Hoop Art

We live in an old farm house, it's actually over 100 years old. We have fallen in love with it. It's had several upgrades and additions over the years all of which add character and tell a story. We've been updating things and making them our own slowly but surely. We want to stay true to the character that is already here while not spending much money. One of the areas of our home that has needed an uplift is part of our staircase. I'm not really sure what to call this shelf like area and I'm not really sure what purpose it serves...

So what would you call that area? We've bounced around lots of ideas for it. It's a great place to display cards, especially during Christmas, as long as the ceiling fan is off. We've also considered just ripping it out and putting in a half railing. As you can imagine I wanted nothing breakable in that area because it would be too easy for things to get knocked off.  So I finally decided to do an art installation of sorts. My first thought, thick free standing canvasses with my photography transferred on to them. It didn't quite work like I envisioned. Then I got inspired to make hoop art. I actually made some hope art for a very special someone's 18th birthday.

I made 18 separate pieces. It was fun to watch her open each one. I love that hoop art can be arranged in so many different ways and is lightweight. What made it unique was printing my photography onto needlework fabric and stitching it on. That's what I finally decided would be perfect for our staircase area. It helped that I found a stash of burlap bags in the basement which provided some great inspiration.

First I gathered some vintage embroidery hoops, thread, fabric, burlap and ribbons. Then I printed off some images, laid everything out and came up with a plan.

Then I printed out the images I chose onto needlework fabric.

And here are the final results:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's such a fun easy way to add art to a space. What do you think? I hope I've sparked an idea and you are inspired to try some hoop art yourself. Let me know if you do, I would love to hear about it.