I love Pottery Barn. I don’t always love the prices. While flipping through the recent catalog I saw this rustic wood wall art. A whooping $399.00! Knowing I have a pile of scrap wood in the garage, I just about did the happy dance at the project I knew I was going to tackle. I love power tools. I love wood!
I bought a 2x 4 foot piece of plywood, a few extra pieces of wood, a couple of sample size paint jars, and some tacks. It only cost around $40.00! Everything else I had… a lot of wood pieces, glue and leftover paint. Most of the wood I used is considered “craft” wood. It comes in short lengths and is thinner than regular wood. I did combine it with “regular” wood though. It gives the piece some dimension.
My Pottery Barn Knock-off version.
Pottery Barn $399.00. Laurie $40.00!
The design was not planned. I cut each piece as I went along. HINT: When you have the layout you want, take a picture of it. Just in case you mess up the design later on while you are painting the wood pieces. You don’t want to spend HOURS and HOURS trying to put the thing back together, only to remember you DO have a picture you could have looked at. By that point, bad words may have been said, drinks may have been drunk, and your family may be afraid to be in the same room as you. Just saying it could happen. 
The next step was paint.
I applied the paint with a cut up old t-shirt. That way I could rub the paint on like a stain allowing the wood grain to show through.
Each piece was glued down to a 2 x 4 sheet of plywood board with Tite Bond Wood Glue. Blue tape is always handy for extra support.
The Vodka is for weight, not for drinking. At least not in that moment anyway. After all the pieces were glued down, I distressed each piece with sand paper to lighten the paint colors and to give it a worn out look.
I found these tacks at Lowes.
I lightly sanded the tack heads so they looked distress as well.
I’m not sure where I’m going to hang it yet. I may add some trim around the edges. This was a FUN project. Although I used a power saw to cut the pieces, it can be done with a simple miter box.
This Pottery Barn knock-off project was a great way to use up most of the scrap pieces of wood I had accumulated. And my garage is a little bit cleaner now! :)
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my project this weekend, cant wait to see if it turns out as wonderful as yours did. You have inspired me “oFF the couch”, wondering how it would look as a backsplash above the stove, as my kitchen is my big diy project. wish me luck
I think a backsplash would look great! Good luck and have fun. I’d love to see a picture of it when you are finished!
?, were your pieces of different thickness’s, I have a friend building his house, and he has tons of scraps, I am thinking of doing an entire wall but dont want to cut them to same thickness, do you think the dimensional effect would be appropriate? I will definately post pics of projects using this medium. so glad i found your site. thnx
Hi Lori! Yes the pieces were different thickness. I like the dimension it gives. A whole wall would look AWESOME! My advice would be to use big pieces of wood so the wall doesn’t look too busy. I’m glad you found this site too! I can’t wait to see pictures! Oh, and by the way… How lucky are you to have a friend with tons of scrap wood!?! I want one of those friends too!
Wow, what a bargain and I love Pottery Barn.
Me too! Thanks for stopping by!
I hadn’t seen that at PB, but what a great job you did knocking it off. Cool!
Thank you!
Nicely done! I love when a diy-er shows Pottery Barn that their stuff is too pricey and how easy it is to reproduce the idea. Beautiful colors!
Thank you Martha!
Laurie I was just flipping through the pottery barn magazine this week and fell In love with that piece. I am so impressed with your final product. Awesome job.
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much!
I’m always blown away with your projects! This is awesome!
Thank you Dana!
You remind me of my best friend who lives on the east coast. One day I asked her after showing her a pattern, if she could do anything the way the pattern says. She was always saying “We can do this…..or that…… or change it this way…..”. Of course her answer to me was “NO”. I admire you.
Thanks Carol! I draw outside the lines too.
Ha!