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!
Amy & Lisa
December 30, 2011
AMAZING!! Oh my…we must try this at home!! 🙂
Theresa
December 30, 2011
Love Love Love this!! I am pinning this to use for my Son’s GOLDEN BIRTHDAY! So great!! If I through in a Golden Robot made out of boxes it will be boyish right ?
Jacqui
December 31, 2011
Where did you buy the sequins? This is great!
James Draper
January 1, 2012
Anne – sequin phonebooth … someone as young as you two know about phonebooths? – Delightfully creative … Beautiful Models! – xxoo
Jacquelyn
January 1, 2012
beautiful sequiny perfection!
Natasha Murphy
January 1, 2012
Jordan! Thanks so much for this inspiring tutorial!
We put together the background using 20mm gold sequins. The overall effect was great, but hand pinning over 1,250 sequins took a lot more time than expected. Totally worth it though!
Natasha Murphy
January 1, 2012
Here’s how it turned out! http://www.code-cute.com/images/sequin.jpg
Rebecca
January 2, 2012
This is amazing, thank you for sharing! I can’t help but be teased to put a wall like this in my own bedroom. So glamorous and pretty, I’d definitely wake up in a good mood every day.
kira mead
January 3, 2012
Prettiest photo booth i’ve ever seen. Damn, you’re good.
kristi
January 3, 2012
I’m kind of obsessed with this! I want a wall to have this on it for always! 🙂
Lindsey
January 4, 2012
SO cute. Sorry I couldn’t be there!
kristen duke photography
January 5, 2012
I LOVE this sequin wall…I tried to do something similar with some colorful square plates, but put them up last minute and I ended up short….
Karen
January 6, 2012
HI Jordan-love the sequins. My daughter has a sweet 16 coming up and, like most teenage girls, adores “photo shoots”. I would love to use this idea for her photo booth, but haven’t been able to find sequins larger than 30mm in the US. Please tell me you got it somewhere here and not in the UK!!-Thanks-Karen
CK
January 10, 2012
Where can I buy these??????? LOVE IT!