Scrap Wood Chevron Art

I am always amazed at the talent and creativity of people I find online. Pinterest is a fantastic source of course, but lately I’m all about Instagram – and let me show you one of the reasons why:

Sambeedesigns is an IG feed that I follow because of the gorgeousness above, and because I thought “Hey, I could make those!”

Surf her Etsy shop and check out the array of colours and styles in these chevron art pieces. Better still, go check her out and see her nursery decor and my favourite – her feather piece.

I didn’t think I’d be able to duplicate her work exactly, but I did want to give it a shot and since I had scrap 1 x 2’s, some stain and craft paint, I thought I’d give it a whirl.

These boards were just glued together with wood glue and then clamped tightly overnight to make sure they were good and stuck. (Note: if sanding, sand while they are clamped or beforehand, not after the glue as set or you risk them coming apart – guess how I know this?)

I applied a coat of Minwax Special Walnut (my go-to stain colour) and then wiped off the excess until I had a darkness I liked.

Now here is where I went wrong the first time; I should have let the stain dry overnight as well. I was too excited to try my hand at creating a chevron piece that I only waited an hour or so and you’ll see (in upcoming photos) how the stain bled through the craft paint. In fact, it bled through 3 coats of yellow craft paint – ugh!

The second thing I did wrong was attempt to free-hand paint my arrows/chevron. Sambeedesigns often posts that she makes hers without the use of masking/painter’s tape – and I didn’t want to be the slacker that cheated….

but I should have.

My free-hand painting, even within pencil drawn lines, was not nearly as crisp and clean as hers.

I tried to clean it up by drawing a line over top of the edges with coordinating colour Sharpies – but it’s just not as nice a look.

Since my chevron piece wasn’t near the calibre of Sambeedesigns, I decided I was safe to scuff it up a bit with sandpaper – mainly to say that my errors were an intentional aspect of my ‘antiqued’ look.

It’s actually not too bad from a distance.

I was talking with my Dad on FaceTime while I was painting this and he confirmed that the fact that I’d spent $0 making this was a good valuation of the finished product. lol

I can say I tried right? Frankly, my eyesight is less than 20-20, so I’m going to enjoy my scrap wood chevron piece in blurry happiness from across the room.

Or I’ll sand it down and try again – I could go either way.

Click the above highlighted links to be taken to SamBeeDesigns Etsy page, or follow her on Instagram here.

Have a great one!