"Be Kind" Grey and White Herringbone Wood Wall Art

Sydney is in love with these easy herringbone DIY projects, but it was time for a change in style. We had some scrap lumber and it was time to get it out of the shop. We used some leftover 3/4" plywood for the backboard, and the herringbone pattern was made out of cut paint sticks. 

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You can find some 3/4" birch plywood at your local hardware store, but other sizes can be used as well. We used 1 gallon paint sticks for this project. It is important that the width of your paint stick evenly fits into the length of your paint stick. So we cut off one tip of the stick to get a squared edge. Then, you can use a stop block on your miter saw to cut off the handles to make standard sizes, such as 1" wide and 4" long.  

Once they are all squared up and cut to size, it's time to start staining. For this particular piece, we used the following stains: 

• Minwax Classic Grey
• Varathane White Wash
• Varathane Sunbleached
• Varathane Weathered Grey

We count out the number of paint sticks we think we will need and split them into equal groups to start staining. We stain each group on the same day and let them dry. Once they are dry, it is time to start the glue up process. 

Here we lay out the sticks to get an estimate of how many we need before we begin staining. 

When lining up a herringbone pattern, you need to start by marking center on your back board. Next, you need to have your Milwaukee speed square and your Titebond III Ultimate wood glue ready. You will want to line up your first two paint sticks on the center line. The right corner of the top stick will touch the line and the left corner of the bottom stick will touch this line. This allows the point of the arrow to center on the board. See our mock up below to help you get started. Make sure you use your speed square to keep it at a 90 degree angle. 

Once your first two paint sticks are on your board, allow the wood glue to dry. Once dry, it gets easier to add the rest of the paint sticks around them. We typically put paint cans or stain cans on top to help hold them down since clamping so many pieces would be a challenge. 

Now that everything is laid out and glued up on the board, it is time to used your Makita circular saw to cut off the excess around the edges of your back board. You can use some sandpaper to smooth out any rough spots.

We wanted to add some lettering to this wall art piece. Plus, we had a Hobby Lobby coupon to use up before they stopped taking coupons :(

We bought this "be kind" wood wall decor cut out on sale and used the coupon to get it for a whopping $3. We also used our scrap wood for the frame and spray painted it with Rustoleum matte black to match the lettering. 

Next, we used a Milwaukee brad nailer to add the lettering and the frame to the back board. We finished it all off with several coats of Minwax Spray On Satin Polyurethane.