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The Frugal Homemaker

Your guide to turning your house into a home... one DIY project and yard sale find at a time

DIY Farmhouse style decorative wood shutters

October 15, 2019

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 style decorative shutters-10

 

 

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. 

DSC_0493

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. 

DIY Farmhouse style decorative shutters-1-2

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. 

DIY Farmhouse style decorative shutters-4

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

DIY Farmhouse style decorative shutters-5

My cuts weren’t 100% perfecty and tight but thankfully I had some stainable wood filler on hand. Smile  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.

DIY Farmhouse style decorative shutters-9

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. Winking smile

DIY Farmhouse style decorative shutters-7

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 Farmhouse style decorative shutters-8
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! 

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2 Comments LABELS ~ DIY projects

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Comments

  1. jennmspring@gmail.com says

    November 7, 2019 at 12:37 PM

    I too am stuck with an old entertainment center that has glass, where the storage is… I used baskets to hide the DVDs… just a thought, it would go with your decor and be functional….

    Reply
  2. Sleep Center says

    March 22, 2021 at 2:04 PM

    Shutters look amazing! Excellent job!

    Reply

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Hi!  My name is Christina . . .

I love doing simple, frugal things to make our house feel like HOME! Come learn along with me how to have a beautiful home on a budget.

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