Pottery Barn Inspired Valentine Chair Backer

We are now officially less than one month away from Valentine’s Day, which means that I am now within my self imposed one month holiday decorating window.  That’s right, I allow myself to start decorating one full month in advance of any holiday.  I just love having an excuse to change up my décor and, most importantly, to make new crafts!  With Valentine’s Day in mind, I went online window shopping at some of my favorite inspiration inducing stores.  The top of that list is almost always occupied by Pottery Barn (either PB, PBK or PBT…I love them all!).  I loved these adorable envelope chair backers that I found at Pottery Barn Kids, but I wasn’t wild about the price.  I mean, come on now, it is felt.  Y’all know that felt is literally a quarter at the craft store, right?!  How could I justify spending $26 for a personalized chair backer?  Well, the answer for me was quite simple; I couldn’t.  I decided to go ahead and DIY it, and here is what I came up with…not quite the same, but totally personalized and super cute.  Best part?  They cost me less than $1 each!

I made three at one time, one for each of my kids.  For each chair backer, you will need three pieces of felt (colors of your choice), coordinating embroidery floss, paint, needle, glue gun and ribbon.

Start by cutting the envelope flap from one piece of felt.  I did this by using a ruler to mark a straight line from one corner to the opposite corner and repeated on the other side.  This should give your four triangles.  Cut one out and lay it on top of the piece of felt that you will use to be the front of your envelope.  I chose to use different colors to add a little visual interest.   Then I used my Silhouette to cut out a stencil to use for the names, but as always, you can certainly free hand it or print one off and trace it.  With my “flap” placed, I was able to decide where to place my stencil and then I just applied one coat of acrylic paint.

Next, I quickly stitched the two sheets of felt together that would become the front and back of the envelope.  I did not worry about perfectly even stitches as I was aiming more for a childlike look.  I also stitched around the flap and a small felt heart separately.  Then I flipped the envelope over and applied some hot glue liberally to two large pieces of ribbon.  I was careful to make sure that the pieces of ribbon were glued at the same heights so that my envelope would hang evenly from the chair.  I glued a small piece of Velcro onto each end of the ribbon so that it would loop around a chair back.  Here is what it looked like from the opposite side when it was hanging:

I once again flipped it over and glued the envelope flap to the front and then attached the small heart with another dollop of glue.  After deliberating about making a flap that would fold over from the back, I chose to go the faux route to make it a bit more user friendly for my little ones.  And I am so glad I did, because it wasn’t long after I hung these on the chair backs that I caught my four year old stuffing love notes into her siblings bags while they were at school.

My kids are really big into any kind of written communication.  They are forever writing notes, coloring pictures, making lists and invitations, so I am very excited to see all that is collected in each chair back in the coming month.  And here are a few more parting shots because I just loved the cheerfulness that they brought to my kitchen:

Linked at Practically Functional, Crafts a la mode, Sondra Lyn at Home, C.R.A.F.T. and So Much Better With Age and featured at Knock Off Decor