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Recently, I have had the honor of guest-blogging for Kim of Sand & Sisal! If you’re popping over from her blog, you may have seen this post. If so, thank you so much for visiting! You can click here to peruse the rest of my blog posts. Also, I hope you’ll subscribe to my newsletter to receive updates on new posts in the future!

For those of you unfamiliar with Kim, she is one of the first coastal decor bloggers I found via Pinterest years ago. She’s inspired me with many a beachy craft, so I thought it would be perfect to share one of my own! I hope you’ll find some inspiration here, too!

One thing I love about DIY’ing is being able to create the look I want for next to nothing. And of course I also love the satisfaction of feeling like a DIY rockstar when my project is all complete!

Because staying in is the new going out, this little DIY took place on a quiet Saturday night when I found myself staring at a blank wall. Ever get tired of staring at a blank wall? Yeah, me too. I had gone through so many different Pinterest searches to find something that would fill my naked dining room wall, but I just couldn't commit to anything. I needed something NOT square or round. The adjacent foyer mirror (another DIY you can check out here) is large and round and the perpendicular dining room wall is already home to a large, square canvas art. I needed something eclectic with an interesting shape, or maybe something that didn't really have a shape? Hey, you might start to sound crazy too if you stare at a blank wall long enough! ;)

Finally, I decided to act on my urges to do "something else" with the long piece of driftwood that my parents brought to me from the beaches of Lake Superior near their cabin. This lovely stick adorned our mantel over the holidays, and since there's more where that came from, I decided to give it a new purpose: wall decor!

No beach near you? No problem. In an upcoming post, I'll be showing you how I created my own driftwood look-alike from a stick I found in a parking lot. True story. 

I keep a ball of thin jute rope on hand, but the color seemed too dark for this project. After an hour soaking a length of the rope in bleach, it was just the right light, beachy color that I wanted. See the difference? Trust me, the difference was much more apparent hanging on the wall. 

I eyeballed "center" on the blank wall and placed a nail about as high as the art on the adjacent wall is hung. Then, I trimmed the jute rope to the length I wanted and tied each end to the ends of the driftwood.

I have a starfish garland that I had originally purchased as table decor for our wedding. I got it at one of my favorite little beach shops in St. Augustine. If you don't happen to have a little beach shop nearby, you can click on the garlands below to purchase online. (You can shop the rest of the items in this room at the bottom of the post.)

In the last couple of years since our wedding it's been a mantel garland and a Christmas tree garland. For its new purpose, I simply draped it back and forth over the driftwood until it looked as symmetrical as possible.

And that's it! See? Easiest wall hanging ever.

I feel like I should mention that the beams of light and shadows you're seeing are not all in your head! We actually had solar tubes installed in our dining room to let in more natural light. This particular brand refers to them as "sun tunnels", which sounds pretty cool, I think. ;) 

Depending on the time of day, and even the time of year, the light can totally change the appearance of the colors in this room. 

As I was admiring my new little DIY, I snapped a few more photos of the glow that comes over this room as the sun lowers in the sky. Ahh, contentment! I hope that not only are you inspired, but that you would feel content with all that you already have around you!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! After this little project, I'm thinking of lots of other ways I can use my driftwood! Stay tuned to find out how to make your own! (Don't forget to subscibe!) ;)

Sending Sunshine,

Jessica

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