Making Beach Art Using Wood
We decided to use up some of our scrap wood to make a piece of art for the living room. I saw something similar on Pinterest and followed the link to Etsy. Yikes. I think they were asking around $400. I knew we could put our own spin on it and decided to give it a go. The first step was to start cutting strips of wood into varying widths and thicknesses on the table saw.

Oh, and this is only part of our scrap pile…

We decided to cut the strips 16 inches long.

We just kept cutting and arranging the pieces, varying the thicknesses, until we liked the size.

For what will be the back, we cut out a piece of super thin plywood and sanded the edges. Then we spread glue on each board before laying the thin plywood on top.

With the back in place we added staples around the edge just to make sure every piece was in contact with the plywood.

Then it was time to sand. I didn’t want it to be super smooth but I also don’t want to get splinters either. Know what I mean?

Now it was time for paint. I got together a few blues and sandy brown colors and just started painting. First I painted what will be the sky and added a couple of white clouds. Then it was time for the ocean. Mid way I stopped painting the ocean and worked on the beach.

Here are the boards after I finished my interpretation of the beach.

We decided to add a mat and frame. Wooden mat of course. We decided to make the mat 1 1/2 inches wide and we measured and cut it out of the same thin plywood using an Exacto knife. This way the thin veneer layer on the plywood wouldn’t tear.

I took the mat into the paint room and gave it a couple of coats of white paint with a sanding in between coats. Meanwhile, Jim was in the workshop building the frame. By the time I got to the workshop, it was already built and being sanded. Speedy Gonzales!

We threw around ideas for finishing the frame. At one point we thought we might paint it white, then we changed our minds to navy, even considered staining it. In the end we settled on black. Can’t go wrong with black right? Normally we brush on paint but the only can of black we have on hand is semi-gloss and we wanted more of a matte black frame. So this time we sprayed the frame with a couple of coats of matte black.

Then it was time for assembly. We glued the mat onto the wooden slats and clamped it down until it was dry. By that time the frame was also dry and Jim put it all together and brought it in the house.
Here it is in its new home in the livingroom.

And

If you would like us to make you your own unique piece of beach art let us know. I promise it won’t cost $400. I was thinking $399. Ha! Take that Etsy.
Adios.