Mundine who is the co-owner of LED World – a lighting design firm based in Sydney, Australia. He runs this business with his brother Simon. In his spare time, he enjoys creating DIY projects (like this one) using his knowledge of the lighting design industry. You can read more about him here

Want another easy wall art idea? Click here for Easy Fabric Wall Art!

Enjoyed the project?

You can do it! Saved to your projects

Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info