Pottery Barn Inspired New York Tiled Map diy
- By Joan
- October 26, 2015
- 48 Comments
I am always on the lookout for my next big project and I am not ashamed to tell you that I often steal my ideas from the millions of ideas floating out there on the internet. It may not be direct theft, but I do hunt for inspiration and then I try to either put my own spin on a project or try to figure out how I could achieve a similar result without the benefit of a diy. Such was the case with this cool, oversized map from Pottery Barn.
I love Pottery Barn, and I really love when they feature a project that features pallet wood. I could make that!
OK, they probably didn’t use pallet wood, but they could have. This planked Manhattan sign (also available for Chicago) is a true statement piece. It measures 8 feet long and 2 feet high! I just need to find myself a map.
Finding a map with high enough pixels is a challenge unto itself. There are tons of vintage maps out there but blowing a map up to 8 feet would reduce most of them to just dots.
To narrow down your search, Google “Vintage (insert random city name here)map”. Use the “Images” button and the “Search Tool” button. Under search tool, press “Size” and “Larger than”. You’ll want the best map with the most pixels.
This New York map is from 1855. Harlem is spelled Haerlem, and Manhatten, is Manhattenville. The Hudson River is also known as the North River. Central Park has not been created yet.
You can find this map at Wikimedia Commons here. Download the file with the most pixels. This map is an amazing 7000 x 4217 pixels. You can even read this map when enlarged to 8 feet long, it really is that big.
I have another source of maps for you, The New York Public Library open access maps division. They have been downloading maps for 15 years and offer them for free with no copyright protection. It’s definitely worth a look.
One more hint before you go on your search…The Library of Congress also has a collection of maps.
While I only took a slice of the map, like my inspiration piece, but you could blow up the whole map and cover your entire wall. Now that would be a statement piece!
You’ve found your map. If it needs editing, edit it with your favorite photo editing software. You may not be able to tell, but I made the lettering slightly darker.
Now import your map into another piece of software that allows you to make any custom sized page size. For 8 foot by 2 foot, the custom page size will be 96″ x 24″. I use Microsoft Publisher all the time because I can make any sized sign imaginable. Does anyone know of any other programs that allow you to do the same thing?
I left a piece of the page sticking out underneath the map so you can see how the map is centered on my custom sized page.
To see how the map will actually print out, do a print preview before printing. The map prints out on 27 sheets of paper.
And each of those 27 sheets of paper need to be trimmed before making your map.
Select your pallet. This pallet measured four feet long, so in order to get 2, 2 foot lengths from every board, I needed to use every inch. No splitting of any board was allowed, if at all possible. For this project you’ll want to use pallet wood that is as close to the same thickness as you can.
You could also use new wood and then you wouldn’t have to worry about varying thicknesses.
Normally, when I take apart a pallet, I’ll run a circular saw down each of the side rails (or stretchers) and that gets rid of two thirds of my nails right off the bat. Prying the boards off of this particular pallet was out of the question; these boards would rather split than come off their rail quietly. A reciprocating saw or sawzall was the only way to go. A reciprocating saw cuts the nail in half.
Before attacking the pallet with the sawzall, I ran a palm sander over the boards to get rid of all the fuzzy splinters.
The boards were finally freed and cut into 24″ sections.
Because I wanted a dark shadow between my boards, this was as good a time as any to stain the sides a dark walnut. The stain was just painted on and rubbed off.
Lay out your boards into 4, 24 inch squares.
I suggest doing test boards to see how the modpodge will react to your ink and paper. Some people have suggested getting laser copies at a copier center when using modpodge. That is up to you, my test boards went surprisingly well so I ended up just printing my map on my inkjet printer.
If you have problems with smudging of ink for this project or any other modpodge project, I’m going to refer you over to this post at Piddix, for lots of tips and tricks for preventing smudging when using an inkjet printer.
When you finish trimming, lay out your puzzle pieces on your pallet wood cutting the edge pieces when they go onto the next panel.
Start modpodging, starting from one corner and working your way out. Coat the pallet wood with a layer of modpodge then gently lay your map piece of top, smooth, and repeat. Finish off with a layer of modpodge on top.
I used the full sheets of copy paper over top of multiple pieces of pallet. When dry, a sharp razor blade inserted between the pallet pieces separated the pallets.
The pallet pieces are attached with two more pieces of pallet wood, nailed to the back.
After the modpodge was dry, I coated the entire piece with a layer of antiquing wax. Now it looks more like an aged map.
For a print out this size, this map has an amazing amount of detail.
This is one of the 2 foot sections.
My pictures don’t do this project justice. The detail turned out far better than I imagined it would.
Have a great week and stay inspired.
Shared at Metamorphosis Monday, Show and Share, Inspire me Tuesday,
Trash 2 Treasure, Be Inspired Tuesday, Wow us Wednesdays,
Vintage Inspiration Party, Think and Make Thursday,
Creativity Unleashed, Handmade Hangout, Link Party Palooza,
Friday Favorites, Funky Junk Upcycled Link Party,
DIY Sunday Showcase, Finding Silver Pennies, DIY Like a Boss,
Amaze me Monday, Creative Muster, That diy party,
I was featured at
Wow! What an amazing project! It looks great and what a statement!
Now that is one amazing map!! This coming from a New Yorker! Those pallets must be quite heavy up on the wall. But they still look cool!
I was curious when you remarked how heavy the pallets are, and went and weighed one of the sections. They are only held up by one nail each and weigh about 8 pounds. Not too heavy.
[…] Joan from Scavenger Chic is a lover of all things Pottery Barn and can’t help but get excited when she sees an items that looks like it’s made from pallet wood. For Joan, it’s just a big old invitation to knock it off! That was the case with Pottery Barn’s planked wood map of Manhattan. The trickiest part was finding a high quality map to print, but Joan found one that can print up to eight feet without sacrificing quality, and even shares her source! Then it was just a matter of printing and adhering it to pallet wood. This is the epitome of creating large, eye-catching wall art on a dime, my friends! […]
WOW, this is beautiful! Thank you for such a detailed tutorial. Stopping by from Elizabeth & Co.
This is fantastic! Thanks for breaking it down so clearly. I definitely see one of these in my future…
Wow, I love it! I’m a sucker for old maps, and my husband really wants our media room to feature lots of them in different styles. This project would be perfect!
Wow! All that hard work paid off! Looks amazing on your wall!
Joan, You always make the coolest stuff..and the pallet tiled map is no exception! Love love!
NIce! Not one , but four panels…very ambitious project…I love it!
JP
Oh my gosh Joan, what a sweet idea for some inexpensive artwork with HUGE wow factor! Love love love this idea and pinning to share.
Have you heard of blockposter.com? If not, check it out!
I haven’t but I will. Hope your knees are feeling better.
This looks amazing! I wouldn’t have thought it would look so good with regular printer paper, but it really does. Thanks for sharing such a great tutorial.
This is fantastic! You did such a great job. I love old maps and I am grateful for the tutorial you provided. It’s just beautiful. I saw your link at Elizabeth @ Co.’s link party.
This looks so professional, and so much better than the inspiration piece! I absolutely love it.
I really need to do this! This is amazing… I so much love what you did on these reclaimed pallet sticks. Congratulations!
Anne.
I’m a big Bob Dylan fan and have some of his sheet music. I have been wondering how to display some of it. Thanks to you, now I know how.
It’s beautiful! Thanks so much!
Mike
Sheet music would look awesome blown up. There is also no down side, by scanning, you never ruin the original. Good luck.
Do you have a tutorial on blowing up the image to a larger size in Publusher. I get the import part, but dont understand how to get the image large enough to print on several sheets of paper. Thanks!
Hi Katharine, I explained how to do it a bit with my Raven sign. Basically, when you get into publisher choose, BLANK PAGE SIZE. where you’ll be given a choice of multiple page sizes. You’ll want to choose CREATE CUSTOM PAGE SIZE. Under the custom page size you can specify any page size you want. Once you import your photo, drag it to fit over your new page size. To see if you have the image you want do a print preview. It should show your image printing out on multiple pages. Good luck and let me know if I missed anything or if you have any other questions.
Very cool wall art!!! Love this!!
I love this and I pinned it, and it’s my featured pick for this coming weeks Vintage Inspiration Party.
Thank you so much. Looking forward to the party.
Oh my goodness!!! This definitely has the WOW factor! Thank you for sharing such a well written how to! I would like to invite you to share some of your work at my Making Broken Beautiful party this week! It runs every Thursday thru Sunday. I do hope you will come share some inspiration!
Smiles!
Terry
http://thecuratorscollection.wordpress.com
Wow Joan, that is big and awesome! Featured at Be Inspired this morning. Love your work!
Love your knockoff Joan, and thanks for sharing your map sources with us. Large affordable maps are always hard to find for projects! Pinned your tutorial!
Wow, it’s impressive!! I love how it looks in your wall and the vintage feel it has. Thanks for the tips on maps, it’s true it’s not easy to find a map with the enough resolution to print on that scale.
Hugs,
Pili
[…] Scavenger Chic shared a beautiful knock off newspaper wall art project. […]
[…] Pottery Barn Inspired New York Tiled Map DIY – Scavenger Chic […]
[…] Pottery Barn Inspired New York Tiled Map | Scavenger Chic […]
Hi Joan! I just wanted to let you know that I LOVE your DIY New York Tiled Map, and I’m featuring you as my pick for the Rockstars this week from Creativity Unleashed! As a Rockstar you’re in the running for this week’s MEGA Rockstar! Grab your friends and come vote at http://www.theboldabode.com/creativity-unleashed-week-94.html
The MEGA Rockstar gets loads of love including: 1. The Mega Rockstar project will be featured on all of our social media networks (that’s FB, Twitter, Pinterest, and G+ shoutouts from five different bloggers!!!) 2. Each host will visit the Mega Rockstar’s blog that week and we’ll pin a bucketload of any other great content we find to some of our largest group boards! 3.The Mega Rockstar of the week will get an invite to our secret group Pinterest board where you can pin your own great content. We go through that board each week when we are looking for great, new content to pin, so this means that even months after you’ve won the Mega Rockstar of the week, we can still find and pin your newest awesome content! Congratulations and Good Luck!!!
Just dropping by from Think and Make Thursdays via Designer Trapped and wow! Now THIS is a project! I love it! As huge and fiddly as I suspect it might be getting the “puzzle” right, it also seems fairly straightforward and totally “do-able”, as we say in the UK! I love the aged effect the pallets have given the prints and the finished artwork looks fantastic. Totally pinned for future use, although I think I might scale it down Beautiful project, Joan. Thanks for sharing. Sue x
This is a fabulous project! I love how it turned out! Thanks for linking up at The Handmade Hangout! I’ll be featuring you on my blog when the new linky goes live today at 6pm EST. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out!
I just adore this. Isn’t pallet wood the best???
As one pallet wood lover to another…yes.
[…] Pottery Barn Inspired New York Tiled Map – Scavenger Chic […]
[…] am a sucker for maps and this DIY New York Tile Map from Scavenger Chic is too […]
And there you go again, being amazing you. This 3 piece art idea is AMAZING. And I love your variation so much better! Featured on Party Junk this weekend and FB last weekend. I can’t help myself…
You know I really don’t mind when you can’t help yourself. You know I always love your party. You’re the best!!
[…] Pottery Barn Inspired New York Tiled Map by Scavenger Chic […]
HI Joan! I just wanted to let you know that you are this week’s MEGA Rockstar from Creativity Unleashed! I will be shouting you out on all my social media outlets and will have tons of pins going up tonight on my biggest boards starting around 7:30EST. I’ll also be featuring you in my weekly newsletter on Friday. I hope you get LOTS of love this week! You totally deserve it, girl!!!
I’ve never been a mega rockstar before, I’m very excited. As a mega rockstar, I may need to wear an Elvis wig or something. Rock on.
[…] Is it not incredible??? […]
I love, love, love this. I found the map and go it into Microsoft Publisher and cannot figure out how to make it print the way you show it. This is so confusing. Do you still have it saved, the way you set it up to print correctly. I would totally be willing to pay for you to email it to me. I tried online printing but they don’t understand and/or I have to have it saved correctly to have them print it and I cannot get it correct.
Never mind. I spent hours until I figured it out. I just need to tweak it a little but I think I got it now. This is beautiful, I so appreciate the step by step instructions.
I don’t know if you got my email but I did try to send it to you but the file was too large. So glad you figured it out.
Well it took me two years to finally get the boredom to give this a go. The way I ended up printing it, the entire map was printed, although I just noticed that yours was more zoomed in which I like. I don’t think I can send u a picture but it turned out way better than my skills although so I attribute that to ur instructions.
[…] am a sucker for maps and this DIY New York Tile Map from Scavenger Chic is too […]