DIY Wood Art

After I finished with the board & batten in the foyer, I knew the wall needed something…  I debated my options and decided to go with some DIY wood art.  The board and batten looks so clean and new, I felt like I needed something with a little dinge to balance out all the newness.  More importantly, with stay at home orders affecting the day job in a big way, I wanted the lowest budget option I could find.  This was it!  

Using only scrap wood

With all my projects of late, I have a good chunk of scrap wood leftover.  Seemed to me like a good way to kill two birds with one stone—DIY wood art and getting rid of scraps.  Now, this won’t be a typical tutorial because I didn’t go into it with a plan and wasn’t looking for perfection.  This is definitely a situation where done is better than perfect.

I had a 1×12 and cut it to 36″ in length because I thought that would look good in the space.  Using the trim wood leftover from the kitchen cabinets, I just started piecing things together…  Using only 45 degree cuts on the chop saw, I was able to create pieces that fit together. It was only important to pay attention to which direction the angle was cut.

Before long, a pattern started to appear.

It didn’t take long before I was able to fill the board.  

I didn’t want the pieces tightly fit together.  I wanted that depth and differences in height.  Imperfection was my goal.  When you do it… if you want the tight fit, follow the section in my DIY herringbone table on wood filler.  

Finishing

 Once I had the pattern I wanted, I needed to clean things up just enough to avoid splinters.  I sanded the edges with what has quickly become a favorite tool of mine.  (Like my Halloweeen tablecloth?  I was protecting my work surface.  Note to self:  need plain colored vinyl tablecloth. LOL)

I wanted a mix of color and stain so I used the leftover paint from the foyer along with a bit of stain leftover from my table.  Mixing up the color worked for me.  Again, I was looking for imperfection so I didn’t want total coverage.  

The only thing left to do is hang this baby on the wall…