upholstering walls with coffee bags
Right before Thanksgiving, I stopped by our friends’ house to help rearrange furniture to get the house ready for their holiday guests.
One thing led to another and five hours later we had not only rearranged furniture, but also upholstered a wall in old coffee bags.
Totally random, I know.
But doesn’t it look amazing?!
I had acquired a big pile of coffee bags that a friend got from her local coffee shop {for free!}. They sat waiting in my closet for the perfect project and while I’m not sure how we came up with the idea to staple them to the wall, they sure do look great.
The process was quite simple: we opened up the coffee bags by removing the stitching, figured out where we wanted each design and started stapling {with a staple gun, not office stapler}, pulling tight for a smooth finish.
The burlap and graphics make the perfect wall treatment. And, of course, the best part was that it was free!
We saved our very favorite bag to use as a bulletin board and hung it on an opposite wall.
I’m not sure if all coffee shops give their bags away, but it is worth asking. Sometimes the most unconventional materials make the best decoration.
Sarah Barksdale Design
I love the idea of upholstering a wall with coffee bags! It’s so unconventional but it totally works and makes their house unique. Great idea!
Jill
LOVE IT!!! Such great ideas — both of them! One question for you — the favorite bag that you saved for a bulletin board — what did you put behind the bag? Any special backing, a piece of wood, or just what came as the back of the frame?
emily
It is actually covering a store-bought cork board. Apparently it was really hard to get the coffee bag to fit behind the frame, but it sure looks great!
Aja
SO cool! Awesome idea, and it looks perfect in her home.
Jesse C
I love this project. Not only because it looks great on the wall but because one of the bags show the country that I am from
Nicaragua. You have motivated me to ask around the coffee shops in the area and hopefully find one with Nicaragua on it for a project at home!
Carissa R
wow I love it!!! we have a coffee bag and our local shops give them away if you ask, but I have yet to decide what to do with them!
victoria hopper
Dear Emily,
So pleased to see the end result! Very classy. . . like you!
emily
Thanks Victoria! Thanks for the wonderful bags
Camille
Oh.My.Goodness!!! I LOVE this! I would do it in a heartbeat…but I don’t think the other person in my house would love it so much.
Tamara
Amazing! I would Love to have a Coffee Bag Wall in my Modern Rustic Ranch style home! Hmmm where to put it, where to put it
Jeanna Sanchez
Wow, what a great idea! Love how this turned out! I just recently started a blog (I went at it all by myself) boy I still need to learn lots..I wanna learn how to make my blog “prettier”. Do you offer in your classes a tutorial on how just to design them better after you have one already made?
emily
The class goes through all the parts of starting a blog – setting it up, choosing a theme, customizing, creating simple graphics {I provide a bunch of sidebar/header/background graphics to start with}. Then we go into using your blog, adding content, growing readership and using it to make money. All to say, yes – we do show you how to make your blog look great, but it is not only a ‘make your blog look pretty’ class. Hope this answers your question!
Nikola
love it! One question…..how did you hide the staples?
Heather :) :) :)
That’s such a cool idea. I’ll have to ask my local coffee shop if they have any coffee bags they’d be willing to part with for free
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
Neet
LOOKS GREAT but staples???? i would be on my way to the coffee shop right now to BEG for bags if i could find out how you manage the staples. how do you keep the staples at bay, from making the project look cheesey? from a distance and on line this looks great. BUT how did you staple it? can you show a close up of the seams? or the places where you staples..
emily
You really can’t see the staples. And there are a lot of them! In person you don’t notice. I’ll try to take a closeup next time I’ve over there to show details.
Ellie
I love love love this! Pinned it and shared a link on my facebook wall. I’d love to do this to the walls of my mom-cave, but that’s a long time coming. Thanks for the inspiration, as always!
Angie
A whole new way to fall in love with burlap!! Love this idea. Creative thinking at its finest!!
Brenda
Love the bags!! Expecially the El Salvador one!! Go El Salvador!!
Heidi
This is awesome, what a great idea! Thanks for sharing.