Bus Blind Art for your Home

· by · in Interiors. ·

Now that you all know we live in Slough, I can finally share with you a piece of art I made for our living room. It was inspired by these pieces of Bus Blind Art I have seen on places like notonthehighstreet.com. I’ve alway loved the vintage signage used by London Underground and the buses. In fact years ago, when my other half lived in Mile End with some housemates, they had a ‘Mile End’ Underground Station sign in their living room – it was sooooo cool. I’ve always wanted something similar. But these things are not cheap, and usually the bus blinds with frame are around £100-£200. Hmm. Well, I discovered I can make one at home for much less.

Bus Destination Blind Art

We moved to Slough last year, which is quite famous for it’s ugly/iconic bus station that recently got demolished. I was randomly typing in ‘Slough’ into the Ebay search bar, and came across a vintage Bus Destination Blind for sale at £12.50. Bargain! I quickly ordered it. If you want to do something similar, just type in ‘Bus Destination Blinds’ into the Ebay search bar, and you’ll find loads to browse through:

Bus Destination Blinds - Ebay

The blind arrived rolled tight and sent in a little jiffy bag. When I unrolled it, it was quite flimsy but large! And I didn’t realise Bus Blinds were made of paper, but there you go.

My next step was to find a frame to fit it. The blind measured roughly 36 x 5.5 inches – so long and narrow. Nothing really fitted the spec in the shops or online. I then thought, what about those multi-aperture frames where you put in lots of little photos in a row. But I couldn’t find one long enough. I was stumped.

Then one day, we were walking through Debenhams in Uxbridge, and I saw out of the corner of my eye a 5-photo multi aperture frame – it was perfect! It was on sale, down to £20. More than I hoped to pay, but it was solid oak, so good quality. I like how the frame was boxed at 3cm deep, it just looked good.

debenhams 5-photo multi aperture frame - bus blind

I took the mount out, and put my bus blind in and voila!

Slough Bus Station Destination Blind Art

There is a tiny gap at the edges, but you really don’t notice it. I am so pleased with it and feel like I have a museum piece in my own home! I put it up above our bookcases in the living room, as it fits in the space perfectly and is the first thing you see as you walk in the room.

Slough Bus Station Destination Blind Art

The total project cost me £32.50 – much cheaper than buying the ones online for £100! And I love how it’s personal to our apartment and tells a story of our home.

I really recommend it, if you want to make one for your home. Just keep checking Ebay, you never know when your town might pop up on a bus blind!

Sabrina x

 

Home Etc
A Cornish Mum

18 responses to “Bus Blind Art for your Home”

  1. Such a fantastic idea, it looks great! I really need to get more crafty, thank you for inspiring x #HomeEtc

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  3. Oh my goodness I ADORE this – what a fab idea and such a bargain. You clever person! Want to make this right now xx Thanks so much for sharing and linking up – much appreciated 🙂 Jess xx

    #HomeEtc

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  4. That’s fab lovely — I bought my boy one about 8 years ago from Peddlars!! It says TO AND FROM THE OVAL (he’s a massive cricket fan) and it’s one of our prized possessions!!! Makes me think I may start looking for more — it really is one of my favourite things in our home 🙂 Thanks so much for linking up with #HomeEtc — hope to see you again next week! x

    Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk

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    • Aw that is a really cool gift, and they are timeless. I really love signs like this, something unique for the home. It can get addictive looking for more, I keep checking ebay haha! xx

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  8. I love this Sabrina. It just goes to show what a bit of research can do and how you can produce something perfectly unique and significant with your own fair hand. It looks really good. Nicky #picknmix

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    • Thank you, it was really fun actually trying to find something suitable on ebay too, that all added to the experience! I am pretty pleased with it 🙂 xx

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  9. Oh I love that! So clever and quirky, well done hon! and thanks for linking up to #PicknMix again 🙂 It opens again tomorrow I’m a little later than usual commenting as Fin has been ill.

    Stevie xx

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