DIY Herringbone Wall Art Using Wood Shims

I'm in the middle of redecorating a room and desperately needed some cheap and big wall art. I'm sort in a love affair with herringbone pattern right now. I don't know what it is, but I can't stop myself from wanting to buy anything that has the pattern on it. Or from making anything :)

I've also been eying the wood shims they have at Home Depot for awhile now knowing that something great could come out of something so dull. I decided to give this project a try with the shims. Now the shims are wedged shaped on one end so it gave a different more textural look than what I initially was going for, but I love how it turned out.

Here's the supply list:
Foam board for backing (choose black in case the board peeps through a bit)
Wood shims
Stain (if you want)
Hot glue/gun
Framing pieces (I used 1x3s, you can use molding too for a more finished look)
Wood glue
Jigsaw
Paint for framing pieces
Ribbon
Jute and staple gun for hanging


So, at first, I didn't cut the shims down and the herringbone pattern was just too large and you could only really see one line of the pattern, so I decided to cut the shims down. The easiest way to cut them in half is to cut them in the packaging.

I then stained just a few of them for added interest.

Next, I drew a line down the middle of the foam board.

Then I started adding the shims to the board, creating the herringbone pattern. I decided to just add them first without gluing them on, just to make sure it turned out the way I wanted.

Once I got the pieces in place, I then went and hot glued each one onto the foam board. This sounds tedious, but it really wasn't that bad.

I then cut the framing pieces to length to frame around the board and secured them on with the wood glue. I 'clamped' down the pieces using bowls :) It was an in-the-kitchen project, so I used what I had close by lol. Once the frame had a strong hold on the shims, I then took my jigsaw to it, to get rid of this horrible looking edge:

And make it look somewhat more presentable:

Some shims may pop off during the jigsawing process since it makes them jostle quite a bit, just glue them back on. No big deal :)

I then painted the frame, but I suggest you do this beforehand :) Just in case you get paint on your shims.

Next, I got my hot glue and some ribbon and glued the ribbon along the edge to make the finishing touch. Then you don't have to worry about foam board meets shims meets frame ugliness :) It will all be hidden behind the ribbon.

And now for hanging. I just took some jute, knotted the ends, and then stapled them to the back of the foam board.

And voila!

This cost me about $6 to do. A little more rustic this time around, if I had molding on hand I would definitely trade the 1x3s for some molding, but I didn't...unless I wanted mismatched molding which would have looked super good ;)

Here you can see more of the lifts and what not from the wedge shaped parts. I tried for the most part, to keep the thicker pieces in the middle line and then thinner to thicker. "Tried" is the key term here :)

I can't wait to show you the room this is going in! I'm actually using color in it! *gasp*