How to Make A Wooden Art Piece
Last year, just after our third child, Alexander, was born, we finished installing a collage wall in his nursery. Take a look at the video below about how I made a wooden art piece for that collage wall using a drawer pull we found.
BACKGROUND
We have never been the type of people to spend a lot of money, totally redecorating a room just for the arrival of a new baby. I know a lot of people go crazy with that, but it is just not us. We do like making the space unique, and often with things that we make.
When my daughter was an infant, we made these really cool discs out of magazine articles, put together in such a fashion that it was like a round accordion. It is a little hard to describe, but we really liked how those turned out.
We have always liked those collage walls that you see people doing. You know the ones, there are some photos, some other objects, often not what you would expect to go together.
Well, we finally did it. We made a collage wall.
STEPS
I chose walnut for this project. I really wanted that rich look and feel for the collage wall. Plus, the drawer pyll that we found was white, so the walnut gave a nice contrast.
I already had a piece of walnut that I had previously milled to a size that would work. I took that, ran it through the planer a few more times to make sure it has not moved too much since I last used it, and then I was ready to layout some kind of design for the geometric shape.
I didn't know what I was doing, and it took me a few times to draw something out and see how it looked. In the end, I think I was able to come up with a shape that looked good, but it did take a while to settle on that. Really, you can just keep cutting angles until it looks like what you want it to look like. I didn't really know what I wanted it to look like until I saw it. Then, I knew I was done.
I rounded over all of the edges with some 120 grit sandpaper in my random orbit sander.
I drilled a hole in the walnut piece to accept the drawer pull. In order to find where I needed to drill the hole, I used a marker to put some ink on the back of the screw, and touched that to where it looked good. This transferred to the board and I knew exactly where I needed to drill.
The drawer pull that we chose was picked up at Hobby Lobby for about $5. The screw on the back side was really, really long, so after I installed it, I had to take a hacksaw to it and cut the excess off.
Before putting the drawer pull in for good, you need to put some kind of finish on the piece. I chose spray lacquer. I did a few coats, sanding with 320 grit sandpaper in between.
I mixed up some 2 part epoxy and put the drawer pull in using some needle nose pliers to get the nut tight to the wood piece. (This is where you would use a hacksaw to cut off the excess length from the screw.)
Next, I added a hanger to the back of it. This does not weigh a lot, so your options are numerous for how to hang it.
Also, I put some rubber bumpers on the bottom two corners so it sits a little straighter on the wall. BONUS: the bumpers will keep the item from slipping or shifting around much at all.
The hardest part of this entire project was probably coming up with a shape I was happy with. The good thing is that you can just keep cutting angles until you land on something that you like, but I struggled with getting a design to appear that I had in my head.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I love how the collage wall turned out and more specifically, this wooden art piece. I took a piece of walnut scrap I had lying around, and a drawer pull that was intended for something totally different, and was able to make a unique piece. What do you have lying around that you could repurpose into something else? Start looking at things with a different eye and you'll be surprised at what you'll find.
Let me know what you think below, and if you don't already, I'd love to have you subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss any projects I put out there.
