We recently had an incident at our home involving our deck, our fire pit, and a fire extinguisher. As a result, we ended up with a brand spanking new (bigger!) deck and a pile of old, charred lumber ready for the dump. It seemed like a waste, however, and we didn’t want the story to end there. So we decided to recycle some of it by turning it into rustic wall decor for our living room. It was a simple way to make seemingly worthless wood a classy conversational piece for the house. You can create your own reclaimed wood art decor as well!
When choosing the wood for our new deck, we made sure to pick out the straightest pieces with the least amount of damage on them. This was not the case for our wall hanging. Art is all about imperfection. We chose the pieces that had the most knots, were warped, cracked, and chipped; and nail holes were certainly an added bonus! Once we made our selection, we flipped over the wood on its backside in the order we wanted them. We didn’t want them perfectly straight across, so we staggered each piece from the next. Adjusting them exactly how we wanted, we tied them together by screwing two more scraps across the back using 1-5/8 inch self-drilling decking screws. When creating your own, you can use a piece of 1/4 inch plywood slightly smaller than your project to attach the pieces to if you’re concerned about weight. Whatever you use, be sure to use screws or nails that don’t protrude through the front!
Once the boards were secured to the backer, we flipped over the whole project so that the front was facing us.
It was time for the fun part. We went to Lowes to pick out colors which coordinated with our current room decor and purchased paint samples of each color.
We decided on the base color for our project and, using a foam brush containing very little paint, put a skim coat on the front. This enhanced the wood grain and gave it the warn look we were trying to achieve.
Next, we added highlights of each of our selected colors using the same technique.
We then attached a wire to the back for hanging on the wall. Normally, on anything that we hang, we use eye hooks with the wire, but due to the weight of this project, we used the same 1-5/8 inch screws that were used to attach the back supports.
Since we were mounting our project on a block wall, weight was not a concern. We drilled through the block and hung our now complete project using screws specifically designed for concrete. When creating your piece of art, keep weight in mind and plan accordingly.
When was the last time you attempted to recycle material for something other than the originally intended purpose? How did it turn out?