diy doily wall hanging

No we're not actually making a doily here.  I don't know how to make those.  But I do like them a lot, and I recently picked up a long cream doily with pink accents.  I was thinking about draping it across a dresser in Rowan's room, but it just looked, well, grannyish.  I do like using doilies here and there, but I didn't want Rowan's room to look grannyish!  So I came up with the idea to hang it on the wall as a base for a picture grouping.

I think it's pretty for a girl's room.  But, it just kind of hung there limply and draping when I first tried it.  I realized what I needed was fabric stiffener!  So here's just a quick little tutorial on getting a doily hang-ready.  You'll need:

doily of your choice
fabric stiffener
wax paper
big bowl or bucket

{If your husband is mentally 12 years old, you may want to hide this brand of stiffener from him.  Just trust me.}
Spread out some wax paper in the same size/length as your doily.

Pour a thin layer of stiffener into your bowl.

Stick your doily into the stiffener and coat it, adding more stiffener if necessary.  You don't need to saturate the doily for this project.  Mine was barely wet. 

Spread the doily onto the wax paper, and let dry for at least 12 hours.  I let mine dry for more than 24.  Not on purpose, but that's when I got back to working with it!  Pure honesty here.

The wax paper helps the doily just peel off, and then you don't have a mess left behind.  Now your doily will be fairly stiff and ready to hang!  I hung mine with white thumb tacks because that's what I had handy, they blended in, and just because I'm fancy like that.

And now you are ready to hang whatever you wish on top.  Or if you just love the art of the doily, you can leave it plain!  I have a lot of lovely art and plaques that have been made, passed down, and gifted to Rowan to put up.

{pheasant pin recently passed down from my mom- you can bet I'll be "borrowing" it in the fall; little girl on black plaque on my wall as a girl; wooden "R" from my great aunt; painting by me for Rowan; framed cross and other "R"s gifted from Rowan's godparents}

We're slowly getting things on the walls in our new house, and it's finally feeling like home.