David Russo's Blog: DIY Watercolor Buffalo Check Pillows

Plaids and oversize buffalo checks are everywhere in home decor lately (and fashion too!). We scoured our favorite gems here and thought it would be fun to try whipping up our own version as well. And thus the watercolor buffalo check pillow was born. It’s a softer print thanks to the watercolor but still has roots in that oh so preppy plaid that we love so much. For another DIY pillow idea, click here!

Board #369648 Board #369534

Materials

White pillow cover
Pillow insert
Fabric or craft paint in color of your choice
3” foam brush
Cardboard
Trash bags or plastic dropcloth
Plastic cup
Plastic spoon

Cut a strip of cardboard to fit inside the pillowcase, this will protect the backside of the case from paint that might bleed through from the front. Place the cardboard in the case and lay on a covered, flat work surface.

Squeeze some paint into the plastic cup, then add water until the mixture is opaque but thin (about 2-3 times as much water as paint). You want it to have the thickness of water more than paint, but as dark a color as you can get.

Dip the foam brush in the paint and gently run the paintbrush down the edge of the pillow to make a vertical stripe. It’s okay if the brush skips a bit as you go, you can adjust later, but for now just focus on one long smooth stroke. Continue making vertical stripes, each about 3” apart.

Now make stripes perpendicular to the first set, again focusing on long smooth strokes and keeping each stripe about 3” apart.

step-5 Retrace any stripes that have a lot of gaps or skips. Don’t go crazy trying to fix them, it looks organic and natural when the stripes aren’t perfect. Then repaint the square shape where each stripe intersects, so that the squares are slightly darker than the stripes.