✥ Restoration Hardware Eye Charts {Hack} ✥

Hello dearies, remember a few weeks ago when I shared an eye chart  I made?  It was inspired by this one from Restoration Hardware?











And I mentioned that I wasn't stoked with it's placement on the gallery wall. I feel like the black was too heavy for the wall. It kept pulling my eye to the bottom corner like a black hole or an eye chart magnet!

I know, I know- you couldn't tell from the pics I posted. Well, that's cuz I totally moved some frames around and intentionally only took pics of half the photo wall. Sooo sneaky, I know! But now you know the ugly truth- so this is how I fixed it.

After some thought I figured the perfect solution would be to move the eye chart to the opposite wall from the gallery. {see? ☝} I figured I'd turn my print into some canvas art and, while I was at it, I'd make something larger scale to fill up that blank space. 

I felt my "Tumbling E" eye chart would look lonely and kinda sad by itself- so I whipped up another eye chart. This time it was Restoration Hardware's more traditional "Letters" chart.
 
For all you newbies my lil blog- I made my eye charts in  Microsoft Word Publisher- which is awesome cuz it's free, yo!  I wrote up all the nitty gritty details here-when I showed how to mimic Z Gallerie's subway art.
Back to the eye charts-here's the abbreviated directions-

Making an eye chart is a piece of cake. 
1] Select a font. I looked for fonts here.
2] Create columns on both sides of the page. This is where you will put the distances on each side.
3] Fill in the numbers/letters you want.
4] Choose background colors to create a worn/distressed or weathered look. Again, the tutorial for that stage is found here.

-TIP-When I made my 2nd eye chart {the "letters" version} all I did was adapt my 1st "Tumbling E's" eye chart. I replaced the "E's" with the right letters, using the sizes and spacing as a guide. I also changed up the shading effects for the background- to make sure the two versions wouldn't look like clones of each other.

 

5] Print'em up. I had my posters printed up at Staples cuz they're the cheapest. They only cost me $3.50 since I had them printed up in black and white.
6] Attach them to a canvas. I use Mod Podge to do this-mostly because I like the glossy finish when it's done.

7] The letters on RH's eye charts are tan-ish. Since I didn't want to pay for a color print {they're crazy expensive}, I painted over top of my letters. I used craft paint mixed with a little glaze to turn my letters off-white.
I really like that it makes the signs look hand painted and it creates more dimension to the finished piece.

You can see the eye charts from every angle in the entry/ living room/hallway. One of the benefits of condo living? {yeah right}

My canvases are 18"x24" and cost like 5 bucks for both. The prints cost me $3.50.  Now Restoration Hardware's canvases are 24"x30" and cost $345 EACH for that size!! Aye! That's a savings of $682.50!!!! Don't you just absolutely lurve when that happens! That's all folks- DIY eye charts and saving some dough!
So, what do you guys think?!
What have you hacked lately?

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.