Eye-catching DIY Magazine Storage With Abstract Hand-painted Fabric

When the temperature starts to cool down, there’s nothing better than catching up on some light summer reading on the back porch. I made this DIY magazine storage using some scrap wood, wooden dowels, and muslin cloth. The hand-painted abstract design using brightly colored and neon craft paint as an eye-catching pop of color.

What You’ll Need

4 1×2 pieces of wood
1 small wooden dowel
screws and screw driver
saw (or pre-cut at hardware store)
muslin fabric
assorted craft paint
old gift card or something similar
thread or fabric bonding tape

The bright colors perfectly compliment the charcoal gray mid-century modern outdoor furniture in my yard. By the way, I get so many compliments on this outdoor set. Can you believe that it came from Target? I got it for a steal too when they were having an outdoor furniture sale!! In case anyone was wondering where I found the rest of my outdoor furnishing, the blue and white geometric pillow is from the old Target and Marimekko collaboration. If you’ve seen my terra cotta pot update, you know I love my Marimekko! The black and white accent table is from another one of my favorite stores, World Market Cost Plus. That black and white face planter on top is a DIY.

Building the Frame | DIY Magazine Storage

To construct the frame, I took some scrap 1×2 pieces of wood that I had laying around and cut them to 17 and a half inches on my circular saw with a 45-degree angle on one end of each piece. I cut my first wooden dowel to 14 in. The second wooden dowel is going to be slightly shorter because of the way the sides are screwed together. So for that one, I measured 14 inches and then subtracted the width of two pieces of wood.

You can also do this with a jigsaw or a regular saw but if you do or plan on doing a lot of DIY woodworking, I highly recommend investing in a miter saw. You can actually get a decent starter version relatively cheaply and if you make a lot of woodcuts, it’s definitely worth it for the speed and accuracy that you get. I use mine all the time and I love it!

Once I made my cuts, I painted everything white. When it was completely dry, I used to screws on each of the sides to secure them together. I screwed them from the inside so that the metal screws would. not be visible from the outside. You can then use a screw to attach one end of each wooden dowel to one side of the frame. leave the other side unattached for now until you’re ready to slide in the fabric piece.

Fabric Pouch

Cut a piece of muslin fabric to set the width of your wooden dowel and to your desired length. Make sure you add a couple of inches for seam allowance and to accommodate the loops that you will sew for the dowels. I cut my fabric to proximately 27×15 inches.

Fold the two sides of your Fabric in about 1/2 to 2 inches and sew down each side. Then, fold over and sew the top and bottom your fabric leaving enough space for the wooden dowel to side through. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can use iron-on fabric bonding tape.

Add Paint | DIY Magazine Storage

Now for the fun part! Lay your fabric down flat on a clean work surface. Use craft paint that works with fabric and comes in assorted colors. I used the Martha Stewart craft paint which I got for a great deal at Ocean State Job Lot when I visited my hometown this summer. I like this paint because it can be applied to so many different materials and it comes in endless varieties of color. I choose a bright color scheme including neon pinks and yellows.

Working in sections from the top, squirt a dime-sized amount of paint on to the fabric. Using an old gift card or something of equal weight, scrape the paint downward towards the bottom of the fabric. This will create beautiful abstract streaks of color across your fabric. Repeat as many times as you like and don’t go for perfection. The beauty of this technique is that each streak will be a different size, thickness, and shape

I also used a black acrylic paint marker to add some dots and dashes and curved lines to the fabric.

Once the paint is completely dry, slip each end onto a wooden dowel and secure the wooden dowels to the other end of the frame with a screw.