Pottery Barn Knock Off Planked Pony Wall Art

Here's my version of the Planked Pony Wall Art Pottery Barn used to advertise and sell for $200.  I've loved the look for several years and wanted to give it a try.  I did some slight variations to make it my own, but stayed pretty true to PB's version.

Pottery Barn's Version

Here's my finished product!

Step 1 - Cut 2X10 the length you want.  I made mine 38 inches wide.

Step 2 - Use wood glue and glue your boards together.  I let mine sit after that for about a week.

Step 3 - I then wanted a barn wood or weathered wood appearance.  You will need to prepare this ahead of time.  Soak a pulled apart steel wool piece in vinegar.  I put mine in a glass jar and let it sit 24 hours or so.  When that was ready, I boiled some tea bags and used that and wipe it all over the glued wood piece.  While it was wet with the tea, I used my sponge brush and painted the steel wool vinegar mixture on top.  It immediately turned a grayish hue.  While the boards were wet with the tea and steel wool treatment, I used a dark stain and wiped it over the wood.  This gave me a very dark weathered appearance.  Let that wood dry before proceeding.

Step 4 - I free handed a horse image, much like PB's onto poster paper.  I then cut it out and transferred this to contact paper.  I had to use two pieces and overlap the contact paper because of the horse's size.

Step 5 - Place the horse contact paper cut out on the wood.   Rub it down really well and try to get it as flat on the wood as possible to prevent sippage of paint under contact paper.

Step 6 - I then used a sponge brush and dabbed my off white latex paint onto the wood all around the horse outline.  I then moved on to covering the entire wood piece with the off white paint.  Let dry 24 hours!

The horse silhouette is difficult to see

Step 7 - Carefully, remove the contact paper horse outline.  I had a few paint sippage spots, but used a very small brush and straighten those lines out.

Step 8 - Use a sanding block and sand areas on the wood that you would like to show through.  I really wanted the chipped paint look, so I spent some time with this step.

Step 9 - Rub clear wax paste over the entire wall art piece. 

Step 10 - Find a fabulous place in the house to show off your work!