Liberty Wall Art

Remember this?

My quick how-to:

• The plans
• Paint each piece before assembly. I originally used red and white spray paints. I wasn't happy with the way it turned out, so I used white paint from the basement that was used on our walls, and I bought a small sample of red Valspar paint from Lowe's for $2.94. The blue paint was a free sample of Valspar that I had gotten in the mail from Lowe's. I didn't use the dry-brush technique as the plan had recommended, but I could still see the wood grain through the paint, which I was really pleased with.




• Lay the pieces out on your plywood before using glue or nails. There should be a little bit of overhang around the plywood. I used a 1/4" thick piece of plywood (4'x4'), which was definitely not thick enough. I used furring strips to build this piece, and it was so heavy that my plywood bowed when I tried to move it. It took Nathan and me moving it together. A 15/32" was the next thickness I saw, and that's what I'd use next time (probably not for the small one I plan to make, but for this size).



• After laying out my pieces, I figured which sides would be exposed and painted those. Only the tops of the "inside" pieces are painted.
• Then, I glued all the pieces down with Gorilla wood glue. I didn't nail the pieces down; since I used furring strips, I was afraid the wood would split and all my hard work would be ruined. Although, I think it would have looked really good. I also didn't distress the piece. Again, I was pleased with how it looked, and I was afraid I would ruin it. This would have been my first time distressing anything.



• Since my plywood was flimsy, we glued and screwed three 1x6 or 1x8 scraps that we had to the back, to add a little security. We did this sort of in the shape of an "N" to provide the most reinforcement. I'm so glad we did!
• To get the stars on there, I printed the pattern from the computer in various sizes and traced them onto cardstock. I originally used my brush to paint the stars on, but decided that spray paint may work better...and it did. I had to let the excess paint that got onto the back of the cardstock dry in between stars. I learned that the hard way. If you really look, you can see my "error" stars.

This was such a learning experience. It was intended to be a very cheap project, made out of scraps from previous projects. I have only done one other project, so I didn't have a lot of 1x4 scraps, which is primarily what this piece is made of. I think overall, I invested about $40 into this piece. How cool would it be to do something like this for each season (smaller, of course!)?