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Create your own painted peacock wall hanging

15 Jun 2020

Add some royal peacock colours to your wall with this DIY painted wall hanging.

You will need:

Step 1 Start by folding the top edge of your fabric over to form a loop wide enough for a piece of dowel to slide through. This is what you’ll use to hang your wall hanging once you’re finished. Sew along this fold. Then, repeat with the bottom of your piece of fabric.

Step 2 Use clothes pegs to secure your piece of fabric to your piece of cardboard. This will keep your fabric straight and taut while painting and will protect your work surface from paint that might bleed through the fabric.

Step 3 Use a white colouring pencil to sketch out the shape of the peacock’s head, body and back. Using a paintbrush, paint the back of the peacock in Resene Tree Frog or another colour of your choice.

Step 4 Use Resene Torea Bay or another colour of your choice to paint in the head and body.

Step 5 Use Resene Parsley for the hand-printed feathers. Apply two layers of paint to your hand. The first layer of paint will dry quickly due to the heat of the hand, then be liberal with the second layer of paint – it won’t dry so quickly because the first coat acts as an insulating layer. Firmly plant your handprints around the peacock’s body, fanning out with each successive layer.

Step 6 Now it’s time to layer up the different colours in the peacock’s feathers. First use Resene Happy Hour to paint on an egg shape on to the palm of the hand print. Make it as big as you can to ensure you have room for all the other paint colours.

Step 7 Paint on a smaller egg shape using Resene Antique Brass. It will look like an avocado!

Step 8 Using Resene Bowie, paint on a smaller circle on top of the Resene Antique Brass.

Step 9 Finally, use Resene Surfs Up to paint on a crescent moon shape on the top half of the Resene Bowie circle.

Step 10 Add spines to your feathers with Resene Parsley. Paint on legs, beak and eyes using Resene Raven and Resene Black. Fleur used Resene Bowie and Resene Surfs Up for the head crest, Resene Quarter Dutch White for highlights around the eye, and Resene Bowie and Resene Parsley for extra detailing on the body and back.

Step 11 Insert the lengths of dowel at the top and bottom. Attach a piece of string to either end of the dowel at the top of the wall hanging and hang on your wall.


This peacock is resplendent in Resene Torea Bay (body and head), Resene Tree Frog (back), Resene Parsley, Resene Happy Hour, Resene Antique Brass, Resene Bowie, Resene Surfs Up and Resene MET Magma (feathers), Resene Raven, Resene Black and Resene Quarter Dutch White (legs, beak and eyes). The wall hanging really pops on a wall painted in Resene Dark Knight.

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 15 Jun 2020