I really love the look of layered signs! It’s such a fun look to create a statement piece in your home. The key part to making this work is to establish your statement piece, and today I have a fun DIY project that can be used as your anchor piece. This board combines some of my favorite things: wood signs and SHIPLAP!!! This shiplap board is the perfect anchor piece in a sign grouping because it adds texture without taking away from the whole design. It can also be used in many other ways, such as in combination with a wreath, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Supply list

Step 1

The first thing you want to do is cut your MDF or plywood to the size you want your sign to be. Home Depot can make the cuts for you for free or you can use a table saw if you have one. Then measure the width of your board and cut pieces of shiplap at that length to stack one on top of another. You will need to determine how many of pieces of shiplap to cut based on the height of your sign. Now its time to assemble everything together! Fasten the shiplap pieces to the board using glue and brad nails. For a cleaner look, shoot the nails in from front to back. This requires assembling everything upside down like you see in the pictures below.

We used 1 inch 18 gauge brad nails. First we nailed the sides and then added a few more nails along the middle in a zig zag pattern.

Step 2

Now it’s time to paint. Don’t worry about painting the sides because they will be covered with your trim pieces. We used a paint sprayer but you can easily do this with a roller or paint brush. While that is drying you can cut and stain your trim

Step 3

Measure out the lengths of trim needed and cut them to size at a 45 degree angle. The trim will attach to the outside of the sign so that the sides are covered. It can be tricky to get the measurements right so I like to cut each piece a little too long and then slowly cut them down to size. 

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-Grey Birch Designs-

I love this project! It was so easy and they make a beautiful statement that is easy on the budget too! I looked into buying floating shelves before but ran into a few problems: First, I needed a unique size. Second, the ones I found were pricey and I needed 6!! That’s when I decided that we needed to build them ourselves. I’m so happy with how they turned out and we were able to build all 6 for less than the price of buying 1!!! These are my favorite kind of projects. Here is our quick, easy tutorial so you can make some too!

Supply List

1″ x 4″ pine boards (shelf sides)
1″ x 8″ pine boards (shelf top + bottom)
2″ x 3″ wood studs (cleat frame)
Brad nail gun or hammer and finish nails
Drill/driver and wood screws
Miter saw
Sander/sand paper
Glue
Level
Stud finder
Wood Stain (we used Minwax Expresso)

Board lengths will vary depending on how many shelves you are going to build

Step:1

The first thing you need to do is determine where you want the shelves and use a stud finder to mark the studs on your wall. The shelves are not heavy but I do not recommend securing them to just drywall. Once you have done this you can start building the cleats. They will be hidden and attach to the wall and what your shelf will slide on to. Make each cleat out of two short and one long piece of 2″ x 3″ stud. The total width of your cleat should be about 1.5 inches less than the desired width of your finished shelf. You can glue/nail or screw them together. Remember these will be hidden so they don’t need to look perfect.

Step:2

Mark the desired location of each cleat on the wall so they are equally spaced and level. Secure the cleats to the wall using screws long enough to reach into the studs – I recommend 3″ screws. Remember to pre drill your holes to avoid splitting the wood.

Once you have installed the cleats you can start building the shelves. You are basically building a simple wood box that is missing one side. Cut the top, bottom, and face boards all to the same length. This length should be approximately a half inch longer than the width of your cleat (so the shelf will easily slide on). Secure the face board to the top and bottom boards as shown in the picture below. I recommend using glue and 1.5″ brad nails.

-Grey Birch Designs-

There are so many different ways you can make a blanket ladder, and I have made a few different styles myself, but I think this is the most straight forward and easy way I have found!

Supplies list

Step 1

First thing you are going to want to decide is how tall you want your ladder and about how many slats you want to have. I made mine 90″ tall and cut my dowels to 11 3/4″ I wanted a thinner look with more slates so that’s why I picked those measurements. Once everything is cut lay out your pieces and decide how far apart you want the spacing to be, mine are 7″ apart. Then mark the side pieces so you know where to attach each dowel.

Step 2

Now to assemble it you will want to put a dab on wood glue on one end of the dowel, line it up with the mark you made on the side piece and carefully fire a nail into the wood. Attach each dowel to the piece of wood you are using for the sides of the ladder then repeating the steps until all your dowels are attached to one side. Once that’s done you can turn it on its side and attach the other piece of wood with the same steps!

Step 3

Sometimes you ladder can be slightly bent after its assembled and that is completely normal due to the face that the wood isn’t perfectly straight most of the time. To fix this problem lay your assembled ladder on a flat surface and put some heavy objects on the top and the bottom and leave them there until your ladder is dry, I let mine sit overnight. Once the glue is dry its will stay in it’s new straight position. Now you can paint or stain it whatever color you like!

Hope you enjoyed this super easy and quick DIY Ladder!

-Grey Birch Designs-

If you follow us on Instagram then I’m sure you saw our project this weekend that I shared through my stories. I’m absolutely in love with how it turned out – it looks like it was always supposed to be there. When we built our home we always felt like something was missing, something to make our home feel more like a custom home and less of a track house. We thought about putting beams in our living room and actually planned on do that, until I came up with this idea. So I explained to my husband the picture I had in my head and he ran with it, figuring out how to make it possible. I can design, but when it comes to construction, I’m at a loss……… so thank goodness for him! The project came together perfectly and I couldn’t be happier with the result and the way it has completely transformed the space! So as promised here is our tutorial for this project!!

(Since each home’s wall openings are different size, I cannot provide measurements, as you will have to do those based on your home and the entryway you want to do this in)

Supply List

Step 1

Before you start this project it’s important to get all your measurements so you know how much wood to buy. You will be making 3 hollow 3 sided beams, one on the top and one on each side. Our space was quite large (16′ wide) so we ended up needing eight 1″x 6″ boards at 8′ and five 1″x 8″ boards at 8′ for our beams, and twelve 1″x 2″ MDF trim pieces for the trim work.

Step 2

The first thing you are going to do is cut your boards to build your top beam. We decided to cut the width down a bit so we ripped our boards first and then cut them to the right length, (this step is optional and just personal preference)

Step 3

Now that your boards are cut you can build the top beam. To do this you are going to place a 1″x 8″ board on the underneath of the header then a 1″x 6″ board on each side, essentially wrapping that section on wall to look like a beam. You are going to want to put some construction adhesive on the back of each board then place it on the the wall and secure it with nails.

Step 6

For the next side beam we attached it to the wall using a cleat. You are going to want to attach your cleat (board) to the flat wall first, then build your hollow beam around your cleat. Use wood glue where your boards touch each other, and construction adhesive where your boards touch the wall. Once your cleat is in place you will attach the other sides of the beam to the wall and secure with brad nails, making sure to fire the nails into the wood cleat.

Step 7

Now that the main structure is built it’s time to add the trim. Use the 1″x 2″ MDF boards to trim out the top beam. Start by attaching a piece to the bottom then another piece to the sides, making sure to overlap the side of the MDF you just attached to the bottom of the beam, essentially forming an L shape on the bottom of your top beam. Then attach a piece of the MDF to the top side of the beam and repeat for the other side of the beam. Secure with wood glue and nails.

Now it’s time to build the corbels on the side of the beams. Cut your 4″x 4″ at a 45 degree angel to the size that fits your space. Take some of your scrap pieces of wood used to build the beams and cut a piece to attach to the bottom of your corbel. (This is just decorative and an optional step) Attach the base plate for the corbel to each side beam with wood glue and nails

Step 9

Now its time to attach the corbels, use wood glue and nails. Shoot your nails at the base and top of the angled cut of the 4″x 4″ 

One of my favorite things in the world is shiplap walls!! I love the look and the impact they make in a space. They are also an inexpensive update you can do yourself to give your room a high end look! We have put shiplap in a few of our rooms and I get asked questions about them all the time, so here is my step by step tutorial on how to shiplap a wall.

Supply List:

Step 1:

The first thing you will want to do is measure your wall to figure out how much plywood you will need to buy. For our wall we used 4 sheets of plywood and ripped (cut) them into 7 3/4″ strips at Home Depot. This size got us the most use out of the sheets of plywood with very little left over scraps. This is the type of plywood we used for our living room wall but there are a variety of types/thicknesses to choose from.

*TIP: If you buy your plywood at Home Depot they will rip your boards for free. If you are at Lowes they charge .25c a cut, and that can add up when doing a project like this!

If the wood you are using is rough you will want to sand the boards before you put them up on your wall. If they are smooth you can skip this step!

Step 2:

Once your boards are relatively smooth it’s time to get them up on your wall. Start by marking your wall studs. Use a stud finder to locate each stud at the top and bottom of the wall. Draw a vertical line down the wall in pencil to mark where each stud runs down the wall. You must nail the wood to the studs – drywall alone is not strong enough. 

Step 3:

For this style of shiplap we wanted the breaks in the horizontal pieces to look random, so you are going to want to cut some of your boards at different lengths. Start working in the top corner and work your way across and down. To get the spacing the same we used a couple nickels and placed then in between each row. Once each board was nailed we removed the nickels and repeated this step all the way down the wall.

*Tip: You are going to want to cut your boards around any vents or switch plates on your wall so that when you put them back on you will have a nice clean look.

Step 4:

Now that your shiplap is all up it’s time to paint! I always recommend getting a satin finish in your paint so that it can be cleaned. If you want a more glossy look you can always go with a semi gloss or gloss. We used a satin finish on our shiplap wall.

That’s it!! Let your paint dry for 24 hours before you put anything back up on your wall and enjoy!

-Grey Birch Designs-