Custom Wood Wall Piece

Custom Wood, Wall Piece

What do you get the man who has everything? NOTHING you build him a Custom Wood Wall Piece.

Okay so my boss is a great guy and is always helping me out when I need anything. Because he owns his own quite successful landscape company he pretty much has the most badass back yard ever, filled with so many things and whatever he doesn't have have he buys himself. So I decided that for Christmas this year I would make him something that was different, something he couldn't buy. He has a love of fishing and the ocean lifestyle combined with big rough cut wood structures with a Hawaiian feel.

My boss is very busy in the summer and doesn't have time to own a cottage so his back yard is his cottage retreat. This custom wood wall piece will fit perfectly with the already "tiki" architectural style of his back yard.

In this instructable I will go through the very simple process in making something like this for yourself or as a gift. This custom wood wall piece is made of only Wood, Screws and Paint...Just 3 things!

Tools Needed

Drill

Hand Saw or Circular Saw

Paint and Paint Brush

Pencil & Eraser

Materials Needed

1 Piece of 4" x 8' Cedar decking that is 3/4" thick

1 Piece or 1.5" x 8' Cedar Stripping that is 3/4" thick

20 number 6 screws that are 1-1/4" long

Some paint and a paint Brush

Total Cost of Project $ 15 dollars Canadian

Cutting, Layout and Screws

The actual construction of the wall piece is extremely simple and can be done in about 15 minutes

Step 1 - Cut the 4" x 8' piece into sections that are 12" long, This will give you 8 pieces that measure 4"x12".

Step 2 - From the 1.5" x 8' piece cut it into 2 equal pieces of 30" then using the remainder cut 2 more pieces at 12". You will have some left over wood but that's okay, feel free to add it to the design if you want I chose not to as I liked the overall length

Step 3 - Place the boards down and stagger the joints. I created a pattern and then copied it on the other side. I added the 2 thinner pieces of wood into the pattern to mirror each other.

Step 4 - Now that you like the Layout grab the 2 pieces that are cut to 30" long and lay them on top of the layout as square as possible

**** If the back supports are not square then the wall piece will not hang level on the wall****

Step 5 - Using a drill and the 6 - 1-1/4" screws put a screw through the back supports into each board. Do this for both supports and once everything is screwed down the entire piece will be held together firmly.

Design and Paint

This is where you can make this wall piece something special.

Because my boss likes fishing and ocean related things I thought a shark would be a great focal point to this piece. I just went on google and found a image I liked and hand sketched it into the board.

It was not perfect the first try but I added lines and made things bigger until the proportions looked good.

Step 1 - Get a pencil and eraser and find an image or create your own that you want to paint onto this wood

Step 2 - Take you time and while thinking about proportions hand draw the image onto the wood in light pencil. It probably wont be perfect first try but to fix any drawing mistakes simple stand the piece up stand back and think about where you can adjust the lines to make the proportions fit the wood better and to be more realistic.

Step 3 - Using acrylic paint, begin painting the wood. I always start with the outside edges using lots of paint and trying to get a very thick clean outside edge. This will make the image pop more off the wood. Once the boarder is done fill in the rest of the image with thick amounts of paint.

Let the Paint dry and you're done!

Now that the paint is dry you can wrap this bad boy up and get ready to gift it. Or of course go hang it on some wall in need of becoming awesome !!!!

You can stain this if you would like I'd recommend a lighter stain so the paint still pops. I did not stain this because in my bosses back yard he hasn't stained anything and all the existing cedar on the property has weathered to a grey-ish colour and I want the piece to look the part once its out there.

This was a great simply one night project that anyone can do. Good luck!

If you liked the Instructable feel free to vote ! Thanks for reading

Cheers

***I have also added a few pictures of his backyard. I work in the building directly behind the waterfall with the surf boards on it. I work in southern Ontario too there is no where to surf he just likes surf boards!!!***