DIY Farmhouse style decorative wood shutters

Decorating around a TV can definitely a challenge!  We all have TV’s in our home whether they be over the mantel, or on a media cabinet, or mounted on the wall, and I find that everyone struggles a bit with how to decorate around them.  We recently rearranged our living room and moved our TV to this large blank wall.  I love the new living room arrangement but the TV on that huge wall looked very plain and blank and definitely needed something, so I made some DIY decorative farmhouse style shutters!

 

 

DIY farmhouse shutters are a simple project and there are so many different designs you can do!  I made these simple Z design shutters a few years ago but they were a bit too small for this space. 

To make these X shutters I used:

• 4 – 1x4x8 boards
• 1 – 1x5x8 board
• 2 – 1x2x8 boards
• Varathane Special Walnut stain
• Varathane Whitewash stain

I wanted the shutters to be 4 foot tall so I just cut the 1x4x8 boards in half giving me 8 –  4-foot pieces. 

I laid them all out and then marked and cut my 1×5 board to perfect length to go across both ends.  To secure them all together I just used wood screws in through the back of the planked boards into the end support.  You could also use nails. 

Forming the X was the hardest part but I figured out my angle for the ends and cut those first and cut the boards to the right length.  Then I clamped some boards onto the bottom and top trim pieces so I could lay out my X pieces in place. 

Then I could easily mark exactly where and what angle I needed to cut the bottom piece to make it form an X. 

My cuts weren’t 100% perfecty and tight but thankfully I had some stainable wood filler on hand.   Wood filler and caulk are your best friends when it comes to cutting angles and installing trim.  I secured the X on with my nail gun. 

Getting the perfect stain color on pine can be hard and I am still working on perfecting my method to help take the yellow out of the wood.  I used some Varathane Pre-stain conditioners and I find that really helps the wood absorp the stain evenly and without blotchiness.  Then I did 2 coats of Varathane Classic stain in Special Walnut, distressed the edges with my sander, and then did a light coat of Varathane Whitewash stain.  I left them fairly light for now and I may stain them a bit darker or even more heavily distress or whitewash later.

I am hoping to find another TV stand on a good sale over the coming sales and holidays that will fit our style better (and hide all those DVD’s!) and I am not sure what color or stained finish I will end up getting.   Once we have that I can adjust the stain color of the shutters, and possibly even the arrangement and height of them too.  But for now I am loving this and may have already been planning out what wreaths will be hanging on that X for Christmas.

We’ve also considered mounting our TV on the wall but want to make a few other changes in the living room first before we commit to that.    The Farmhouse sign was something I already had (Hobby Lobby spring shop clearance last year) and I just moved it from hanging over the hallway door to here. 

DIY shutters are inexpensive and easy to make, can be customized to any size you need, and used in so many places!  I loved the arrangement of using them on either side of an old window over a mantel like I did with my last ones. 

So that’s my solution to decorating around a TV!  I’d love to know how you decorate around your tv in your home – leave a comment or send me a picture on facebook or Instagram.

And be sure to check out all the other DIY wall projects done this month by the other At Home DIY bloggers – so many good ideas!