This is a tutorial for the easiest, cheapest wall art I’ve ever made.

I got the idea from simplify your space.

I call it reusable wall art because you don’t have to cut or destroy your fabric, and the bases are made of recycled cardboard boxes from cereal and other products!

Also, gather whatever sizes you’ve got of whatever fabric you want to use. Here are my choices:

You’ll also want a pair of scissors, a ruler, a pen, and a roll of masking tape.

Start by cutting apart your boxes. Make sure that you have enough space to leave some overhang, over a specified width for your panels.

I chose .75″ as my width, and marked it all around the flaps of the cardboard on the inside as well as the outside. Once you’ve done it a few times you probably don’t have to mark everything, but it’s good to start by making sure everything’s even.

Next, you’ll want to score along those lines, and fold your box into a 3 dimensional rectangle. You’ll probably need to cut the corners a bit to get a clean join, but once you’ve got it put together you’ll want to tape it closed.

Now your base is complete!

Plop it down in the middle of your fabric (remember, I’m giving you the no-cut, no-sew, no-permanent glue version of this idea, so you can still use the fabric later.)

PRO TIP: Iron your fabric first. It’s worth the extra step.

Roll up some masking tape and stick it under each corner as shown, between the cardboard and the wrong side of your fabric. This will keep your fabric from slipping while you fold the corners.

First, fold in the sides of the fabric around the base.

Create a dimple so that you can tightly fold in the fabric, creating a nice corner as follows:

All that’s left is to fold in the rest of the fabric to the hollow back of your base, so that it’ll be hidden when it’s hung, and secure it with a little tape.

Voila! You’ve got a pretty panel of fabric which is ready to hang!

Sidenote: On some of the more slippery fabrics I added some extra tape to reinforce it so that it doesn’t sag or bag or look bad.

Because this method allows you to neither glue nor staple nor do anything damaging to your fabric, not only was I able to hang and display fabric I didn’t really care about, but special modroutisk fabric, and even a shirt of mine which I don’t wear that often. (I wanted another solid color on the wall and didn’t have any extra solid fabric handy.)

If you’re looking to do this more permanently I’d advise you to dispense with the folding and just cut your fabric to size, and then use a hot glue gun to attach it to the backing.

Either way, that big old empty wall in my room is no longer empty, and if I can accomplish that, you can certainly accomplish a similar feat. Hurrah!