River Rock DIY Wall Art

I LOVE Pinterest!

I have over 70 boards on my personal Pinterest account with thousands of pins! It's my go to for all design, art, crafts & recipe inspiration. I came across this River Rock Wall Art pin and had to try it for myself. Check out the originator's blog here. This is a multi day project, so don't expect to get it done in an hour or 2.

This River Rock Wall Art hits ALL my favorite elements: nature, contemporary, inexpensive and easy enough for anybody!

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STEPS:

1. Find river rocks with a smooth finish. I like the variety in size. I bought these river rocks from Amazon.

2. The other blog said to wash the rocks with soap and water, but I didn't bother...your call on that one! I just like to get right to the fun stuff. :)

3. You can make this any size you want. I used leftover scrap 3/4" plywood from building my house. My board is 11x19.75", and I used all 60 rocks. I was originally going to make my wall art larger, but didn't have enough rocks to make it 22" tall, so I had to cut it down. You should start placing rocks on the table or scrap board to see how it lays out and if you have enough rocks.

4. Paint your board white. I used the same white as our wall color. My daughter thinks it makes it look like the rocks are just floating or on glass.

5. I used the leftover BEHR paint sample jars from Home Depot that we used for all of our house colors. So this art piece is extra special because it's the color palette and mood board of our whole home.

6. Have fun and don't be afraid to mix colors. I really want to do a dramatic dark to light top, so I took our original dark greens and ocean blue and mixed them with white to get the lighter shades. Mixing paint is FUN! Just make sure to mix enough to cover as many rocks as you want and to do any additional coats. Some colors covered better than others. The light colors had multiple coats while the darker colors just 1-2. I used a paint brush to apply all the paint. The inspiration blog used the dipping method, which I tried, but found to be too messy for me.

7. Secure the rocks to the board with construction adhesive. I used Liquid Nails from Amazon. This takes about 24 hours to dry. You can easily rotate rocks after you place them down.

8. Make a frame. This is the trickiest part. If you're a beginner woodworker, don't bother with mitered corners if that seems too difficult. It'll look nice either way. Again, I used scrap wood trim leftover from building our house...it was even varnished already — bonus! I like the natural light wood, so just a clear finish.

9. Add picture hangers to the back to hang on the wall. I used these Heavy Duty D-Ring Steel Picture Hangers from Amazon.

Easy enough for kids to do too!

Here's Ava working on her mini version with her colors to compliment her bathroom scheme.