Here was a project that I contemplated for months. I had an idea of what I wanted but not sure exactly how to collaborate a substrate and design. I wanted to somehow have a custom piece of art that had years of importance in our lives but didn't want to do the long horizontal piece of wood with just the month, date, and year, I wanted it to be truly unique.Then after a long time of browsing Pinterest (of course!) I saw my inspiration! Here is the link to it: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/563724078333211396/
Instead of the letters I will use numbers. Those numbers are to represent the important years in my and my husband's lives. The years are; my husband's birth year, my birth year, the year we started dating, the year we were engaged, the year we were married, the year we had our son, and the year we had our daughter, with two blank ones for a symmetric look. On top of having the years I also put the month, time (Dating 07' and Engagement 09's times are approximations) and what street each event took place on.
The difficult part of this DIY project was what substrate to use. The inspired-from art piece is made up of old subway signs and are metal. I may have had access to sheet metal and a way to cut/bend it but I did not really want to work with metal. My luck, I would cut myself in the process.
So I decided to use wood! I love wood! Wood is inexpensive, easy to work with, and can be manipulated as far as the finish.
Pre-planning~
Before I really got ahead of myself I also needed to figure out how I was going to get the numbers on the wood. I found a great technique on... yup you guessed it, Pinterest! https://www.pinterest.com/pin/563724078333182295/
From the Pin I went to the person's blog to read the step by step instructions on painting and waxing for a weathered finish. On the blog she talks about how to do the old/distressed look but doesn't really go into the depth that I, a first timer, needed. Because of this lack of information I do what I do best, improvise! I went to Joann Fabric and asked if they had wax, and they did not. Keep in mind that I thought the wax that was used was a colored wax... I was directed to Hobby Lobby for wax. When searching in the store I asked an associate to point me in the direction of wax and she brought me to an isle of large blocks of wax and colored shavings. Not what I was looking for at all. As we were discussing what I was looking for we talked about the project, my expectation for an outcome and so on. And, what to my surprise, I was talking to a self proclaimed distress-er! She informed me that I would use paint but the wax is used to coat the wood so the paint doesn't stick in certain areas, then you simply scrape off the wax and that scrapes off the paint. Thank goodness for a little divine intervention :)
So now I know I have an old candle at home all I needed was some great paint colors and wood.
I purchased three colors from Hobby lobby; Desert Turquoise, Spiced Pumpkin Orange, and Tuscan Red. I added additional colors from home navy blue. All very trendy and Americana brand paint.
Wood ya know~
To start off I went to Homedepot and found 1" x 12" x 10' common board which I had cut down in ten equal pieces. With the cuts from the blades (1/8") the last piece was shorter than 12" but that was just fine because I only needed nine pieces. Now that I have my wood I needed to stain it to prep it for my paint/wax. I still had some left over stain from numerous other project, many in the basement, so I just used more up.
Do I look familiar or what?
Ouch my hand hurts!
I had printed each art template and taped each one onto each board. Then with a pen I traced the words and numbers on each piece of wood. This way I could see the light indentation on the panel after I had done the painting. After one of these my hand was seriously cramping, but I shake it off and forge ahead. I am the type of person who likes to see instant results so instead of tracing all nine, I decided to complete the first panel.
Here is the Technique~
The technique that I gathered between the blog and the associate at Hobby Lobby goes as follows.
1st: rub wax where you don't want paint (I take the taper candle and randomly rub it over the front surface of my square)
2nd: Paint brush strokes over the entire surface with your multiple colors, not to overlap and make purple or brown everywhere. After the paint was freshly dry I took an old wash cloth and rubbed down the entire front surface. This removed most of the paint where the wax was and blended the paint in some areas. However, I did not scrape off all the wax. You can do what ever you want to do, for my project I was ok with the wax remaining on the surface because it was clear enough.
3rd: Paint on the wording and numbers in a different color. I had a small sample of a bright green left over from my dog house project, so this is what I used. Plus the green went well in the basement with it being a color in our new throw pillows and ottomans.
4th: Rub down with Murphy's Oil Soap. This step was taken from the blog. I'm unsure if it made that much of a difference but the colors sure did pop once rubbed down. I also don't know if it has any preservation qualities but thought, what the heck!
Wall before~... Boring!
But before you hang~
I wanted the installing of the wood be as trouble free as possible so I took a piece of cardboard and made a template, a small hole in the upper corner. This hole would be my pre-drill hold. Next I pre-drilled all my squares and hand screwed in screws so then when it came to installation I wouldn't have to deal with splitting wood or the placement of the boards shifting because of having to get through the wood first. I flipped the cardboard upside down for the opposite corner as to have uniform holes on all my pieces.
Installation~
Last part of the big project was installing the installation! I had contemplated on how to hang these squares perfectly level and all an equal distance apart. I had scored a large piece of paper from a box of frames that I purchased, but drawing the lines on it to hang on the wall proved to be pretty difficult with a toddler walking or crawling on the paper, and it not being quite big enough.
My next "bright" idea was to ask my husband to print out a template of all the squares and I would hang that on the wall. Unfortunately, this is just another dilemma I ran into. The printer he has access to is only 36" wide, and I need at least 40". So my brain finally kicks into high gear and I come up with a brilliant idea. I simply went on Illustrator and made a document that was the size of my wall and put in the squares at the distance I wanted them apart, 3", and then made measurements from the wall and ceiling to each row, and viola, I had all my measurements.
Next step in the installation was to draw small hash marks in from the wall at the distance my illustrator document shows, and with a six foot level that doubled as a straight edge I drew a grid.
The moment I've (and you've) been waiting for... this was almost too easy! Since I had my straight/level edge and my squares pre-drilled with screws already in place I just had to get on the ladder and screw them into the wall.
Here is the final product!
I have to say that the look wasn't exactly what I had in mind going into the project but I really love the way this turned out! The final touch was to go back with some paint and cover up the lines that were showing after my pieces were installed.
Here's the skinny on the cost...
1" x 12" x 10' Wood: $10.99
Stain: Free
Background paint: 1.79 each x 3 = $5.66
Additional background paint: Free
Green wording paint: Free
Screws: Free (used some old drywall screws)
Murphy's Oil Soap: $4.18
Wax (candle): Free
TOTAL PROJECT COST (including tax): $20.83
Having a custom piece of art that you created: (cheesy) Priceless!
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