It’s been two months since our last post but I finally had a few minutes to write this post so you can see one of the cool projects we’ve been working on.  We have a wall in our front dining room that needed a little something so Bethany wanted to hang a DIY Farmhouse Art painting similar to the one Haven made for us that is currently positioned over the fireplace in the family room.  This post shows how the picture was made and what it looks like mounted in our front room.

This was the first project in a long time that I didn’t mock up in Google SketchUp first.  I decided to draft it quick for this post though so you can easily see the dimensions of the wood we used.  We used the cheapest boards we could find at Lowe’s (white wood) and laid them out in the pattern shown in the picture below:

Here is a picture of the boards laid out on the floor:

I propped up each board one at a time on some spare blocks and used a standard size Kreg Jig to make pocket holes in each board.  Space the pocket holes about every foot or so…exact spacing doesn’t matter too much.  However, be careful not to place pocket holes where you plan to place the two braces that run across the front.  You don’t want to have to worry about hitting a pocket hole screw when you connect those boards.

Once the boards were all attached to each other we flipped it over (get someone to help you as it’s pretty heavy….its also fragile as the two support braces are not attached yet) and attached the top two boards.  I just used short wood screws and drilled them straight in.  I centered the screws on each perpendicular board:

Bethany had already hammered out the boards before I attached them to each other but we beat on the whole assembled structure with hammers, chisels,  and other hard tools for another 20 minutes after it was assembled.  We then moved it outside onto a drop cloth so Bethany could paint it:

Once the paint was dried we moved it into the house and propped it upright against the wall it would someday be mounted to.  Bethany and Haven would not tell me what they were planning to paint on it so I left for work on Monday not knowing what to expect.  When I returned from my trip I was pleasantly surprised to see what they had been up to.  Harvest helped so all three of them (Bethany, Haven, and Harvest) painted their initials along the bottom of the artwork.  It is a huge painting and I love the final product! Makes me smile every time I see it!

Note: Many people think of the “Black Sheep” as being an “odd or disreputable family member”.  When Bethany and I think of a “Black Sheep” we tend to think of someone who doesn’t just follow along but is willing to be different.  Someone who is in community with others but doesn’t feel compelled to be exactly like others.  It is our goal to raise children that seek to understand others’ points of view but that simultaneously feel comfortable defending their perspectives and standing up for their convictions.

Please reply and let us know what you think!