DIY Outdoor Art

Our July challenge this month for Lowes included a DIY outdoor art project, so that’s what I chose to make this time around.  I had all this leftover beadboard from the porch project and have always loved painted beadboard, so I decided to do something a little different and frame a piece of beadboard painted with multi-colored stripes.  All that left-over paint I have laying around came in handy too. This is from all my projects around the house and I love the bright hues of colors that I ended up with.

I had this old chippy yardsale frame that I’ve been hanging onto for who knows how long. I’m sure I didn’t pay more than a couple of dollars for this.  It’s a pretty shade of burnished gold.

With plenty of leftover beadboard, my dad and I cut a piece to fit inside my frame.

I hauled out my left over paints and figured out I would need 7 colors to paint my stripes.  I wanted to paint 2 rows the same color and not have every row a different color.

Here are my 7 color choices, from left to right:

Annie Sloan Old White

Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue

Sherwin Williams Fennel (actually a Pratt & Lambert paint, but SW can mix too)

Dutchboy Timbermine (gray)

Annie Sloan Florence

Annie Sloan Antibes

Sherwin Williams Santorini Blue

I used a small craft paint brush to stay in the lines and that worked out well and I didn’t even have to tape them off.

After painting all the stripes and letting them dry overnight, I got out my electric sander and went over the whole thing, sanding off bits and pieces here and there down to the raw wood to give it a weathered look.

Close up before waxing.

Then I grabbed my Annie Sloan wax, in Clear and Dark.  You always want to put the Clear on first, so that the Dark doesn’t grab too much.  I used my wax brush to rub on the Clear wax  and then wiped it all in with a rag.

Then I went back with the Dark wax and brushed and rubbed it on and off the board until I had it looking like I wanted.  I didn’t want it too dark, but it gives it a vintage and aged look, so that’s what I was going for.

Like this!  It tones down the color and the sanding and wax gave it just the look I was going for.

I then popped the beadboard in my vintage frame (that I did nothing to, it’s old and crumbly).  I used my small nail gun with staples to hold it into the frame and now it’s ready to hang.

I love this for a porch or covered outdoor area!  Beadboard is so pretty and vintagey looking and painting the stripes all these colors is so fun.  I love how this turned out.  I don’t have enough walls on my porch to hang all my art, but I can swap it out whenever I want.

The colors are all so pretty together and I love the vintage frame, so glad I hung onto it!

This is a fun way to use old frames and scrap pieces of beadboard.  You can go crazy with your own color palette and have something fun and pretty to hang on a spare wall.  I love this outdoor art piece and will definitely find a spot for it!

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Disclosure: As a Lowes Creative blogger, I am sent gift cards to spend on projects and to blog about them. This post is sponsored by Lowes, but all ideas and projects are my own.