Crafts,  Painting

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.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
This could take a while

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

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Lots of projects in there waiting to be assembled

We decided to cut the strips 16 inches long.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Keep cutting Jim

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

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Looks to be big enough

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.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Getting ready to put a back on

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

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
They are not going anywhere now!

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?

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Sanding the easy way

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.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Layering colors

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

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Ready for a frame

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.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Cutting out a mat

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!

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Always sanding something

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.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Spraying the frame

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.

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
Can you see the ocean?

And

DIY wall art,beach art,painting beach art
From farther away

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.

 

 

 

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