Living Room Decor

custom wall art

After some furniture was moved around in the living room we had created an ugly visual of the back of the TV cabinet.  To cover this up we had come up with a few different ideas but settled on this one.

To create this we used a thin sheet of plywood, 2X3's, chalk paint, wax, pipe and pipe hangers, and a plant that I had killed...really bad with plants...


We started with the 2X3's to create the frame.  While at the store we picked out pieces that gave us some character to work with.  

This piece actually has a live edge that we could use.

We decided to place the bottom board on the flat side to give us a base.  

wall art frame


the frame is painted for the wall decor

We used screws to put the frame together.  

Then painted with a gray chalk paint. And finishes with a black wax.  


We then painted the back with the same chalk paint.  But without any black wax this time.  

I was very pleased at this point!

the back is on the frame and ready for the plant
bark on the plant
wall decoration almost finished

Then we placed the plant in the frame.  

Had to attach some of the outer skin and cut off pieces of the roots.

Tough to see in this image but we actually cut off some of the limbs and then used hot glue to join the limbs in other locations to flatten out the plant to some degree.

roots of the plant for wall art project
pipe hangers with black paint

Painting the pipe hangers to be able to mount to the wall.  

These are regular pipe hangers that I have used in work back when I did a lot of commercial plumbing work.  

The all rod or ready rod in the image will be cut shorter when we hang the piece.

Just used a piece of half in black iron.  Painted it black.  

In the background you can see the crates we made for another project.

half inch black iron to hold the art to the wall
the completed wall art


You can still see the TV stand but I think this changes the focal point for most people's eyes.  

I used 4 hangers to hang this.  2 in the wall and 2 in the frame.

We overlapped the frame at the top and bottom.  As you can see the overlap is slightly larger at the bottom.  If you look closely you can see all the imperfections of the wood.  I think that gives this piece a tremendous amount of character.

Originally we were thinking of building the whole frame to the same dimensions of the opening.  This would have made hanging much more difficult.  

This is my first piece of home decorations and I think I will enjoy doing more in the future.  

Thanks,

Kelly