One Hour Big Impact Wall Art

My sister and brother-in-law recently made this piece to hang in their dining room, and every time I saw it I fell in love with it again.
  

When we needed quick, big, and cheap wall art for staging, I knew I had a great excuse to make one of these myself.  Depending on the finish you use, you could have one of these done in an hour!

This is made with 6″x 36″ craft boards from Lowe’s.  These boards are thin and ready to finish… not an ounce of sanding which is a huge plus for me and saves time.  Somehow I love my sander but hate sanding. Go figure!

Supplies:

3 1x2s @ ~36″

7 6×36 craft boards

Brad Nails and hammer/ nailer

Couple of coins

Wood glue

Finishing materials (stain, paint, etc.)

1. Start with 3 1x2s laid on the floor.  I used scrap but in general you want them a little shorter than the height of you board – no need to measure or be exact here!
2. Next, add a little wood glue to the top of each 1×2 and lay your craft board across the top.  Secure in place with brad nails from the front.
   
3. Place your coins on the 1x2s to act as spacers for the next board.  Place more wood glue on the 1x2s and push the next craft board up against the coins, aligning the ends.  Secure in place with brad nails.
   
4. Continue placing the boards until you’re done!  How easy was that??!  Here is a picture of the back once complete.  I made this so quickly that I never took off the stickers or cleaned up that nice footprint.
   
5. Finishing – you can of course finish this however you’d like… stain, paint, or a combo of the two.  For my painted boards, I watered down my paint a little and used a dry brush so that I could still see the grain popping through.  For my stained boards, I used my new favorite stain technique.

Attach your favorite picture to the front, and you are done!  See… I told you it was easy!