It’s a crafty kind of Tuesday around here!
As I’ve been pulling Grayson’s room organization/switcheroo together, we’ve collected a few new pieces for the room and are in the process of creating others.
I showed you the perfect grain sack, vintage books, and old shoe cart I found last week, and it’s time to show you something we made a couple of weekends ago.
There you have it…our own DIY reclaimed wood wall art. Ours was basically free, because this was made from wood scraps and chalk paint I had on hand.
Want to know how to make your own? Well, hang on tight. This one is beyond easy.
We measured the wall space I wanted to cover, and knew that ours needed to be no bigger than roughly 2 1/2 feet tall x 5 feet wide.
We happened to have a scrap piece of MDF a little smaller than that, so we already had our base. (If you don’t have mdf, you can always buy it at your local home improvement store…you can even have it cut to size if you don’t have a table saw.)
I actually pulled all of my wood scraps together first and then laid them on my board. I simply threw them all on a table and had fun with it…piece them together varying width and height to keep your board interesting.
I wanted to be able to pick each piece up to paint the facing and sides, so I went to work painting before attaching them together. I didn’t choose a particular pattern, but as I went along, I realized it pleased my eye to zig zag my colors a bit.
We then trimmed that left side you see marked, and carried each piece to our big board inside.
Okay, you got me…this is not this project, but it is the next step. And…you’re getting a peek of other things going on in Gray’s room.
I glued each piece down with wood glue, stacked a whole buncha’ books on it to help it set, and an hour later, voila!
We attached heavy duty frame hanging brackets (hold up to 200 lbs) to the back. The kit was $10, but we felt like we had to have it to hold that heavy sucker up there. Matt then hung it on screws (anchored in wall studs).
I had two boards that I already stained in dark walnut, and the rest I painted with chalk paint I had on hand. I used Pure White, Emperor’s Silk, Aubusson Blue, Coco, Louis Blue, and French Linen. I waxed it with clear wax first, allowing that to dry about an hour, and then wiped dark wax on and off to finish it off.
You can see all of the edges don’t meet up perfectly. As I glued it, I just went with it…sometimes it needed to scoot this way or that, and frankly, I kind of like that it’s not perfectly straight. We may trim it a little, but I’m going to live with it a while first.
I. LOVE. it. I’m already tackling other walls in my head, and totally different color schemes. It has huge impact on the wall, and we’ll be adding some canvas storage bags to the wall under it to complete the wall art.
One little step closer to a freshened up space for my smarty-pants boy. He told me today, as I was (still) lying on the couch apologizing for being sick this week– “Mom, people get sick all the time. You need to be reminded of this lesson: Hakuna Matata. You know, it means no worries.”
Well, touch`e, my son.
😉
*linking to Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style!
I love it. I am always stumped when it comes to my two boys’ rooms. Thanks for sharing!
Scraptastic!
Love this! love all the colors too.
So lovely. This room is going to grow with Grayson really well. Keep in mind you should have prefaced your explanation with “This is so easy” because you gave us the idea and great directions. 🙂
hehe, Jane! You’re too funny…serious….it really is sooo easy! Thanks!!
🙂
shaunna
That looks fantastic! I love, love, love it.
This is awesome!! Really love it and I can see this in all colors…great idea. May just have to steal it!
What a cool idea, I can think of several places around here that I could do this….maybe with some of my chippy salvaged boards!
Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase…yeah, I’ll be singing that all day now, thankyouverymuch!
Looks great 🙂 Can’t wait to see it all together!
Your blog is so gorgeous! And what a great DIY project. Even my husband would like this one 🙂
Great job! I love quick and easy wall decorations, and this goes so well with his nautical theme!
Bwahaha! Love his encouragement! That is TOTALLY something my daughter would say. Love the piece you made for his room! Great texture and color. P.S. I mentioned you in my first ever blog post this week 🙂
Adorable! It goes so well with the nautical decor!
Your art looks fantastic. I love that it is natural and a bit rugged looking. I think that I would like to lay and study the different textures and patterns of the wood. I may have to try something like this for our house!
Love the project, love your son’s comment even more! 😀 It’s amazing how much God uses our children to teach us, when we think it’s about us teaching them.
Beautiful. I love primary colors and your artwork is perfect!
Love this! Great Job 🙂
So cool Shaunna…I love it! Can’t wait to see the rest of the room too! ~Deb~
Such a great piece of artwoork. I would love to have something like this on my wall 🙂
Wish you a good day!
Such a great idea and way to use all those leftover cuts of wood. Awesome job girly 🙂
I love the red and blue against the wood grain!
Love it! And i love that the edges are a bit random – it adds to the charm 🙂
This is a great look. Either nautical or Americana depending on the rest of the accessories.
Ahhhh! I love this idea, thank you! Newest follower, feel free to follow back if you’d like.
Looks great! I love all the colors & textures!
Love this idea. Stealing it for sure. My son’s room is in almost the same colors so I can already see what it’s going to look like. I’ve been looking for the perfect piece of art to go over the big wall space over his crib. I’ve bought a couple and they just aren’t working. I’m going to move them to a different place in the house and do this instead. LOTS of scrap wood around our house and plenty of paint and stain as well. Ewwww…I’m so excited, this idea is perfect! I’ll email you pics of mine when it’s completed!
THIS IS FANTASTIC. YOU BEEN FEATURED AT http://styleitchic.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_28.html
LOVE FROM GREECE
Wow! What a great idea. The pattern possibilities are limitless. With every piece of wood having its own character I can’t wait to start collecting for my wall art. Definitely doing this!
Thanks for the idea.
We can make this type of things with the use of reclaimed wood and decorate our home. This is a good idea.
Hi
Can you tell me the name of the clear wax and
also the dark wax you used? No one seems to
have heard of these items.
Thanks
Karen