Young House Love

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How To Paint A Chevron Pattern On Wood

It’s no secret that I love giving various paint treatments a try – like stenciling a pillow, two toning a chair, painting patterns on baskets, or even tracing raindrops right onto the wall – and I’ve been excited to share this one. Some of you eagle-eyes even noticed it in the background of Friday’s post and asked for details.

Now that Clara’s thrift store cradle is in heavy rotation (Captain Barnacle is often found being rocked, fed, or changed in there) and Clara has clearly established her love of red, blue, and pink, I used it to test drive a deceptively simple free-handed pattern. It’s probably the most “intricate” pattern I’ve ever freehanded, but it’s just a series of simple steps that anyone can do (it only took me about an hour to do all four sides). And this pattern could be added to the top of a table, the fronts of a dresser, the back of a bookcase, or even just a piece of wood (or canvas) hung on the wall as art.

Cradle After3

The first thing I did was use a red Sharpie paint pen and a ruler to make a bunch of vertical lines (use a yard stick if your item of furniture is larger). I just eyed these because I didn’t really want them to be perfect – I was going more for the imperfect-by-hand-looking effect.

Cradle Stripes1

Then I connected those lines with some free-handed diagonal lines (I didn’t use a ruler or anything for such short lines) that went up in one column, and then went back down in the next column. I started from the left and worked my way across each side of the cradle (from left to right).

Cradle Stripes2

When I had diagonal-lined all of my columns, I was left with a nice red and white pattern on all four sides. Then I went back in and added some blue paint to a few random parallelograms with a small craft brush (it’s the same test pot of paint that I’ve had for years called Embellished Blue by Behr, which I also used for this project, this project, and this project).

Cradle Stripes3

I also painted the top lip around the whole thing in solid blue, just to add a little “piping” to the look. Oh and I recovered the green pillow that used to be inside with some pink zebra fabric from my scrap bin (since pink, red, and blue is the color trifecta for Clara).

Cradle After2

The last step was adding a strip of fleece fabric that I had in my scrap pile to the bottom of each rocker on the underside of the cradle. When it was just bare wood it could scratch things up a little if Clara pushed it across the floor, so “felting” those with strips of fleece fabric (which I just crazy glued in place) did the trick.

Fleece Fabric On Rocker

I brought it back out for Clara to see on Christmas Eve day, which is also when she also got a few “real” gifts from us (that was a tradition in both of our families growing up). So along with some books and toys, she also got her “re-mixed” cradle.

Cradle After4

The new pattern didn’t go unnoticed and she even said “I love your paintings!” and wanted to know what each of those shapes were called, which led to her saying the word “parallelogram” about 100 times, and me beaming like a maniac every single time. What is it about kids and five-syllable words? They just sound so dang smart and adorable.

Cradle After5

So there you have it: a design that doesn’t call for a printer or a paper cutter or any decals or stencils – just a paint pen and an old test pot of paint. Have you guys ever free-handed an imperfect pattern like this? Was it surprisingly therapeutic? I was totally in the zone.

PS: Wanna give another pattern a try? Check out this DIY herringbone pattern we created on a secondhand desk using paint!

Comments

  1. Stephanie says

    Perfect timing! I have my old doll cradle and highchair that I will be refinishing THIS weekend for my daughter’s 3rd birthday at the end of the month! I am so glad you posted this!

    Reply

  2. Anna says

    You are so talented! Two questions for you. Do you have a trick for applying that kind of glue and not glueing your fingers in the process? lol! I’m worried that I’ll glue my myself to whatever I’m working on with super glue. Second question is about the paint pens. Do you know how long you can keep them before they stop working? I have a bunch of older paint pens but figured they should be tossed.

    Keep up all the fun projects!

    Reply

    • Anna says

      Sorry, just realized you said “crazy glue” instead of “super glue”. Are they way different?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I just try very hard not to get it on my fingers but sometimes it gets on and my secret is to let it dry and then sand my finger with an emery board. Sounds crazy but it comes right off (and doesn’t hurt). As for paint pens, some of mine are old and last a while, so I’d just test them on cardboard or a thick pad of paper before tossing them. I shake mine a lot and press down the tip a lot to get them going.

      xo
      s

  4. Christy Niebaum says

    This is so great! Bravo, $herdog! Now I kind of want to teach my 2-year-old to say “parallelogram”. It’ll probably just as great as when she says “calculator”.

    I free handed a fun design on our sidewalk in sidewalk chalk last year for my daughter’s b-day party. Just a fun loopy swirly pattern.

    Reply

  5. Kara says

    First of all–this is so precious! The pattern is beautiful and I can’t wait to try your method myself this week for new some framed wall art :)

    Second, the last few posts have me asking this question over and over again: “Where do John and Sherry keep all their stuff?!” It seems like you have so many little things (tools, sample paint, miracle grout, scrap fabric, and other odds and ends) that you have kept and are able to pull out whenever you need them. How do you organize all these things systematically and (I assume, since it is you) aesthetically? I would LOVE to hear about that–it seems like I have odds and ends falling on top of me every time I open our “Catch-all Cupboards”. Thanks! :-)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I have a closet in the guest room full of craft stuff, so that’s where I keep a large basket full of fabric scraps (all from Clara’s photo project, etc) and a giant paper grocery bag of craft stuff (paint pens, sewing stuff, glues, decorative paper, ribbon, etc). It’s a TOTAL mess! And I can’t wait to organize it. There will definitely be a post about all the systems that I add because it’s a hole in there! Haha! And test paint pots are in the garage along with spray paint and regular paint. It shouldn’t be frozen or it can go bad, but against the wall of the house in there it seems to be insulated enough even on cold days, so even small test pots have been ok. Things like the grout stuff I just buy as I need them (picked up one bottle and used it within a week) and then I store the bottle in a cabinet in our kitchen by the desk area with home improvement stuff in it.

      xo
      s

  8. Isabel says

    So cute! Hats off to you, I’m such an anal symmetry-loving person, I have a hard time free-handing but whenever I see other people do it, I love it. I just scanned a very good drawing my husband made of a muscle car we saw in NYC that he loved so I can frame it like you did your dad’s owl :) My mom recently sent me a 100+ year old doll crib and rocking chair set that belonged to my grandmother (can you say subtle?!?) an said: “I didn’t have it painted or cleaned cause I figured you’d want to get creative with it.”

    Reply

  10. Lyn says

    I’ve been planning on handing down the dolly cradle my dad made me 30+ yrs ago to our almost 3 yr old. I just wanted to refinish it & something like this will be PERFECT! Now if I can just remember to get it from my mom’s house!

    Reply

  11. Sarah says

    I feel like I can see you creating a delightful line of fabrics and/or wrapping paper! Paper-Source better get on it!

    Thanks for sharing in all your fun projects both big and small.

    Reply

  14. Jude says

    Clara looks so, so happy, just a little angel child! My hat’s off to you again, that is one adorable cradle. Just realized how cool parallelograms are… LOVE the imperfect hand painted look. So homey.
    I am inspired once again! Thank you!!!

    Reply

  15. Sayward says

    So sweet! I love that it’s feminine and graphic at the same time. My mom made so many thoughtful, handmade things for us as kids, and I’m doing that for my little niece now. It’s such a great value to instill.

    Paint pens are my JAM. I recently took a metallic gold pen to my boring glass salt and pepper shakers. The pen scrapes off of glass, but I loved that it was a temporary, risk-free project. I hadn’t bought a paint pen in a few years, and was thrilled to find a variety of tip sizes and angles. Paint pens in the hizzouse.

    Reply

  16. Cristina says

    Awesome – the crib looks adorable! I did this same chevron pattern on our front door mat by taping off the pattern with painters tape, and now I’ve been wanting to free hand this pattern on a lampshade. You may have just given me the kick to do it!

    Reply

  21. marbella says

    I can’t believe you ruined the amazing white cradle with the pom-pom trim with this crazy paint job. Aren’t you worried Clara’s eyes will get all messed up from looking at such an intense pattern? Also, if this only took you half an hour, it is simply not blog-worthy!

    Just kidding! It looks brilliant ;)!

    Reply

  23. Janice says

    oh em gee. “Peterisk it” is going to be my new catch phrase!!! This is adorable Sherry and totally the kind of thing that you do that I am sure you think of as ‘nothing’ but to me seems so totally awesome-sauce and helps me look at my house and surroundings differently. Luv you guys!

    Reply

  24. Funnelcloud Rachel says

    Love the pattern and I love that you taught Clara the word ‘parallelogram.’ I had one of those shape sorting cube toys when I was little and my dad always taught me the proper names for the shapes – like parallelogram, ellipse, and rhombus, even though I was just a tiny tot. That early education stuck with me because when we started learning about geometry in 4th grade, I was the only kid in the class who knew what a parallelogram was!

    Reply

  25. Jill says

    I’ve eying a stencil with a similar look to that for about a year for a tabletop. I may just try freehand instead. Thanks for the motivation and “ahh ha” moment!

    Reply

  28. Audra says

    I did this exact same pattern on a plain brown paper gift bag for Christmas with a couple of metallic sharpies. It was a super simple way to make a boring bag a little more interesting!

    Reply

  29. Jessaca says

    How do you decided what things to paint and what not to paint? You seem to go more toward the paint league, but I’ve noticed that you guys are incorporating more woods into your home. Have you ever had a experience where you wish you wouldn’t have painted something? I noticed the cradle had some beautiful wood, but maybe something about screamed “Paint me!”

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Good question! I think we love a balance of wood items (wood console table behind the sofa, wood console table in the foyer, wood floors, wood media cabinet, wood dining table, wood kitchen table, wood lower cabinets, wood vanity in our master) and we love painted things too (painted chairs, painted upper cabinets, painted dollhouse and baby cradle, etc) so we tend to go back and forth. In this case the cradle was a bit musty and the wood was a little less amazing than it looked in photos (stained in some areas, a little sticky, etc) so we thought it would be fun to lighten things up for Clara. It’s generally really hard to unpaint something, so we try to be conservative and wait if we’re ever not sure (ex: our lower cabinets) – it’s nice to hold out until we’re 100% ready to pull the trigger!

      xo
      s

  32. Sarah says

    I was just googling ‘whole house paint palette’ and a photo of your first house palette (using your floorplan–it even had the different room and ceiling color for Clara’s nursery) was the first image result, but it was linked to a different website. There was no indication that you guys were credited on it. Here’s a link to the image, although I couldn’t get it to load on the M and Co. interiors page.

    http://mandcointeriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Whole-House-Paint-Color-Pal.jpg

    Reply

  34. mp says

    This is where the difference in our degrees and backgrounds emerge: I’m an English major who could write a paper about your artistic achievement, but could never freehand any design with your ease and competence. Get out with your bad self!

    Reply

  37. Tainah says

    Hi Petersik family!!
    I’m a huge fan of yours from Brazil! ;)
    Yesterday I think I kept reading old entries for about 4 hours straight! :D
    I’m sorry to ask, but what do you mean a “real” present? I didn’t understand, since a lot of your traditions are different from ours…
    Much love,
    Tainah.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, thanks Tainah! You’re so sweet! I was just joking that since this was a cradle she already had, that it wasn’t a real present (I just painted it and gave it back to her) – so she got real ones too, like books and games she has never had before :)

      xo
      s

  38. Paige says

    I free-handed some painter’s tape on my bedroom walls in high school and painted different colored oddly-shaped off-squares [as my friends called them,] and that paint job remains in my parents’ house to this day. My best friend and I removed one of those wallpaper murals from one wall, then we primed and painted it, just two teenage girls painting who had never done so before. We were incredibly proud and both found it to be cathartic.

    Reply

  39. Holly says

    Totally just inspired me to do this sonewhere on my daughters play kitchen I just painted for her 2nd birthday. Maybe as a backsplash? Love it!!

    Reply

  42. Maria M says

    I love this so much! I’m not sure if I could freehand the lines as well as you did, though. Her face says it all — so so happy! :-) Enjoy your weekend!

    Reply

  45. Bev says

    Love love love your blog. Can’t help but notice just how much Clara is looking like you Sherry. Beautiful ladies. Praying for you and your new little boy on the way. We are practically neighbors. Wish y’all would come do projects at MY house. Lol!

    Reply

  46. Kati says

    Very cute! We have an old wood cradle sitting in our garage that I’ve been wondering what to do with. Maybe I’ll let my girls paint it themselves ( they are a little older than yours). Thanks for the idea.

    Reply

  48. Rachel says

    I am in the middle of a project for my sister and almost purchased those Sharpie paint pens yesterday – but I decided they weren’t right for this painting job.

    Just curious if you’ve used them before and how they hold up. Ever tried them on canvas?

    Reply

  49. Cristina s says

    I’ve followed you guys for years and I love all your huge projects and progress on all your homes but I LOVE small projects and posts such as this one :) it’s these small projects and “toys” that Clara will treasure!

    Reply

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