driftwood wallhanging diy

I've been feeling a little landlocked over in Green Lake. After living less than a mile from views like the one above it was a surprising transition. Of course it doesn't help that I'm not running as much and winter is hanging heavy. Either way I needed to bring some fresh air to our little house. A piece of the beach that Owen and I love so much.

After trolling Pinterest and blogs for inspiration, I set out to make a driftwood and feather wall hanging.

feather and stick hanging, dream catcher and floating flowers

The feather wall hanging looked small, but I wanted to make it BIG and leave it unpainted except for neon pink and gold accents. I found a piece of driftwood nearly as tall as me and went from there.

Once I gathered a good selection of driftwood on Alki I was off to JoAnn's Fabrics for paint, feathers and hemp twine. Meghan was my ride on this leg of the adventure and of course we both both 'snot gloves' as an impulse in line. You know those $1 gloves that double as Kleenex? ;) Thank you, MM!

I didn't plan out where my stripes would be. But it came together as I went. I taped off segments and altered neon pink and gold.

I used a needle and thread to create the clusters of feathers. I grabbed lots of different feathers at JoAnn's, all of the varieties that looked "natural". And combined them as I went.

I let the driftwood dry overnight and went in for a second coat in the morning. Then I laid out the rough outline and began to wrap the hemp twine around to create the hanging. This was more difficult than I'd envisioned especially since the first piece of driftwood was nearly 6 feet long. I ended up hanging it first from a nail and adding the subsequent driftwood while it hung. Just easier to envision.

I love the finished product! I made another wall hanging for above our bed with the leftover driftwood. And a little welcome sign for the entry way that I'm not in love with, but meh.

check out owen's stainglass artwork from high school ;)