Hello and welcome to this weeks installment of Rustic DIY Projects! This week's project is something slightly out of the ordinary. While looking up the inspiration for additional wall pieces I happened to come across something pretty cool looking. It appeared to be some sort of lantern mounted to some boards of wood resembling a picketed fence going up an incline with some shrubbery hanging over. Now this actually wasn't a wall decoration at all (seemed to be more of a table top decoration) but that doesn't mean I can't turn it into one. And I had the perfect spot to put it right over my living room TV underneath the stairway. So I played around with the idea, made a few unscripted changes and this is what I got as a result, hope you enjoy!
Tools/Supplies Used
Table Saw
Orbital Sander (180 grit)
T Clamps x 2
Gloves (Rubber or Latex)
Rag
Wood Stain
Wood Glue
Pencil
Tape Measure
Straight Edge
Poplar (1 x 4) x 5
Poplar (1 x 2) x 1
Lantern
Hook
LED Tree Branches
Velcro Pads (w/ tape backing)
Velcro Straps
Tape (something strong)
Cleat Mounting Brackets
AA Batteries x 3
Step One
Since I wanted my fence pointy I needed to cut the top so that it would resemble an actual picket fence so I measured out the middle of each board and cut the sides off at a 45 degree angle forming a pointed top. I did this to each board making sure they staggered in height by about 4 inches. I did this for all four boards.
Step Two
Now it was time to sand them all smooth and glue them together. I did this using my orbital sander equipped with 180 grit sandpaper and some wood glue and T-Clamps as seen below. I then let them the glue cure for the rest of the night.
Note: After seeing what 4 boards looked like glued together I determined it was a bit too small and that I could probably use anther board so I cut sanded and glued another board to the main body.
Step Three
After everything was glued I applied a coat of stain (Bombay Mahogany) to the main body and let it dry. While it dried out I cut a 1 x 2 strip to 30.5 inches long with a slanted edge on the ends, this goes across the top right below the pikes to make this whole piece look more "fency". I sanded it smooth and applied a coat of stain to it and another coat to the main body of my piece. After they both appeared dry I glued the strip diagonally across the main body going up and clamped it in place using two bar clamps and let it cure.
Step Four
Next I had to figure out how I wanted to suspend the lantern from the fence line. The obvious choice was to use a hook so I bought one from Lowes (or maybe it was Home Depot, I really don't remember but whatever). Rather than just screw it into fence I decided to take a 2 x 2 square dowel I had lying around and cut a 2 inch piece off giving me a small cube. I then used my router equipped with a round over bit to completely round over one side of the cube. Then I stained it with two coats of, you guessed it, Bombay Mahogany stain again, yes I use this stain a lot. After it dried I secured it to the fence just on top of the 1 x 2 using 4 deck screws and some wood glue. Afterwards I screwed in the hook and it was good to go! Sorry I don't have a picture of this step!
Step Five
I bought some battery powered LED "branches" from Michaels to attach to the front of my fence to give the appearance of glowing shrubbery to make it look more vibrant. Luckily it was pretty pliant so I taped the stem to the back with some aluminum plumbers tape because it's super sticky and bent the branches with the glowing buds up from the bottom and from the side, they stuck on their own. I then used some velcro pads with tape backing and some some velcro straps to hold the battery pack on the back of the fence.
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| You can get these at Michaels pretty cheap. |
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| I used velcro pads to secure the battery pack to the back. |
Everything was pretty much done at this point however I still needed to mount it. So I attached a cleat mounting bracket I bought at Lowes to a piece of 1 x 2 and secured that to the fence. I then did the same thing with the other cleat on my wall. Then I finally mounted my wall decoration!
Note: I couldn't attach the bracket directly to the fence because the battery pack was too fat and it would have bulged out so I had to take this into account and add the extra 1 x 2 to give me more room.
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I loooove this. What kind of table saw do you recommend?
ReplyDeleteHey sorry I'm just now seeing this. Personally I used a Craftsman table saw but I'd recommend pretty much anything BUT craftsman as they're not very precise. I've since gotten a Bosch miter saw and it works way better for everything.
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