Bringing in the Barn Quilt

You may have noticed that I have a serious love of triangles, OK in reality.. I love all things geometric (Like our old coffee table, which is up for grabs btw).  Luckily Ralph does too, or at least seems to tolerate my little obsession. So when I saw these barn quilts I got all kinds of ideas. First of all, have you ever heard of a barn quilt? Well, I hadn't - but apparently people with barns (lucky!) sometimes like to paint a nice, huge quilt square on the side.  Look at this beauty:

Source: 2Modern

Source: 2Modern

I, not having a barn & not living near any (that I know of) have NEVER seen this, but I think it's amazing. What a fun idea! I love that pattern, but I need a little help here. Does anyone know the specific name for that pattern? I know it's used in quilts all the time.  I love how it's triangular, but the triangles together resemble what I can only describe as a sort of moravian star, which I pulled from the only other non-quilt related time I've seen this pattern. In origami, we have these moravian stars:

**Update! Special thanks to Paul who informed me that this is Aunt Eliza's Star, now we know!**

Source: Origami Resource Center

Which are pretty darn close to their non 3-D buddy on the barn there.  So anyway, I immediately thought, I've GOT to do a giant wall installation of this pattern, how cool would that be?! I've been mega in love with triangle pattern walls like this one:

Source: Sketch42

Which is actually a wall paper.  In fact, I've  been wondering for years now how to easily pull off painting a triangle pattern like this without tape.  Tape leaves gaps, which I think also looks wonderful, but if you're trying to pull off the close triangle pattern? Yikes... I can only guess that something like stencils would come in handy.

After googling an assortment of words to see if anyone has done similar with quilt patterns on their walls, the closest I came to was this next one:

Source: Design Milk

Gorgeous, right? And guess what, they are wall decals! Well that solves the taping issue...I've seen many fabric inspired wall patterns, such as these beautiful hounds-tooth patterned walls, which are totally stencils:

Source: Etsy

That stencil makes a bit more sense as a stencil, because there is plenty of room for "bridges" in the stencil, which are the parts that hold the design together.  Here's another really pretty hounds-tooth wall:

Source: East Coast Creative

I like the idea of looking to classic fabric patterns for inspiration on wall treatments.  Still, can't find my star pattern (Aunt Eliza's Star, so happy to know now!) replicated inside a house (yet!) so I may have to pioneer this one on my own. Here's the closest I could find:

Source: Centennial Farmhouse

Those are pretty neat too, but I'm craving large scale.  So I really want to figure this out! What do you guys think? I'd love to paint a triangle pattern on the walls without tape gaps, here are my ideas for trying to tackle this design dilemma:

• Draw the triangle pattern & freehand the paint. Problem? Wiggly freehand lines...may be a neat effect though.
• Draw the pattern and tape each triangle one by one. Could take forever? Definitely will get the clean lines.
• Find a triangle stencil, though I imagine it would have gaps... could be ok?
• Wall Decals, would have to buy lots!
• Giant Triangle Stamp?  I don't even know where to start there.. foam?

Anyway, I'm clearly obsessed with getting this thing done someday. I'm diggin' the Aunt Eliza's Star pattern and think it's high time her star joined the ranks of fabric inspired wall treatments.  I can see it now, giant barn quilts as headboards...How about you, can you see this in your house? Even a subtle design of two similar colors would add some fun detail to a wall.  Like grey & white.  Or, is the look ridiculous & I should drink less coffee & just move on......?  My caffeinated heart says go for it...

Hey tomorrow is Friday, finally! I like that.

-Jesse

Is the way people spell "grey" (or "gray") a preference like the tomato/tomato debate?

Related Posts:

• DIY Triangle Pattern Table Top
• French Provincial Hexagon Top Coffee Table
• Hexagon Top Dresser

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