Over The Apple Tree: October 2014

Saturday, October 11, 2014

DIY Reversible Wood Backdrop

I've been wanting a wood photo backdrop for my blog and Etsy photos for a while now. After some Pinterest inspiration and a trip to the hardware store, I finally figured out a nice and still cost effective way to do it!

So first of all, I came across this great tutorial on Pinterest from Love And Olive Oil for a distressed photo backdrop...check it out. If my way doesn't work for you maybe theirs will. I found the wood supplies that they referred to in their tutorial, but after I added it all up, it was more than I wanted to spend. While at Lowes, I ended up finding these square pieces of wood, 23"x23" and just under 1/4" thinkness. They were only about $5 a piece, now we're talking! With some power tools at home, I could make this work! I had some scrap wood already to use for the center pieces. Since I had paint and any other supplies I needed already, all together I only ended spending just under $10!!!

This wood is pretty thin so cut carefully because it may split. I didn't mind if the cuts weren't perfect because I was going for the rustic look anyway. I cut this into six pieces, but it's up to you how wide you want the pieces to be.

After cutting the wood, I pieced it back together in the order it was cut so if the lines weren't perfectly straight, it wouldn't be obvious. Now I just used a nail gun to attach the cut pieces to the center pieces. flip over and do the same for the opposite side. At first I thought just the two pieces for the center between the two sides would be fine, but after I had it together I realized that since the wood is thin, I needed another piece in the middle for support, especially if I put something heavy on here.

I painted one side white and the other side is a kinda grey stain. I did this by watering down some acrylic dark grey craft paint, brush it on one board at a time and then use a clean cloth the wipe the excess.