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Make Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art: Easy DIY Steps and Video

Make this beautiful and simple scrap wood wall art with these easy to follow DIY steps and a short video to help you get started.

How to Make Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art

I shared the original design and build steps for this Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art in a previous post. But, when I decided to move it, I wanted to update the paint colors to match the new room.

So, today I’m sharing how to build and paint simple scrap wood wall art. AND how to paint it again later, if you want to refresh the style. 🙂

Image shows example of how to make mosaic wood wall art with steps and video.
Step by Step Guide – How to Make Easy Wood Wall Art

I loved the original colors of this scrap wood wall art, but they just didn’t fit in any of the rooms I wanted to use them in. I needed to figure out a way to update the look without filling in the beautiful lines between the pieces.

Those lines are half the character and beauty of wood wall art, right? I was worried, but this simple scrap wood wall art paint makeover was pretty easy, guys.

Image of a set of simple DIY scrap wood wall art ideas. For a tutorial with steps to make wood wall art for beginners.
Don’t forget to Save or Share This DIY Wood Wall Art Idea.

How To Build DIY Wood Wall Art – Video

If any of the written steps are confusing, you can see the all of the steps in the video below.

How To Make DIY Scrap Wood Wall Art - Quick & Easy Steps!

You can find more design inspiration for geometric wood art and table tops in some of my other tutorials. Check out this beautiful Poplar DIY Geometric Wood Table Top.

And, the amazing variation in Cedar designs in this DIY Wood Mosaic Table Top or this DIY Chevron Wood Wall Art Tutorial.

Step by Step Guide

Building and painting your own scrap wood wall art is kinda addictive. It’s a fun way to be creative and try new woodworking designs and techniques.  And, it’s a great way to use up those wood scraps we all hoard. 😉

Step One

Decide on the best size DIY Scrap Wood Wall Art for your space. I went for 3 – 18″ x 18″ pieces for a large wall. Cut your plywood base to size. Remember, the outside frame should be 1/2″ wider than the plywood base.

Keeping the plywood smaller will keep it out of sight when you hang it on a wall.

Build your own custom DIY Scrap Wood Geometric Art. Works for Barn Quilt, Tribal Art, Boho, Mosaic, geometric wood designs and more. Includes DIY Tutorial steps and how-to video!
Cutting the Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art plywood base square is easy with a straight cutting guide clamped to the board.

Step Two

Next, I used a straight-edge to mark corner to corner and across the middles. Those marks just helped me make sure the design stayed centered.

Build your own custom DIY Scrap Wood Geometric Art. Works for Barn Quilt, Tribal Art, Boho, Mosaic, geometric wood designs and more. Includes DIY Tutorial steps and how-to video!
The pencil marks act as a guide for my design. The frame helps hold the pieces in place while I make sure my cuts are tight. I love this Bessey Strap Clamp for jobs like this.

Step Three

Each of my 3 Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art designs, started with an outside frame. Clamping those together made it easier to hold the inner pieces in place while I worked on the design.

Each piece has to be cut to the exact same length to get a perfect square. I usually use the first piece as a cutting guide for the rest. Just clamp the piece to the top and line the blade up with the edge on the top piece before cutting the bottom piece.

Build your own custom DIY Scrap Wood Geometric Art. Works for Barn Quilt, Tribal Art, Boho, Mosaic, geometric wood designs and more. Includes DIY Tutorial steps and how-to video!
I clamp the first board to the following boards to get matching lengths. Just push the top board up to the lowered blade to make sure you’ll cut the bottom board at the same length. Don’t start the blade until you raise it off of the boards, though.

Step Four

Once the outside frame is cut and clamped in place, you can start cutting the inner pieces for your Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art. You can use my designs as a guide or pick your own. Instagram and Pinterest are full of inspiration.

I decided that I didn’t want to make cuts along the length of any boards, to avoid using my table saw. So I worked my way from the outside to the inside, using 2″ or 3″ wide boards to give more variation and interest to the design. I also stuck with just 45-degree angle cuts.

Use as many full width pieces as possible. My small triangles in each piece are the pieces that needed cutting on the width and length of the design. The last couple of pieces may need to be cut carefully with whichever saw you are comfortable using for the job.

Be sure to follow safety rules for the saw. For pieces that are just a bit too long for the space, only shave small amounts off until you get a tight fit. I’ve wasted too many boards over-cutting pieces in the past.

Do not get your hands anywhere near the blade. Start with a long enough piece of lumber to keep your hands away. Cut the angle you need on one end of the board. Then cut off the end to complete the cut.

You can find 4 Tips for How to Safely Cut Small Wood Pieces on a Miter Saw in another post.

Build your own custom DIY Scrap Wood Geometric Art. Works for Barn Quilt, Tribal Art, Boho, Mosaic, geometric wood designs and more. Includes DIY Tutorial steps and how-to video!

Step Five

When you have the whole design finished and set in place to make sure you have nice tight miters, pick a few boards to raise with 1/4″ scraps, biscuits, mdf, etc. I went with 1 pattern in each piece to raise.

Build your own custom DIY Scrap Wood Geometric Art. Works for Barn Quilt, Tribal Art, Boho, Mosaic, geometric wood designs and more. Includes DIY Tutorial steps and how-to video!
Picking which pieces will be raised in this piece.

Step Six

Now you can sand the boards with a medium grit sandpaper, like 150-grit. But make sure you remember where each piece goes. I sanded the top and sides of each board. I also sand down all corners a bit to give it a rounded, finished look.

You can see what I’m talking about in the close up. It’s a bit like creating a Chamfer edge with sandpaper. So, it’s not perfect but I love the look.

Build your own custom DIY Scrap Wood Geometric Art. Works for Barn Quilt, Tribal Art, Boho, Mosaic, geometric wood designs and more. Includes DIY Tutorial steps and how-to video!
Here’s a closer look at the knocked down edges I did with sandpaper on each piece of this Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art.

Staining and Painting Your NEW Wood Wall Art

Now, before assembling all these pieces, I apply the finish. Pick whichever acrylic paints, chalk paints, latex, and/or stains will work with your design. You should use a good nylon paint brush or foam sponge brushes to get a smooth finish on the pieces.

If you have a latex paint you want to use, I highly recommend using this DIY Chalk Paint Recipe from Latex Paint to turn latex paint into quick drying and easy to use chalk paint. Chalk paint is easier to sand and dries harder than latex.

Dust the pieces clean. Then, apply the stain or paint to each piece and let dry. Sand the edges for a pretty distressed look. Dust again. Finish by applying a matte poly top coat over each board.

This little Micro Zip makes detail sanding so much easier and more precise. In this picture it’s sitting on the Cedar pieces for my DIY Chevron Wood Wall Art.

What You Need

Here’s the obligatory before picture. I loved these colors but they were a bit too dark for the room I wanted to use this Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art in.

How To Re-Paint your DIY Wood Art

The key to this makeover is time really. Take your time repainting each piece and avoiding the lines between the pieces, as much as possible. A small foam brush works perfectly here.

The paint can be applied exactly where you want it and without brush lines with a foam brush. They’re really great at getting into corners and angled spots too.

I went with chalk paint for this DIY scrap wood wall art paint makeover for 3 reasons. First, it dries so quickly, you can apply another coat in less than an hour. Sometimes faster.

Close up of the distressed edges on each piece after this Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art Paint Makeover.

Second, chalk paint sands really well. It’s easy to distress with chalk paint and keep a nice smooth, pretty finish. Plus, it comes in so many great colors now or you can mix your own from the Latex Paint in your garage. Win!

Third, chalk paint sticks to most finishes without a primer. So, it will stick to the poly top coat on these pieces without a primer.

After Painting

After you’ve got each piece repainted and it’s dry, you can sand the lines again. I used my little Micro Zip to distress all of the lines between the pieces.

This just smooths out those sharp paint lines and adds a bit of extra detail and character to the paint finish.

You can see here that I left the pieces that were stained alone. No paint or distressing here. But, go with your gut when planning your new design.

I love the hints of blue and grey from the original colors peeking through around those distressed edges.

Dust the pieces clean of all sanding dust. Then finish by applying a matte poly top coat over each piece. Keep it light so that it doesn’t settle in the gaps between the pieces.

The new white distressed look brightens up this room. Grab a sneak peek at my next Wood Wall Art design on IG here.

That’s it. This wood wall art makeover is easy, peasy. Right? I’m so glad I went for it. No need to build new scrap wood wall art when the original can be updated. 🙂

More DIY Projects For You

If you’re ready for another wood art project, you can see all of my Geometric and Scrap Wood Videos in this Playlist on YouTube.


Looking for more DIY Wall Art Ideas? Try this Wooden DIY Barn Star Art for your next build.

How to build this Wooden DIY Barn Star Art (Wood Barn Quilt) for less than $20 in lumber. Pottery Barn sells it for $400. Winning! DIY Wood Sign - Barn Quilt - Pottery Barn Knock Off #ChristmasProjects #ChristmasDecor #ChristmasSign #PotteryBarn #BarnQuilt #AbbottsAtHome

Here’s another great way to use Scrap Wood. Check out this DIY Scrap Wood Table Top Tutorial.

Turn that scrap wood or reclaimed wood into this beautiful rustic DIY Scrap Wood Table Top for your next furniture or woodworking project. How to build a rustic reclaimed wood table top with a Kreg Jig.

Give furniture or old decor a great new look with this Easy DIY Rust Paint Effect.

Easy DIY Rust Paint Effect to give your old Home Decor and Furniture a beautiful new look. Just paint then spray the patina, that's it! Easy DIY Home Decor Paint Makeover with metal patina paints.

Check out how easy it is to use Metal Patina Paints.

Over 20 different Patina Paint Faux Metal Finish examples with info on how to DIY them. Great guide for picking the look you want before buying. How to Patina Paint with Copper, Bronze, and Iron paints using blue and green patinas. Testing done with Dixie Belle Patina Paints.

Or build your kids this great DIY Farmhouse Activity Board.

A cedar and grey Modern Farmhouse Kids Activity Wall. Build a fun DIY Modern Farmhouse Kids Activity Wall Board. With 20 Ideas for board options that work for kids, teens, and adults. #ModernFarmhouse #KidsFurniture #DIYKids #AbbottsAtHome

I love this beautiful DIY Acrylic Paint Pouring Wall Art tutorial.

Make your own stunning art for less than $20 with this pretty DIY Paint Pouring Wall Art Idea & Tutorial. I love this DIY Art Project, guys! Anyone can do this. #AbbottsAtHome #WallArt #PaintPouring #PouringPaint #AcrylicPaint #DIYDecor

Feeling inspired? Now you know how to do this Simple Scrap Wood Wall Art Paint Makeover. Have fun and let me know if you have questions.

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Julie

Sunday 10th of January 2021

They are stunning, such a fabulous project. These will be a feature over at Handmade Monday when it goes live later today :-)

Stephanie

Monday 11th of January 2021

Thanks so much, Julie!!

Kim | Shiplap and Shells

Tuesday 5th of January 2021

I love this Stephanie! We are featuring you at Charming Homes and Gardens this week.

Stephanie

Tuesday 5th of January 2021

Great!! Thanks so much Kim. I love this one too. :)

Rachel Harper

Monday 4th of January 2021

Stephanie, These all look so great! So professional. Look for your feature on Wednesday's Charming Homes & Gardens Link Party.

Stephanie

Monday 4th of January 2021

Thank you, Rachel!

Grandma's House DIY

Monday 4th of January 2021

Hope you had a great new year, I'll be featuring you this week. See you next time at the To Grandma's house we go link party!

Stephanie

Monday 4th of January 2021

Thanks so much, Tarah. Happy New Year to you!

James M House

Wednesday 30th of December 2020

It looks so good!! What a great project! Love all the white in your room!

Stephanie

Thursday 31st of December 2020

Thanks, James!

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