I believe that pretty much anything can be painted, and have tested that belief many times. Floors, hardware, curtains, pillows, jars, lampshades, plastic toys … and now duvet covers.
When I started working on Griffin’s big boy room, I knew I wanted some kind of graphic bedding. After doing a little searching on Pinterest, I fell in love with the idea of a world map duvet cover. There are a few really amazing map duvet covers out there for around a hundred dollars. That really isn’t a bad price for bedding these days…but it is significantly more than I wanted to spend on a two year old’s room. So I decided DIY was the way to go.
I bought a plain white Ikea duvet cover and pillow shams to use for this project. You could potentially save even more money by sewing two flat sheets together to make the cover, but that was a little more than I wanted to take on right now. As it is, the cover and other materials cost around $30 which is a pretty major savings.
I decided to use the pillow cases that came with the set for practice to make sure that painting bedding was actually a feasible idea before tackling a whole duvet. I turned the pillow cases into watercolor throw pillow covers and was thrilled with how they turned out. Which meant full steam ahead!
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Materials
- White duvet cover
- Projector
- colored pencil
- 3 blue craft paints
- 3 green craft paints
- Fabric medium (you can find small bottles of this with the craft paints)
- paintbrushold towels
How to Paint a Duvet Cover
Before you can start painting anything, you have to draw your map outline onto your duvet cover. The easiest way to do this is with a projector. I found a world map I liked online, projected it onto my duvet cover, and then used a blue colored pencil to trace each continent. (I don’t own my own projector but was able to use one at my work. If you ask around, there is a good chance someone you know might have one you could borrow. Even an old overhead transparency projector would work.)
Once I had my outline drawn, it was time to paint! I chose to keep the back of my duvet cover white in case I wanted to do something different on the other side at some point in the future. To keep the paint from seeping through, I spread old towels between the layers of the cover to absorb excess paint and protect the back layer of fabric.
I started by painting the ocean. I mixed each of my 3 blue craft paints in some old plastic containers with fabric medium and water. You will probably need to experiment a little to get the colors to the brightness you want, but my basic mixture was around a tablespoon of paint, 1/2 a tablespoon of fabric medium, and 1/2 a cup of water. Before painting on my duvet, I tested each color on a scrap of fabric.
The actual painting is very easy; you can’t really mess it up. I started by loading some paint on a largish artist’s paintbrush and spreading it around in one corner of the duvet (making sure there were towels under the area I was painting). Then I continued with paint in another blue tone and continued painting with that, overlapping slightly with the color I just used. You don’t have to worry about being precise or sticking to a pattern. Just add paint however you want.
There are only two things to watch out for. 1) Remember to keep an eye on your map outline, so you don’t accidentally paint the land blue. As you paint, the paint will spread some as it soaks into the fabric. This isn’t really a problem since this isn’t a precise style of painting anyway, but it is something to be aware of as you paint near where the land and water meet. 2) Try to keep a wet edge to work with as you paint. If the ‘edge’ of the paint dries, there will be a noticeable line between the old and new sections. This happened to me a few times and it isn’t a big problem once the duvet dries, but it would have looked even better if that had not happened.
Once the ocean is fully dry, repeat the process with your green paints to fill in the land. Since the land is much smaller and more contained, this goes much faster.
And no, for those of you wondering, the paint does not dry crunchy. The paint medium and water that were added keep it feeling quite soft. I have not washed this cover yet. Based on other fabric I have painted in the past, I don’t think washing will cause any problems, but I’ll keep you posted!
Seeing this on the bed is getting me really excited to get the rest of the room finished.
I still haven’t decided what kind of pillows to use on the bed. I want it to look cute, but I also don’t want to go overboard with decorative pillows in a toddler’s room. Especially since this is his idea of how the pillows should work.
Now to get back to work on the rest of the room!
Painted World Map Duvet Cover
Create a painted world map duvet cover that will be a statement piece of any bedroom.
Materials
- White duvet cover
- Colored pencil
- 3 blue craft paints
- 3 green craft paints
- Fabric medium
- Old towels
Tools
- Projector
- Paintbrush
Instructions
- Draw your map outline onto your duvet cover with a projector using a colored pencil.
- Spread old towels between the layers of the cover to absorb excess paint.
- Start with the ocean by mixing 3 blue craft paints in some old plastic containers with fabric medium and water.
- Paint using a large artist’s paintbrush and spreading it around in one corner of the duvet.
- Once the ocean is fully dry.
- Repeat the process with your green paints for the land.
- Let dry.
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Cecilia says
Love it! Makes me eager to see what else you do in his room!
Carrie says
Thanks Cecilia! I feel the same way!
Kim {Pinspired Home} says
Love it! In my opinion, it’s even better than your inspiration piece because it’s not as busy looking with just the two colors. Can’t wait to see how the whole room turns out!
Carrie says
Thanks Kim! I wanted to keep it simple and not to busy and I’m pretty thrilled with how the colors turned out!
the cape on the corner says
i love this, beautiful.
b
Carrie says
Thank you!
Lisa says
can we get an update on how it washed? If you haven’t yet, maybe you could throw the pillows in?
Carrie says
Great question! I haven’t washed the duvet cover yet but I will within the next week or so and will definitely give an update then.
Cristina says
I absolutely loved this project! My kid is a big fan of dinos and I think he’ll be thrilled to have a map with his preferred dinos and their location. Please let us know how it washed. Thank you!
Carrie says
Cristina, Love the dino idea, how fun! I have washed the duvet cover around five times at this point and so far so good. I washed it in cold water the first few times, but since everything seemed to be going fine, I’ve just been washing it with all our other laundry since. I machine-dried it as well. If you end up making one, I’d love to see a pic!
Josie says
Hi i want to make this too it looks great:) just wondering how long this took and what was the difficulty level
Carrie says
Josie, it wasn’t terribly difficult – really it is mostly just tracing, coloring in the lines, and swirling paint around. It is somewhat labor intensive though. I would say it took 5-10 hours to finish. (I worked it on across several days so it is hard to say for sure.) But it is one of those projects you can do while watching TV in the background which makes the time go faster. Hope that helps!
Holly J says
As a creative DIY type it takes a LOT to wow me.
This is STUNNING. Seriously fantastic.
Carrie says
Thanks so much Holly!
Dallas says
How did it wash?
Carrie says
It actually has washed really well. After quite a few washes, the colors are slightly more faded, but otherwise good as new!