Happy New Year!  I had ordered these giant sequins a while ago and thought New Years Eve was the perfect occasion to make something with them. It looks so glamourous in our living room that I think I’m going to throw a last minute New Years Eve Party. I think this sequin wall would work great as a photobooth backdrop but besides that it could be cool decorations for a party or wedding. I even started to joke with Paul how I wanted to do a permanent wall of it in our art studio. It’s pretty hard to be in a bad mood in the presence of so many sparklies!

We used giant 60 mm sequins (sometimes called pailletes) for this wall and needed about 600. You could use smaller or bigger of course. I think smaller would be even cooler but would take a lot longer. You just have to figure out the square footage you want to cover and do the math to make sure you order enough sequins. (My 8th Grade math teacher was right, I do need to know math for my job. You were right this once Mr. Prince!) This project is actually pretty easy but of course goes faster and better with helpers. It took us two hours with two people working on it (thanks Audrey!)

Materials Needed:
600 Sequins 60 mm in diameter
6 pieces of large and thin FoamBoard 1/8″ thick,  32″x 40″ wide
2 Rolls of Gold cheap wrapping paper to cover the foamboard.
Good Masking Tape (that comes off the walls easy)
600+ Sequin Pins (these are just really short straight pins, you need one for every sequin)
Ruler
A long piece of posterboard to make a guide

Step 1. Attaching the Foam board. Tape Foam Board to the wall. We do this so that there aren’t a million holes in your wall when the party is over.  Stack them from the floor up so the tape doesn’t have to carry the weight. It will just hold them in place. The masking tape will be gentle on your walls when you need to remove it.
Step 2. Taping the Paper. Tape the wrapping paper on top of the foam board. Don’t worry too much about seams as they aren’t noticeable once you hang your sequins.
Step 3. First Row of Sequins. Start at the bottom of the wall. Depending how far down you want your camera to capture measure out your first row of pins. I started in the middle and after experimenting with the sequins I figured I liked the pins 2.5″ apart. I measured up from the floor on each side and then held up a ruler while someone else placed a pin in a straight line every 2.5″ apart.
Step 4. Second Row of Sequins. For the second row I experimented with the spacing and decided how far apart the rows of pins should be. I staggered the sequins so they nestled in between the sequins on the first row so the maximum amount of wall would be covered. I measured up from the floor on each side and then held the ruler between the two points while someone placed the second row of pins.
Step 5. Make a Guide. You only need to measure well on the first two rows, from there make a guide so that the process can go much quicker. Get a piece of long poster board and cut it the exact distance between the first row of pins and the second row of pins. Using the ruler make a pencil mark every 2.5″ on one side of the guide. Make a few marks on the other side to line up to the pins that are already in place.

Step 6. Pin ’em! Once you have your guide you can just place it on top of the second row of pins and you’ll know exactly where to place your pins. It’s good to try to be accurate on the first few steps but once you get the pins going pretty straight you can’t really go wrong. The sequins are very forgiving and generously cover up any flaws. Try to make the pins parallel to the floor and not tilted up so that the sequins can dangle and dance when someone walks by. If they are at an angle they will stay against the wall with little movement.
Step 7. Place a sequin on each pin hanging it towards the front of the pin for maximum shininess and sparkles. Et voilà You’re done! Happy New Years guys!

Thanks Meg + Anne for being my models!