Scavenger Chic

Decorative Scrap Wood Arrows DIY

• By Joan
• July 20, 2022
• 3 Comments

Decorative Scrap Wood Arrows DIY

I have an easy crafty project for you today to use a lot of those bits and pieces of old wood and other scraps you may have laying around the house. 

These are old oak fence boards that I rescued from my brothers house several years ago. After being scrubbed, treated for bugs and being whitewashed, the majority of the boards went into completing a ceiling in my grandson’s room.  You can find that project here.  But I still had a few remaining boards, all whitewashed and waiting for me.

The plan is to use that wood to make 5 scrap wood arrows. For a few of the boards, I chopped off a square end of the fencing andcut that square in half diagonally, which left  me with the points of 3 of my arrows.

I nailed these on with my nail gun but feel free to glue as well.

The base of this arrow was painted with a block of wood.  Liberally spread paint on a scrap block of wood  then rub the block across the surface of your wood. The unevenness of the wood leaves you with this rough, somewhat aged look.

The “feathers” for this arrow were created from shutter slats cut at a 45 degree angle and aolso nailed on with a nail gun.  

I did modify these feathers in my final arrow by cutting these feathers back to only 2 and shortening their length.

The shutter slats also work great as an arrow point.

The border around this arrow is a piece of plaster lath cut in half vertically.  The cross pieces are more shutter slats.

A spindle sliced in half and a piece of decorative molding are the centerpiece of this arrow.  More shutter slats are used for the feathers and point of this arrow.

The other half of the spindle is on a piece of pallet wood.

The two above are the before and afters of the same arrow. This one also has a piece of decorative molding, it has a side piece of an old wood shingle.  Those holes are where the shutter slats would have sat.

For the final arrow, I cut down the arrow’s feathers to only two and shortened them.

For all the arrows I dry brushed white chalk paint on anything that wasn’t white already.  To dry brush, I used a chippy brush with very little white chalk paint on the end and just skimmed over the surface of any colored surface letting some of the initial color show through.

And now, all my final arrows with feathers chopped, and colors dry brushed.

The complete set of scrap wood arrows.

I used a nail gun to assemble all my arrows and scrap wood I had on hand. Of course yours will be different based on what you can dig out of your scrap pile.

Happy digging, have fun,  stay inspired and start creating your own scrap wood arrows

Related posts:

Pallet Wood and Piano Paper Roll Holder Pallet Wood Wine Rack DIY Fall Market Days and Blue Pumpkins Bathroom Makeover, 20 Upcycled Towel Holder Ideas