Wood Quilt Square Wall Art

Kristen from Wild Wood Chic was browsing through Pottery Barn’s site when she saw what she describes as “only the most gorgeous reclaimed wood, planked quilt square wall art to ever be.”

Kristen knew she was going to have to make it since the price was way out of range and spent the next night cutting over 60 forty-five degree angles. Wowzers!

But I’d say it was worth it – look at this beautiful piece of wood wall art she created!

What is it about this piece that just captures the eye. It’s richness combined with its warm, golden brown color spanning from dark to light gives it centerpiece appeal.

And you just can’t beat the pattern created with each angle-cut piece fitting together to make a perfectly symmetrical puzzle.

Reclaimed wood itself provides interesting texture with it’s imperfect surfaces and varied grain. Put it all together, and you have a decor masterpiece!

Make Your Own Reclaimed Wall Art

Unfortunately, Kristen’s site appears to be offline but we just couldn’t let this one go and not share it with you. In a nutshell, here’s what you need to make this project yourself.

Find Your Wood

First, gather up some old barn wood or small fence slats. If you have a hard time finding the wood, check Craigslist for someone getting rid of their old fence wood. People are always replacing old fences.

You can even use the 6′, dog-eared type of the last 50 years or so. If you have a table saw, simply rip them down to the 2″ width Kristen used.

A skilsaw can do this too – just be sure they are straight so they fit snugly together when you join them all together for the quilted design.

For the border you nail on at the end, you can use a furring strip stained in a darker color to add a nice contrast.

Make Cutting Easy

Kristen mentions the number of cuts it took her to get all her pieces but she doesn’t saw how she knew what lengths to cut.

How to simplify the intricacy of the cutting?

Fortunately, you have three things going for you when it comes to making all the cuts:

First, every cut will be a 45-degree angle so there’s no having to calculate angular geometry!

Second, because of the symmetry going on here for each quadrant of the design you only need to worry about measuring each length of wood in the puzzle one time (whew).

And third, you can cut multiple boards at the same time since each piece is repeated exactly eight times. Your miter saw probably can’t handle eight pieces at a time, but you get the point!

What about the backing?

This one is easy: Use a thin piece of plywood, such as 3/8″ thickness. You’ll want a 40″ x 40″ square backboard.

One hint here is after you lay each of your pieces down on the backboard to “dry fit” don’t worry about having them be the exact length they need to be.

In fact, you can purposely err on the longer side when measuring and cutting. As the straight edge of the individual pieces hang “off” the backboard edge, you can simply run your circular saw along the four edges of the the entire piece to get perfectly even sides.

The plywood backing will be the ideal guide for these cuts, so you can’t go wrong!

This makes adding your side boarder pieces easy and clean.

To secure everything together just use a high quality wood glue and some heavy books or the like for pressure while drying.

Get the Most From Your Grain

There’s a secret ingredient Kristen used to really make the grain of the wood pop and give the wood depth and increase its wow factor. Linseed oil!

Rubbing down the wood with linseed oil is a game-changer. By nature, this oil penetrates wood instead of coating the top. While this offers no protection from scratches or nicks at the surface, it seeps into the wood and solidifies within, helping to preserve the density of the wood.

But the greatest benefit is the color intensifying effect it provides. Darks become darker and the overall coloring more saturated. Over time, as the oil settles in, you’ll see an general darkening of color, but a retained richness.

Now that you have a few tips in hand to make this one-of-a-kind wall art with reclaimed wood you’re ready to go. As always, enjoy the process and enjoy the result even more.

Kristen was inspired by Pottery Barn’s Planked Quilt Square. This item is discontinued, but long live the knock-off!

Check out Kristen’s awesome page where she shares the details of her tutorial.