DIY - STAG HEAD WALL ART ON RECLAIMED WOOD MOUNT

When i purchased our beautiful Stag from Marks and Spencer for the not so grand sum of £40 (yes £40....bargain!) i was ecstatic, however this was short lived.

He was grand and majestic and yet looked SO lost against our pale wall, not how he should have looked. After a little searching online (pinterest much?) an idea was formed that he required a "frame" of sorts. As i can never get enough reclaimed wood we opted for a wooden mount, a quick delve in the wooden scrap bin resulted in the following...


I'm a little in love!


WHAT YOU NEED
1 x Faux mountable stag [link to ours]
7 x Wooden baton lengths (front of board)
2 x Wooden baton lengths (back of board)
2 x Wall mounts


Additional Items
Nails
Hammer
Sander
Saw
Varnish
Rags to remove excess varnish
Wood glue (optional)






WHAT TO DO

We arranged our wooden lengths flat on the ground to work out how many we would need to proportionately fit behind mounted stag, we opted for seven. For a larger or small mount more or less may be required, personal choice on this one. The batons were laid out moving some up slightly and some down to form an uneven top and bottom, we altered the lengths to our personal taste. The two additional baton lengths reserved for the back were then positioned horizontally and cut down to fit across the seven vertical lengths, the horizontal baton was then adhered to the vertical batons using wood glue (for extra security due to the weight) and nailed in to place, we then recreated the same thing at the bottom of the boards.

The whole mount was given a heavy sanding, as i wanted this to have 'character' the more old the boards the better, a few additional 'dings' were added here and there, all the rough edges were sanded smooth

For the stain we opted for a quick drying oak, on the images this looks quite gingery in colour, its actually a very worn brown look. The varnish used dried within around 30mins (great for us impatient folk) when the varnish was dry the sander was applied again to add further character.


The end result hanging in our lounge





All in all the was a very simple and yet very effective project. Elvis as he has lovingly been dubbed is a central part of our lounge and receives a lot of positive comments from visitors.

Happy Me :)