Bringing The Outdoors In…On Your Wall

By Mandi 08/04/2010

I have yet to post a complete picture of my living room. I thought that I would post about the individual projects first and then do a post about everything collectively. So you’ve seen my yellow {end table} and my black and grey {wall} and my {chair}. My inspiration for this room are these beautiful trees.

I love Quakies. They remind my of my childhood at our cabin. So this is what I based my colors on,  Yellow, Black, White and Grey.

The wall behind my couch is ginorm. I have 12 ft ceilings and I have had the hardest time finding some kind of artwork that is cheap and huge. (Not a very friendly combo). In june I was at our family reunion in Cedar City, UT. My uncle lives in the middle of nowhere out there and every time we would drive past his house I would see these trees,  so on our way home the last day I stopped on the side of the road and gathered some cut branches. I had no idea yet what I was going to do with them but I knew it would be cheap and cool. This is what I came up with…

I got 2 pieces of 4×4 subflooring wood from Homie Depots and had them cut each in half.
Cost:   $6.00 a Piece ($12.00) but I only used 3 so I guess $9.00.
 Then I mixed grey oops paint with water. After doing one board I hated it. It was to grey. So I added a bunch more water and some black tole paint swirled in to give it a little bit of dimension. I started out with a brush but gave up and used a sponge and covered each piece of wood.
Then I took one of my favorite products in the world Ralph Lauren Faux Glaze in Black Silk and brushed it on just the outer parts.
 Then I rubbed rubbed rubbed. I did this twice to get the color level that I wanted.
This is what they looked like in the morning after they dried.

I took my Quakie branches and tried to Gorilla Epoxy them on. It didn’t work so I just ended up using finishing nails. That’s also how I mounted it to my wall.

See how much dimension they have? LOVE it!
I love how they are so organic looking.
Total Cost Of This Treasure:
Wood:$9.00
Everything else I had on hand
I just love being cheap!

26 thoughts on “Bringing The Outdoors In…On Your Wall”

  1. well look at that artsy wall! You go girl. Love those trees. Um…can you do a post on the awesomeness of that yellow coffee table? Looks awesome!

  2. Mandi. It turned out awesome. Your house is absolutely darling. I need to move down there around all of the creativity. Call me if you end up coming up this way. Oh, and tell Ivie happy late bday. We thought of her yesterday.

  3. MANDI!! hi its cousin jenny and why is your house the cutest on the planet!? i need to come see it in real life. LOVE the quakie theme so much!!

  4. LUUUUUUUUURVE!!!!
    Funny, I had intended to do something similar. Except the branches will go in an empty frame (which is already up in my bedroom).
    LOVE it!

  5. Hello! This idea inspired me. I tried to do it with foam board. It didn’t work out as I had planned. It lead me to a similiar interpretation. I featured this idea in my blog. I gave the link to your blog, so my readers would know where the idea came from.

  6. Wonderful idea, I love white branches, why didn’t I think of this?? And I love birch trees, too. You are very clever…
    …I am Blue Wolf..

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