Lovely Chevron

I have been a little crazy over chevron patterns lately, so when I was looking for a way to dress up my desk for my new office space, I knew I wanted to incorporate this pattern somehow.  I initially thought about making a tailored skirt with some yardage of this chevron fabric, but for five or six yards at $7/yard plus shipping I was looking at spending somewhere around $45.  (Not to mention that going that route would mean waiting for the fabric to come in and right now I think just about all of my patience is being spent on our adoption paperwork!)

So I needed to come up with something cheaper, quicker, and just as cute.  Luckily I had a scrap of white contact paper left over from another project.  It (and some basic tools) was all I needed.

Here's a quick run-down on how to make your own chevron pattern out of contact paper:

First, decide how big you want your pattern to be.  I went with 8" per  ^ , or 4" from bottom point to top point of each section.  We'll go with those numbers for this, but you could change them up if you wanted to.

Roll out your contact paper and mark every 4" along the bottom edge and another row of 4" intervals 4" above that one.  You should have a grid that looks something like this  : : : : : : : :

Now just connect the dots, making a zig-zag pattern.  This first line of zig-zag will be the foundation for every row you'll make. 

To get your second line of zig-zags, mark 2" above each peak and valley, being sure to keep everything nice and straight.  (It helps if your contact paper has a grid on the back!)  Now connect those dots for another row.  Keep adding 2" to each row's peaks and dips to make as many rows as you need.  

Once you get as many zig-zags as you need you can cut them all out carefully and start sticking them on whatever you'd like to. 

I chose to cut each triangle out separately so I wasn't dealing with a long, unmanageable row of contact paper. 

To keep everything lined up as you stick your second row of zig-zags in place you can use an extra zig-zag as a spacer to keep a consistent distance between rows. 

Just keep on sticking until you've covered the entire area.  If you need to cut a piece short so it won't hang over an edge, use a rotary cutter or just a pair of scissors to cut it down. 

It's not perfect, but it is a lot of impact for about an hour and a half's work and $0 spent!

Good luck!  I'd love to see where you add your own chevron pattern!