Worst Project in the Entire World - Part One

I finally finished it. Thank goodness!

First, let me explain why, for me, this is the worst project in the entire world.
1. I hate to tape. I don't even tape walls when I paint them because I make more of a mess and it takes more time.
2. I hate to paint. I love the way fresh paint looks, but I hate the act of actually doing it.
3. I have zero patience when it comes to projects. I can do things that are tedious and take a lot of time, but I do not have patience when it comes to being meticulous.

As most of my projects / ideas start off, I saw something from RH that I wanted, and decided to try to replicate it.

Image courtesy of Restoration Hardware

I started with 2 blank canvases from Jo-Ann's that I got for 40% off.

I wanted to create a framed look.  I measured 1/2" around the canvas and marked it with a pencil, and then applied tape to my marks.

I painted all of the white area with a few coats of black.  Yep, I got some paint on my toes...again.

I was really really excited at this point.  Minus a little bit of leak over, the frame part I was trying to create came out perfectly!

And then things started to go downhill.  I couldn't find stencils that were the right size, so I gave up looking.  I tried to print out and trace letters, and even with that, I couldn't figure out anything that would work size wise. So I improvised and made my own sized letters by taping the area I wanted to leave black.  What a freaking pain.  This took FOR.EVER.

I then painted all of the non taped letters white.  I had to go over it a million times with white to get it to cover the black.  Again, not the smartest.

This looked like an eye chart when I was done with it.  I still had to shape out the 6th and 8th street from the original picture shown, which took even longer than doing the big letters did.  I messed up quite a bit and kept removing and reshaping the tape, so when I was done, my white paint had leaked underneath my not-so-well sealed tape.

I touched the picture up with black paint and hung it on the wall.

Obviously, I had two pallet shelves that I made, so there's another subway art sign that I created.  That post will be Part Two.  I think the way I created this one was the hardest and dumbest way to do this (wow...all in one!).  I did use a different approach to the second subway art sign.  Stay tuned for part two to see the entire updated living room.
Happy Monday!