DIY Wood Block Art

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Inspiration for this DIY project came from a show on HGTV.  They did the project on a much larger scale - an entire wall, and it looked amazing.  I wanted to do this on a smaller scale and add some color and portability.  The project was relatively easy, but a little time consuming. 

Here are the steps I took to create this DIY art.

Base - decide on the size of the art you want to make.  Remember, you might want to hang this on the wall, so size is important.  I choose plywood cut at Lowes to 24”x 30“.

Color - This project can be natural wood or any color or colors you choose.  A bright red color was my choice.  I used Rust-oleum spray paint in Sunrise Red.  For the entire project I bought three cans. If you are going natural, you will want to buy wood that is nice quality but it will be a bit more expensive.

Wood Blocks - There are many different sizes of wood you can purchase.  The wood came in poplar sticks in varying sizes.  They should be located in the section with the moldings. I chose the 1x1 sticks.  Just make sure you do the math so the amount of blocks attached on the base wood will fit perfectly. I bought about 20 wooden sticks and hand just enough for the entire project.

Spray paint the base plywood using your choice of paint color.  Don’t forget to get the sides and some of the back.

Spray paint the wood sticks.  A few coats are needed to make sure good coverage is obtained.

Using an electric mitre or chop saw, cut the wood sticks to varying lengths.  Try not to go more than 2 inches long.  You don’t want the wood protruding too far out .  You can double up on cutting a few pieces at a time, but remember, that will create too many identical sized pieces and the goal is for variation.

Using the electric saw makes cutting the wood really easy, but some of the sides will splinter.  You will need to hand sand the sides of almost all the pieces unless the blade is appropriately sized for this type of wood.  Usually that will mean smaller teeth.  However, most electric saws do not come with blades that have small enough teeth to cut using this wood without needing to sand.  The sanding takes a lot of time, but will result in a clean look.

Place the wood blocks on the base to make sure the wood is not at the same heights.  The pieces also have different wood colors and you will want to put them in different places.  Try to do this in L-shapes (length and width).  Then, glue the pieces on with wood glue. 

When gluing each piece of wood, make sure the borders (length, width) don’t shift.  I had to adjust the sides numerous times until the glue dried. 

This project took me many days and working in random spurts.   I could only imagine the time it would take to do this on an entire wall.

To hang this wooden block art on the wall, I didn’t use just any hook and nail.  Jeff actually came up with the idea to use a small TV wall mount that came with a smaller flat screen TV.   

Project Cost-

Wood base- $9.97

Wood sticks 20 X $3.50 = $70

Spray paint 3 x $4.24 = $12.72

Wood glue - $3.97

Wall mount - free

Total- $96.66

I saw one recently on Etsy.com that was selling for $220.  A little expensive for my tastes, but if you aren’t in the mood to DIY then that would be the other alternative.

If you are interested in actually doing an entire wall similar to the art, LOWE'S has it as part of its creative ideas tutorial.  If you have a weekend, some cutting skills, the proper tools, and about $500 you can have one for yourself.  Maybe on my next home I will have my own wood block wall.

I love looking at this every time I walk up my stairs.  It looks different from every angle and it's so diverse depending on the lighting of the day.  I hope this inspired you to make one for your home that makes you equally happy.

<3 mk