When we were planning Liz’s wedding, we were sure that we wanted some sort of paper flower backdrop behind the head table. Our first stop was a bridal show where we found paper flower walls to rent for $550. Not only did this seem like a lot of money out of our small wedding budget, upon closer look at the flowers, I was sure we could make them ourselves. Which we did.
The next step was to figure out how to make the actual display wall. Thus we began a new search. We looked through tons of Pinterest sites and bridal magazines. Like you, we saw things we liked and things we thought we could do better and this is how we designed our wedding backdrop.
Although there are a lot of steps, the backdrop itself is actually pretty simple.
Materials
- 1 (or more) 8ft x 4ft x 1in foam insulating sheathing boards. (We bought ours at Home Depot for $12.00 a sheet).
- 4 – 10 in x 12 in shelf brackets (per board). You can get them in any color because you can paint to match your décor. (We purchased ours at Home Depot for $2.00 each).
- 2 – 2 in x 4 in x 24 in pieces of wood (per board). Home depot will cut your wood to size for you.
- 12 – wood screws that fit the screw holes in your brackets (per board).
- Can of coordinating spray paint. (We used rose gold because it matched our theme).
- 1 roll of wood printed paper (per board). This is the paper that teachers use for bulletin boards. (We used Pacon Weathered Wood Paper from Michaels for $9.49).
- 1 can of repositional spray glue.
- 1 jar of glaze. (We used Art Minds DIY Home Glaze from Michaels for $9.49).
You will also need a foam brush, rubber gloves, paper towels, pencil, drill (or screwdriver) and a wallpaper smoothing tool to finish this project.
STEP 1. Glazing the Paper
Unroll your paper backdrop and cut it to your desired size. For my wedding backdrop I needed 2 rolls (1 per 4’x8′ board)
Grab a any size foam brush. Bigger is better, but I used a standard 1 in. that comes in a multi pack which worked great.
Wearing gloves, dip your foam brush directly into the glaze jar and wiped the excess to avoid dripping. Begin brushing the glaze onto the backdrop paper. You can start anywhere and brush in any direction. As soon as I covered about 12 in x 12 in of glaze is when I began to wipe off the excess glaze before it dried. The reason I wiped the glaze off was to avoid blotchiness.
Place the paper on a flat surface to dry. It’s okay if the paper overhangs your table, but make sure it doesn’t crinkle. The glaze dried in 5 minutes which was great because I like to work fast.
If you are doing more than one board, try to match your pattern as much as possible. Overlap you paper on one side by ¼ – ½ inch. This will cover up the seam between the boards
If you are doing more of a county theme or you like the color of the wood paper, you can skip this step. However, we think the glaze adds dimension to the backdrop and makes it look more like real wood.
STEP 2. Stick the paper on the backdrop.
In a well-ventilated area such as your garage, cover the ground and wall with a tarp or plastic sheets to avoid getting spray glue in undesired places. Place your board(s) either flat the ground or upright whichever is easier for you. We sprayed the foam board with re-positional spray glue. The more glue the better. Quickly apply the paper backdrop from the top and working your way to the bottom sliding the wallpaper smoothing tool to avoid bumps and ripples. This paper was a lot easier than putting up wallpaper and more forgiving.
If some of your edges lift, grab the paper and gently peel back, spray the board underneath with more glue and using the smoothing tool to wipe in the direction of the edge of the foam board.
STEP 3. Add the feet.
Stand your foam board upright. Center the wood pieces under (perpendicular to) your foam board. Each piece of wood should be about 5 in. from each side. You are going to take two brackets and sandwich the foam board between the brackets.
The 10 in. side should be against the wood and the 12 in. side should be against the foam.
Holding the brackets as tight as you can against the foam, use your pencil to mark the screw holes. You can now remove the wood and the brackets and screw the brackets down, but not all the way. You may want to drill starter holes for your screws to make it easier. Repeat for the other side.
If you want to spray paint the brackets and the wood a different color, now is the time to do it. You can paint any color you wish and then let it try completely.
You should now be able to place your board in between the brackets and tighten your screws all the way. (If you need to remove your board, you can loosen the screws slightly and your board will slip out.)
STEP 4. Decorate.
Now you can add flowers, letters and lights to decorate. We will demonstrate how to make flowers in a future post.
And there you have an awesome backdrop.
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