Seahorse Wall Art DIY Project

Several months ago I took a day-trip to Laguna Beach and stopped by one of my favorite home boutiques called Tuvalu. They had this seahorse painting I loved and it was priced at $860.00. I almost purchased it
too!

When I got back from Laguna Beach I remembered that I had a piece of scrap plywood that would be perfect to re-create something similar. The plywood I had was about a 5×4″ and I thought this would be ideal to create a similar piece.

Here is how I made the seahorse wall art project:

I sketched out a basic image of a seahorse that I found online. Then I went over it again with a black sharpie. I decided to Paint with acrylic instead of oil paint because it dries much faster.

When I went to cut the plywood in half, I thought a basic hand saw would suffice but quickly learned it didn’t. I got to maybe an inch through cutting it and was exhausted.

I ended up waiting til the next day and took it to home depot. They have a station in the wood section that you can have wood cut for you and they charge a small “per cut” fee.

The guy at home depot was lazy and cut the wood sloppy. The pieces had to be perfectly square so I ended up having to load them back into my car and take them to Fairfax Lumber in Fairfax Ca.

The staff at Fairfax Lumber were friendly and professional. Not only did they cut the two pieces to match perfectly but they cut them square and even made suggestions with regards to materials and various techniques to really make these wall art seahorses truly special.

Next I enjoyed painting the seahorses. Even though they were pretty simply to draw out it’s been awhile since I’ve painted,
so it took several hours to say the least.

The next phase of this project
was really tedious and required
precise measuring and cutting.

I bought a mitre box and saw from the hardware store as well as 25 feet of 2×2 pieces of wood. I also bought a box of golden colored 3 inch Phillips head screws and 25 feet of weather proofing galvanized steel for the bordered trim. I screwed the plywood to the 2×2 pieces and overlapped it with the galvanized steel. The plywood was a bit warped from the paint drying but once I sucked it up with the screws they really shaped up and leveled out.

I then sprayed them with canned varnish. And I am just so happy with the way they turned out!

As fun as these were to make, it seemed like the never ending project. From mishaps like not having all the right materials or not having any free time to the laze home depot guy, this DIY project ended up taking me four months to finish!

For now I believe they are finished but when I have some more time I was thinking about adding cuts in the wood like the Seahorse Art I saw in Laguna beach. Only time will tell & if I do add the cuts in the wood I’ll be sure to write about it. Whewww! I love these pieces of DIY wall art and the best part is I made these for a dear childhood friend and I just can’t wait to see the smile on her face!!

Disclaimer: My manly Texas boyfriend helped a bit..but just a bit! Girl power!!!