Ahhhhh, how are there only a couple of days left in 2016!? I’m not quite ready to let go of this amazing year, yet. But I know there are good things in store for 2017. One of the last projects I wrapped up this month centers around a North Carolina reclaimed wood piece my parents gave me for my birthday. You can find it here, in the Our State Magazine store. It’s made by Simple Roots. I loved this piece of art. It was the perfect gift.

It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to hang it. I finally decided on the open space above the TV. The only problem was that the piece seemed to be swallowed by the huge space on the wall. The map is about 17.5” X 6.5” and looked tiny next to the huge reclaimed chevrons on the other side of the wall. So I decided to scale up the map by adding a frame.

I saw this pin on Pinterest using these corner brackets. The pin was for a bookcase/kart. I figured I could apply a similar concept and make a simple rustic frame to go around the map.

It was pretty easy to make the frame. I used one 8’ board, 1” X 2”. I had to trim the board down by about ½ inch so that there wasn’t any wood sticking out from the bracket on the outside.

This frame is 14.5” X 25.5” on the inside and leaves about 4” on each side of the NC Map. I painted the brackets and the screws a dark metallic color and stained the wood with Minwax’s dark walnut.

After everything was stained and painted, I drilled some holes to attach the brackets to the wood. I like to mark the drill bit based in the depth of the screws and the wood to make sure I don’t drill completely through the wood.

After everything was put together the only thing remaining was to hang everything on the wall. I think it turned out pretty well and completes the blank space above the TV.