Project 27: Wood Painting Projects

Two or three years ago, I started to see a bunch of shops pop up that were wood painting workshops for signs, trays, etc. As a lover of crafts, I always appreciate seeing new types of crafting shops pop up that are a bit different than pottery or sip-n-paint spots (not that I don’t love both of those, too, because I do – in fact, my coworkers knew I loved sip-n-paint so much that they threw me a surprise 30th birthday party at a sip-n-paint – pretty epic honestly). I was thrilled to see these shops pop up and thought it would be a perfect way to share my love of crafting with coworkers – I also really feel that when you get together with coworkers outside of the office to create something non-work related, it also inspires you to be creative together in the office. So, I set out to create a wood painting project at home.

Warning: this is not for the faint of heart! Having 13 of your coworkers to your house to paint is ambitious (or maybe crazy?) and there were a couple of scary moments where paint was dropped on stools and counters and I had to maintain my low key vibes! Additionally, on this particular evening, I also ordered in catering from Chipotle so we could eat while we painted – my cats stole a substantial amount of carnitas from the serving tray in front of my coworkers and then one of them pooped on our guest bed WHILE MY COWORKERS WERE STILL AT MY HOUSE. Please note I was fairly new to this team of coworkers so this made a really nice early impression. Also, to top it all off, after my coworkers left, the cats stole and ate tortillas, too – they are little wizards who can apparently open containers covered in foil and packages wrapped in paper. Enough about my cats because even though I wish this was a cat blog, I know it isn’t.

Quick project summary: For starters, acquiring supplies for this project was a bit disjointed because I essentially researched what the wood painting shops do and then tried to back into creating a simpler version of the experience. Here is what I ended up using for supplies (all of which I got off amazon for very reasonable prices):

-Pre-finished but plain wood household items including: serving trays, mail holders, blank signs, and combined key/mail holders (my personal favorite)

-Painters tape

-Variety packs of acrylic paints

-Sponges

-Stencils – both traditional plastic stencils and “stick on” stencils which I find a bit easier to work with

From there, as you can see above, I just set up the supplies and let everyone paint away. It took about 3 hours for everyone to paint and chat but we all really enjoyed ourselves. Overall, my two favorite pieces that I made were the stenciled tray and the key/mail holder – I found that less was more on the painting since the pieces were pre-finished.

Important sidebar: a key supply for this evening was also wine as all of the wood painting shops seem to provide you with at least 2 glasses of wine.

Things I loved about this project: I loved sharing my love of crafting with others (always do). And, while our final products were no where near as advanced as what you’d make at a formal crafting store, we made some pretty neat items that I still use.

What I would do differently: MORE/ANY drop cloths! I basically laid trash bags as drop clothes on surfaces but it was not enough when you have a large group painting!

Things I also enjoyed while doing this project:

-Eating lots of guacamole from Chipotle

-Hanging out with coworkers in a non-work setting