DIY Wood Shim Wall Art

One of the biggest trends right now is reclaimed wood. People are using pallets, barn wood, and wood scraps to build just about anything. I love this look and knew that I wanted to do a large scale piece of art to hang in the bathroom using old wood or wood scraps. I used old wood from the previous bathroom to create a reclaimed wood towel rack and bath sign.

To see our entire bathroom remodel reveal, go here! As for the art piece, I found a lot of projects online that use wood shims. Wood shims are cheap and readily available from Lowe’s or any home improvement store. I spent $8.00 total on the 4 packages I bought of shims. If you do a lot of projects at your house, you may already have the shims on hand. I also raided my paint sample supply for this project. You can use left over stain, paint, craft paint, or any paint you have for this. The more types and finishes you use, the better.You will need: A base, a scrap piece of wood, a picture frame, any flat surface that you can glue your shims onto Wood shims, buy both sizes so you don’t have to make cuts Wood Glue, any brand Sample pots of paint and stain.

After raiding my scrap pile of wood, I found this lattice piece that was once the wine rack that we ripped down in our kitchen. I decided to use this because I liked the shape and it was nice and sturdy. I then painted the wood shims. I did 8 pieces in each different color.

I was working in really bright sunshine and was painting on aluminum foil, thus the super bright picture! Oops!

I then arranged my pieces on the lattice until I found a pattern that I liked. Notice that some shims are painted and some are stained I liked the mismatched look of this but go with all one type of paint or stain if you’d prefer!

Once I found an arrangement I liked, I put glue on the lattice pieces and laid the shims on top. I let it dry then hung it using screws in the bathroom. Easy! While this sounds super time consuming, it only took me about an hour from start to finish. Since this was supposed to resemble reclaimed wood, I didn’t worry too much about it being perfect. Overall, I love how the colors tie into the accessories I have in the bathroom and I love the rustic look of it. Pottery Barn sells a similar wood shim looking project and it costs $400!!! This cost less than $10 dollars and definitely makes the impact I was hoping for. When you walk into the bathroom, you are looking directly at a wall and that’s where I placed this.