Ira Colley's Blog: DIY Watercolor Spotted Pillows

If you’re looking for a quick, cheap way to add a pop of print to your space then these pillows are just the ticket! They’re inspired by classic Dalmatian prints, but with a loose, more artistic interpretation. After several trials with dye (too much bleeding) and fabric paint (made the fabric too stiff), we finally found the perfect method to bring this organic look to life. Check out even more home DIY’s here!

Materials
White pillow cover
Pillow insert
Navy fabric paint
1” foam brush
Round paintbrush
Cardboard
Plastic cup
Plastic spoon

Cut a strip of cardboard to fit inside the pillowcase, this will protect the backside of the case from paint that might bleed through from the front. Place the cardboard in the case and lay on a flat work surface.

Squeeze some paint into the plastic cup, then add water until the mixture is opaque but thin (about twice as much water as paint). You want it to have the thickness of water more than paint, but as dark a color as you can get.

Dip the foam brush in the paint and stamp on the pillow to make the large spots. Concentrate the large dots in 3 “stripes”, keeping the spots mostly vertical with a few in different directions. Have fun with this- you can’t mess up these spots since they’re supposed to look irregular. Don’t be surprised if the spots bleed into the fabric a little, we want that to happen.

Dip the round brush in the paint and stamp on the pillow to make the small spots. Concentrate around the large spots in the stripes and spread out a few more between the stripe sections.