Barn Quilt Patterns
Choose a barn quilt design and board size, try paint colours, and print the layout with every measurement you need.
This free tool shows barn quilt patterns on a square board, so you can choose a design, size and paint colours before you touch a brush. A barn quilt is a quilt-block design painted on a square board, often wood, and hung on a barn, house, fence or garden shed.
The tool offers 28 designs. These include traditional quilt blocks such as Four Patch, Pinwheel and Ohio Star, plus seven designs drawn for painting, such as Sunflower, Tulip and Mariner’s Compass. You can compare barn quilt designs for a first small project or for a large wall.
It runs in your web browser, has no sign-up, and works on phones and tablets. When you are happy with a design, it gives you a measured layout page for drawing on the board and a paint key that shows how much of the board each colour covers.
How to use the barn quilt patterns tool
- Open the Choose a design gallery and pick a design. For a first project, try Four Patch, Pinwheel, Plus or Ohio Star.
- Set the Board size. Choose 1 × 1, 2 × 2 (the default), 3 × 3, 4 × 4 or 8 × 8 ft, or enter a custom size in inches from 6 to 480.
- Choose your paint colours from A to E. To try a ready-made set, open Colour schemes.
- Click or tap any shape to change its colour.
- Use Rotate 90° to turn the design, or Hang as a diamond (45 degrees) to see it on its point.
- Check the paint key for each colour’s area and its suggested painting order.
- Print the page you need: the colour design with the paint key, the measured layout drawing for transferring to the board, or the outline-only page for trying colours with pencils.
Use the outline page first if you want to test colour combinations on paper before you commit to paint. Switch to Printed pages to flip through all three pages before you print. The measurements on the layout page are for the full-size board, so you mark them on the wood with a tape measure, not on the paper. Copy link keeps the design, board size and colours in the page address.
What size should a barn quilt be?
Common sizes are 2 × 2 ft for a garden, fence or porch, 4 × 4 ft for a house wall or small shed, and 8 × 8 ft for a large barn so it can be seen from the road. Choose the size by where it will hang and how far away people will stand when they look at it.
A barn quilt is a square grid of blocks, so the board size sets the size of every shape. Convert feet to inches first, because the layout page measures in inches. A 2 × 2 ft board is 24 inches on each side. The grid lines for the default Ohio Star fall at 8 and 16 inches in both directions, which divides the board into three equal parts. Designs work best when the board size divides evenly into the grid, so a size that can be split into halves, thirds or quarters makes the drawing easier to measure.
How much paint do I need?
Work out the area of each colour, then divide by the coverage printed on your paint can for each coat. The paint key gives each colour’s area in square inches and square feet, so you can start from those numbers.
The area of a square board is its side length multiplied by itself. A 2 × 2 ft board has 4 square feet, which is 576 square inches. For the default Ohio Star, the background covers 384 square inches (66.7 %), the star 128 square inches (22.2 %) and the centre 64 square inches (11.1 %). These add up to the full 576.
Paint keys count only the front face of the board, so remember to prime and paint the sides and edges as well. Most designs need two or three coats, so multiply the area by the number of coats before you buy paint.
Examples made with this generator
Frequently asked questions
How do I paint a barn quilt?
Use exterior-grade plywood, MDO sign board or aluminium composite, and prime all sides and edges. Draw the grid and points with a pencil and a long ruler, then mask each shape with painter’s tape. Paint the lightest colour first, let it dry, then tape and paint the next colour. Give each colour two or three coats of exterior paint, and finish with a clear exterior top coat.
How do I transfer the pattern to the board?
Use the measured layout page. Draw the grid lines at the distances shown, measured in inches from the top-left corner to the nearest 1/8 in. Mark each numbered point in the table. A long ruler or chalk line helps you draw straight lines across the board.
What is a barn quilt?
A barn quilt is a quilt-block design painted on a square board and hung on a barn, house, fence or garden shed. The American quilt trail of painted barn quilts began in Adams County, Ohio, in 2001.
Can I sell barn quilts I paint from these patterns?
Yes. The designs are traditional quilt blocks, and boards you paint from them are yours to hang, give or sell, for example at a craft fair or on Etsy. The only limit in the site terms is that the printed sheets themselves may not be resold as a stand-alone pattern product.
What is the easiest barn quilt pattern for a beginner?
Four Patch, Pinwheel, Plus and Ohio Star are the easiest designs to start with. They have simple shapes that are quick to measure and paint.
Related tools
- Quilt block patterns: use this when you want to see more traditional quilt blocks before you choose a design for your board.
- 1 inch graph paper: use this to sketch a barn quilt layout on paper before you measure it onto the board.
- Grid paper: use this for planning a design on a flexible grid that you can adjust to any square size.
- 10x10 grid: use this when you want a simple square grid for testing colour placement.
- Quilt binding calculator: use this when you sew a fabric quilt from the same block and need the binding.
- Graph paper for floor plans: use this to draw the wall or barn front to scale and see where the board will hang.
- Pixel art grid: use this to plan a square-by-square picture design, such as a simple animal, for a board.