I’ll admit it, I hate despise spending money. Especially on things that I know I can easily DIY. When I was designing my daughter’s nursery I wanted a large whimsical wooden letter “A”. I found a few that were affordable but  they were too small and not exactly what I had in mind. But I could easily create a DIY wooden letter, get EXACTLY what I wanted, and I wouldn’t have to spend any money!!

I recruited my husband to help me (he was so excited he could barely contain his excitement. HAH! ). It took a bit of trial and error, three attempts to be exact, to get our DIY wooden letter perfect. I am sure my husband was wondering why he married me after the first disastous attempt, but he is a good sport and loves me unconditionally. Soooo we tried again and again till we got it right.

For those of you who want to make your own DIY wooden letter, I am going to share what worked and what DID NOT work .  It will save you time , a massive headache, and a cranky spouse.

So here is how to create a DIY wooden letter. It really is quick and easy, as long as you avoid the two mistakes I made along the way.

Here’s what you will need:

Wooden sticks cut to desired length

Small finish nails

Pencil

Hammer

Sharp knife

Sandpaper

Drill

Yarn or whatever you want to use to add some pizzaz

Now if you are going to use sticks from your backyard, avoid MISTAKE #1 . I collected REALLY DRY thin sticks, NO BUENO! If the sticks are too dry they WILL splinter when you predrill. Make sure you sticks are still a little green or use a thicker branch (at least 1.5” in diameter) You can also use wooden dowls or bamboo sticks from any local craft or home improvement store if you want to make it even easier.

STEP ONE:

I am assuming at this point that you know the letter you are going to make and how many pieces of wood you need. Cut your pieces to their desired length. I just used a hand saw.  I only had a large handsaw which was hard to use on such small peices. In hindsight, I should have bought a small one for a cleaner, straighter cut, but eh I’m frugal.  I then used the sand paper to knock off the rough edges of the ends of the sticks.

STEP TWO:

After your sticks are cut to the desired length, take a sharp knife and remove the bark. Be careful to cut AWAY from you body, bark can be stubborn and difficult to remove!STEP THREE:

Once you have all the bark removed to your liking, it is time to predrill! Before you break out the drill, dry fit the pieces together into whatever letter your making. Mark on the sticks with the pencil exactly where you want your finish nails to go. Take your drill and predrill all you markings.

STEP FOUR:

Now it is time to fasten your DIY wooden letter together! Put your finish nails into the predrilled holes and gently tap them down with the hammer. Be careful not tap too hard because even though you predrilled your sticks can still split. Totally happened to us, MISTAKE #2 . Combine Mistake #1 with Mistake #2= DISASTER! Now you should have an assembled DIY wooden letter!

STEP FIVE:

Add all the pretty stuff! I kept it pretty simply by using coral yarn to hide the finish nails and DIY pompoms for some interest.

The final finished DIY wooden letter took my husband and I roughty 45 min to make, but we were also pausing to take photos and chase after children. So, in reality it probably should have only taken us about 25-30 minutes.

Isn’t the finished product ADORABLE?! It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it, which is feat in itself!

If you give the DIY wooden letter a try, let me know! I would love to see it!

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Jessica