Reality Daydream

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Wooden Kilim Wall Art

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With the weather warming up slowly but surely, our mind-wheels have been turning with plans for our veggie garden, tuning up the lawnmower, and thinking about some small landscaping projects. BUT… the ground is still frozen. And the wind has been INSANE. Like blow-you-over-insane.

So I’ve been thinking a little more logically about making some small changes right around our actual front door. Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing a tutorial for a Peeps Wreath anytime soon. The thing is… I realized that we don’t have any house numbers on our house (just on the mailbox across the street).

Our Homestead

I’m wanting to make this all feel a little more inviting… perhaps a DIY welcome mat of some kind, building a couple wooden planters to flank the front door, maybe repainting the door, and of course HOUSE NUMBERS.

So when Lowe’s challenged us to create some sort of ‘outdoor art’, a little light-bulb went off in our heads.

BAM!

Our original plan was to use paint sticks for this project, but we ended up ripping down a 2×4 into 1/4” slabs instead. Just because we had it lying around.

Rip down 2x4 to make outdoor wall decor

This Native American pattern is going to look a lot more complicated than it really is, so if you follow me… you can totally do this!

You’ll need 8 large trapezoids, 8 medium trapezoids, and 110 small parallelograms. I literally just Googled ‘shape names’ so that I could sound smart. But here’s a visual for the rest of us that don’t remember the things we learned in 3rd grade.

All the pieces you'll need to assemble your artwork

These angles are perfect 45 degree angles, so if you have a Miter Saw, this will be cake! If not, you could use a Carpenters Protractor… which are inexpensive, simple to use, and available at any home improvement store.

RYOBI Mitre saw

You do want to be pretty anal about getting the angles just right… but everything else you can totally cut corners on (PUN!). We didn’t even sand these bad boys after cutting! And we didn’t worry about flaws in the wood or knots or anything at all. We wanted it to feel rough and natural. It’s going outdoors!

So now that you have your meeeellions of pieces, you’ll want to divide them into the following groups (STAY WITH ME!!):

Creating awesome Native American art!

Once you have your 6 groups of shapes, paint or stain each group a different shade! You can make this completely custom to your liking. Nobody’s will look the same! Our center two shapes we left unfinished. The other stains are Rustoleum Light Walnut, Kona, Golden Oak, and Cabernet.

Various Rustoleum Stain colors for Native American Art project

For those 80 remaining small shapes, I used my ‘Distressed Barnboard Technique. I painted them white (this stuff), sanded them just until the grain showed through, and then stained with Rustoleum Kona. I love how it almost looks gray-washed!

White-washed pieces used for Native American artwork

Now You get to start laying out your pattern… this is the FUN PART! Cut a ‘backboard’ to size (21” x 18”). This can be any scrap of 1/4” or 1/2” plywood. It’s easiest just to glue them in place as you go!

Create your own Native American artwork with pieces of wood stained in various colors!

Nick insisted on adding this little border of wood along the design to separate it from the outer pieces. This part is totally optional, but if you decide to go for it, it’s just cut at the same 45 degree angles and cut to fit each length of area.

Make your own custom Native American Artwork! {Sawdust and Embryos}

Now that the main part of your design is in place, you can just start gluing down your ‘gray-washed-looking pieces!

DIY Native American artwork

When you’re done, the outside edges will be jagged… but just go ahead and cut them to be flush with your backboard. You could use just about ANY saw for this.

 

DIY Native American inspired artwork

Isn’t it crazy to think that this piece of art was a 2×4 board a couple days ago?

Make your own Native American Artwork using wood-scraps and various shades of wood stain!

We made the edges look a little more ‘finished’ by routing a piece of quarter-round to have a small lip and fit right over the edges. And I cut out our house numbers from a piece of pine on my Scroll Saw.

Native American Artwork with house numbers

You could totally just buy some house numbers though. And even paint them whatever color you want! It took me less time to cut out my own than it would have to drive to town and buy some.

I’m totally obsessed with my outdoor art. How amazing would this be on a larger scale as a table-top of some sort? Somebody please do that asap and send me pictures.

DIY Native American artwork using wood scraps

We hung it using this heavy duty picture hanger. AND… I will go ahead and say that I already have another little project in the works that will contribute to the ‘welcoming’ factor of our porchy area. Are you on pins and needles?!

House Humbers mounted on DIY Native American wooden artwork

I hope you guys won’t feel like this tutorial is too complicated. I tried to lay it out as simply as possible! I hope you guys do something awesomely creative this weekend… go forth and DIY!

Porch area with new artwork

 

UPDATE! Check out the other updates we’ve done to our porchy area since doing this wooden artwork!. The Half Circle Wooden Doormat tutorial is HERE, and the mailbox planter idea is HERE, and those box planters flanking the door? There’s a tutorial for that too! (HERE)

Revamped from porch area

Feel free to click around!

Build a half-circle wooden doormat DIY Custom Pergola Tutorial
DIY Native American wooden artwork used as house number sign! Build a Custom Trellis using pre-made lattice
DIY Custom Planter Boxes with Geometric Inlays Turn an old mailbox into a planter

Sawdust & Embryos

Thanks for pinning!

Wooden Kilim Mosaic Artwork | Reality Daydream

Disclosure! we’re SUPER HONORED to have been chosen as a “Lowes Creator”, and were provided with a Lowes gift card to help with the cost of supplies… but as always, all ideas, thoughts and opinions are 100% our own. Because that’s how we roll yo.

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Comments

    • 66

      Hi Bethany and Nick thank you for this awesome project! I luv your blog, your projects are inspiring, your tutorials make it a breeze and have me smiling!

      I live is South Africa so it’s a bit challenging when we source wood as we use the metric system and sometimes needs a bit of tweaking; nor do we have the great department stores you have.

      I’m so excited to try this project – Sonett Coetser

      Reply
      • 67

        Hey Sonett! Thanks for commenting! I can see how that would be frustrating to live where there aren’t the same resources. As far as the metric system, do some googling and see if there’s a website that might convert dimensions easily to the metric system!

        Reply
  5. 70

    You folks are completely insane! Your big piece is amazing and it reminded me of techniques I hadn’t thought of in years. At least 20 years ago the old Carol Duval show featured a wood and stain project that I had great fun with. Don’t remember what kind of wooden piece they worked with but I sure remember the rest. They traced out an angular design, no curves, then cut grooves in the wood on the pattern. It wasn’t huge so they painted on stain and wiped off the little bit of excess. The groves stopped the stain, like gutta would with silk painting, and made it really easy to stain. Color variation showed the pattern and it was impressive. I did some side tables and such and got hooked. Quilt patterns fascinated me, the way structured patterns of light, medium, and dark fabric could turn a simple design into a complex pattern. Also, I switched to an Exact-o knife for pieces with veneer or small things. One of the Exact-o blades cut beautiful curves and broadened my options for play. This was way before stain came in pens. I’m going to watch all your wood and stain videos and then start to work on an unfinished tray that’s been waiting for attention. I’m now a one legged woman so power tools are mostly out. I’ll probably go back to the old grooved line technique and have some fun. All the old pieces are long gone to friends who wanted them. Could I be getting my groove back??? Sorry, bad pun but too good to resist…..

    Reply
  8. 75

    Did you draw the pattern yourself? Or can you share where to get some?(patterns)
    You are a very creative couple and produce some great projects. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

    Reply
  10. 79

    Hey Tina! I think that must be a typo because I’m remembering the thickness to be closer to 1/4″… so sorry! This post is several years old, so it’s hard for me to remember for sure! I do remember that we only used ONE 2×4, however not sure what the length was… so that’s not very helpful either. LOL! So sorry I’m not more help!

    Reply
  13. 82

    we’re building an earthbag house out in arizona this upcoming winter….the living room will have vaulted ceilings….but the kitchen will not….your house number project has inspired me GREATLY!!!…i think i’m going to do this but on a larger scale….just havent decided if i want to do this for the ceiling in the kitchen…or inlaid as part of the kitchen floor as a faux “rug” on the kitchen floor…….

    Reply
  14. 84

    What are the dimensions on this? I am absolutely obsessed but think I want something bigger so I need to know proportions… time to play engineer!

    Reply
  16. 92

    I could be off here but looking at the photo of when you were ripping the 2×4, I always thought you wanted the small cut to be on the other side of the blade. That way the wood is always touching the fence safely. It looks the way you were doing it the pieces are going to bind and kick back, especially at the end of the cut.

    Reply
    • 93

      Good Observation! We had an adequate out feed system and consistent pressure at the fence. In addition we stand to the side of the board being cut in case something does happen… That being said; You do make a valuable point. It would have been better to have the majority of the board thickness against the fence. Thanks for the comment.
      -Nick

      Reply
  18. 95

    The work!!!! Good thing you are young and have lots of energy!!!!
    Great job.
    But the painter who did the front of my place didn’t have what it took to paint around the stuck on house numbers so I (dumb) told him to pull them off. Despite my good intentions, still no house numbers. Good thing no one can find my place without the secret coded map and a compass. HOuse numbers would not help anyone not so equipped. Might just not bother….. To return to the issue at hand….beautiful conception, planning, coloring, and completion. And way too much patience involved for someone not doing brain surgery…but that’s just an old crone’s POV. Still…well done…

    Reply
    • 96

      Haha I love that story. Who needs house numbers anyway?! As long as you’re getting your mail, right?!?! 🙂

      Reply
    • 100

      Jay,

      The medium trapezoid is 2″ by 1 1/4″ the large Trapezoid is 4 1/2″ x 1 1/4″ and the parallelogram is 2 1/2″ x 1 1/4″. I hope this helps. It helped me to draw it out on the backboard prior to cutting the pieces. It will give you a more accurate means to measure and visualize.

      We love receiving readers projects so be sure to send us pictures of the finished product.

      Thanks,

      Reply
      • 101

        So beautiful! What are the dimensions of the finished piece? I want to try and do something like this for the dinette table in our bus conversion but not sure if it will fit. BTW your story resonates with me. Thank you for sharing it. I also have endometriosis and am trying to get pregnant. We also recently lost our home in a fire and are now building a bus into a tiny home (my blog is http://www.howcanwesleephowcanwedance.wordpress.com if you want to read about it) I’m so happy I found your blog with all these creative solutions and projects! Your story is an inspiration as well. Blessings!

        Reply
  22. 102

    HOT DAMN! Who just whips up something like that? Only you and Nick, that’s who. It’s stunning. You would cry if you saw our house numbers. It’s so so pathetic. In fact, last fourth of July a rouge firework hit one of the numbers, and it’s hanging a little crooked and I’ve never fixed it! haha… oh boy. Yikes. As always, you’ve left me feeling inspired to make me some house numbas!

    Reply
  23. 103

    Super cool way to give something that is usually pretty run of the mill boring – house numbers – a very snazzy look! Kind of like quilting with wood!

    Reply
  24. 104

    Maybe I’m just being dumb, but it doesn’t seem like the numbers in the text (for pieces needed) match the numbers above the shapes in the photo, nor match the right shape. Sorry not trying to be critical…LOVE the finished look on the outside of your house and can’t wait to see it in person, but thought if I wasn’t being dumb and misunderstanding the image, you might want to adjust for people who are looking to make one of their own! 🙂

    Reply
  25. 106

    This is absolutely gorgeous! Around these parts, barn quilts are huge. I’m thinking this technique would make a beautiful barn quilt as well.

    Reply
  29. 110

    Stunning! I love geometrics right now, and this native american pattern is totally geometric. This is AWESOME! I want one.

    Reply
  31. 112

    Really cool Beth and Nick. As I saw this going together I was envisioning it as a floor mat your could lay at the entrance. You could even inlay the house numbers or a last name into it. Not sure how well it would standup to the elements and traffic. but Hey it was just a thought.
    You two are very artistic and talented.

    Reply
    • 113

      Thanks Dad,

      It is a neat idea. you would have to put thin plexi-glass or something over top of it. I can’t imagine the wear and tear otherwise.

      Thanks,

      Reply

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Attention: Almost any do-it-yourself project involves risk of some sort. Your tools, materials, and skills will vary, as will the conditions at your project site. Reality Daydream has made every effort to be complete and accurate in the instructions of the plans on this website. Reality Daydream will not assume any responsibility or liability for damages or losses sustained or incurred in the course of your project or in the use of the item you create. Always follow the manufacturer’s operating instructions in the use of tools, check and follow your local building codes, and observe all commonly accepted safety precautions.