New Art for the Studio

I've been looking for a special piece for my studio for quite some time now. I wanted a horizontal piece in a fairly large size to fit above my sink and between my cabinets. I spend quite a bit of time at the sink and that boring dead space needed filled!

In my search for the perfect piece, I found that vertical pieces are apparently more on trend right now. I had a very hard time finding larger horizontal pieces. And after talking with my mom, she also mentioned that it would be nice to have a place to hang my hand towels as well. That lead me to searching for a whole new piece, but I only found pieces for bathrooms or actual kitchens. There's no cooking going on here...lol :)

So what's a girl to do...make her own! I originally thought I wanted a piece with an inspirational saying, but couldn't decide on a design. Then I stumbled across this site and used the tree as inspiration.

I took a plain MDF plaque and sprayed it with white paint. The pink border actually happened as an afterthought because the white wasn't covering the edges well. So I taped off the sides and added pink acrylic paint with a brush. I love how the pink border helps it pop!

Then I engraved a tree design on the plaque. I realize not everyone has a laser sitting around, so this step could be done with paint, a vinyl sticker or even cut paper.

Once the tree was engraved, I drilled the holes for the knobs. I wanted to make sure the buttons didn't get in the way of where the knobs would go. Then I laid out all the buttons before gluing each one down.

 I just love how the piece adds color to my "kitchen" area and gives me a place to hang hand towels. And I love even more that I got to create it myself. I don't take the time nearly as often to create things for myself and this fun piece got me out of my normal creating zone!