Ocean Themed Bathroom Wall Art

We wanted to add some color to the bathroom that we recently remodeled. In our minds there were two options available; go to the store and buy some decor or make it ourselves. We opted for making it ourselves.

In fact, we made the entire thing from start to finish, including the pattern. We even detailed the steps in creating the pattern in a couple of live streams on YouTube. If you would like to see how we came up with them you can watch those videos here - Bathroom Pattern Streams.

If you would like to download the pattern for your own use you can get it here - Ocean Themed Bathroom Art Pattern.

Here's what we used to make it:

• The Pattern
• 1/8" Hardboard (purchased at Menards)
• Spray Adhesive
• Blue Painter's Tape
• Acrylic Paints and Paintbrushes
• Scroll Saw
• Drill and Drill Bits
• 3M Poster Tabs or something similar

Sometimes images and words don't quite capture the process of making an object. We've included this short video so you can see the process from start to finish.

If you are using the free pattern we linked to in the introduction, you'll need to do some trimming for it to fit correctly. The way that the pattern is set up, you will need to trim the right side and the bottom for the pattern to overlap properly.

Once you have it trimmed, you'll want to put down some blue painter's tape or masking tape onto the material you are using. We are using 1/8" hardboard. Then the pattern can be applied to the surface of the tape with a spray adhesive.

Take your time lining up the individual parts of the pattern. This can be tricky at first.

After you have the pattern applied to the hardboard, the next step is to drill all the holes through which the scroll saw blade will be inserted. For this pattern, that is all of the grey areas.

Once all of the holes are finished, if you used a larger sheet to start, you'll need to cut it down to a more manageable size. We did this with a jig saw. It didn't need to be cut to the exact final size, just something more manageable.

Another thing that is extremely helpful is cutting each panel from the pattern into individual panels. This will make it easier to maneuver on the scroll saw.

Cutting out each of the patterns is no more than inserting the blade of the scroll saw into the existing holes and then cutting out all of the grey areas. It is time-consuming (sometime tedious), but also therapeutic in its own right. Take your time and make clean cuts.

Once the patterns are cut out, you can remove the tape and clean up any edges with sandpaper.

To make painting the backer board easier, we sprayed a light coat of white spray paint through the recently cut patterns. This gave us the layout of what needed painted and where. It also looks kind of neat as well.

There really isn't much to say here. Paint selection and method is the user's prerogative. We used regular acrylic craft paint. We also tried to use colors that made sense. This is the part where you can have the most fun. You'll also want to paint the front of the patterns white or well, I guess whatever color you choose. We chose white to go with our bathroom colors.

Once all of the painting was done and we were happy with it, we used the same spray adhesive to attach the patterns to the backer board. This is really simple. The can of spray adhesive has instructions on it for getting a more permanent bond. We followed those and it worked great.

Once all the pieces were firmly attached, we filled in the gaps between the panels with wood filler. We waited for it to dry, sanded it a bit and then touched it up with paint.

Now that the majority of the painting was done and the piece was dry, we cut the piece down to its final size. We did this using the table saw, but the band saw would have worked well too, with a steady hand.

The last thing to do in the shop, was touching up the paint on the edges from the recent cuts.

As with a lot of our more light-weight projects, we hung this on the wall with 3M poster tabs. We use the ones that are rated for 3 lbs and they work great.

All in all, this was fun little project. It added some color to our bathroom and stuck to an oceanic theme that we are going for. The future should bring more projects similar to this one to add to the bathroom to continue that theme.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoyed this project. If you have any questions or comments about the project let us know in the comments and we will be more than happy to help.