DIY Pottery Barn-style pillow.

Have you seen Pottery Barn's Christmas display yet? 

I know, I know. Thanksgiving hasn't even passed and I'm already talking about Christmas. (In my defense, we've been painting Christmas-themed paintings almost every night at work with a fully decorated tree in the entrance and Christmas music playing. But hey, can't complain!)

Anyway.

I'm really loving Pottery Barn's theme this year that involves lots of burlap, old sheet music, and German glass glitter. 

I saw this pillow there yesterday when my mom and I were browsing and decided I wanted to make a simpler design of the same idea, but with the word "joy" instead.

So first, I made a pillow cover out of some burlap I had left over from another project. You can make your pillow any size. Just make sure there's at least one open end and you haven't stuffed your pillow inside yet. 

For the words or design, you can either print it out or just free hand it. I free handed it and it worked just fine. I wrote the word "joy" using a Sharpie on the matte side of a sheet of freezer paper. (If you print something out, you can trace it onto the freezer paper.)

Next, cut out the letters with an x-acto knife. Depending on how many letters you use, this can be a super tedious step. That's why I like to keep it short! You could even do one monogrammed letter this way.

Once you've gotten the word or design cut out, iron the freezer paper onto the pillow.

Then, make sure there's a piece of paper or cardboard inside the pillow so the paint doesn't bleed through to the other side. Then paint! 

I used a chocolate brown acrylic paint. Once painted, let it dry completely before peeling off the freezer paper to reveal your design.

The "joy" was looking a little bare, so I added a branch in the same exact way, using freezer paper and paint.

Stuff your pillow form inside and voila! A pretty, yet understated, Christmas pillow. Happy, happy day.

This project ended up costing me $0 because I already had the burlap as well as a pillow that needed a new cover. But even if you had to buy all the supplies from scratch, you'd spill spend waaaay less than that $49 price tag!