Antique Map Project
Today I’m sharing our Antique Map Project. Awhile back I saw the coolest idea for an antique looking map on Pinterest. It was pre-blog so I apologize that I can not give credit to the original site I saw it on. It was so cute and I think she had put it in her sons room. I knew I wanted to try to do it and knew exactly where I would put it once it was done.
We started by looking for just the right map because wanted it to look old from the start but we could age it a bit if we had to. We picked this one up on ebay for just $13. It was square when we got it but I cut around the edges and then burned them to make it more antiquey – yeah, that’s a word. By the way, a little tip here, if you are going to do something like this and the map has a shiny coating, burn it outside somewhere. This one gave off a really stinky smell when it was burning.
So after the map was ready, we worked on the wood frame. We bought 6 pieces of pine in varying widths and stained them a lighter walnut color. We decided to stagger them just a bit and used flat pieces of pine to connect them but left just a bit of space between the groups of 2 boards to give it some interest.
Once the boards were all fastened together, I placed the map on top of it on the floor. Since there were openings between the sections of boards I was able to drag an Exacto knife down and cut the map in three pieces which were aligned with the three sections of boards. I had to go back and burn the edges of the newly cut map.
In order to adhere the map to the boards, I used Modge Podge, which is a glue as well as a sealer, underneath and on top of the map. I am not sure that I would do that again as it was messy and didn’t stick well at first. I think next time, I would use spray adhesive.
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Once it was dry, I went over the edges with some distress ink which make the piece look aged I also rubbed some of the inside areas of the map with sandpaper and dabbed some ink there as well.
We picked up the corner pieces from Michaels in the scrapbook section and used the hot glue gun to adhere them to the wood. The sun dial we got on Ebay for $10 and we screwed that on because of it’s weight.
The whole things wasn’t difficult, just time consuming but I really like the way this antique map project turned out. The biggest compliment was when someone was at our house and asked me if we got it at Pottery Barn. 🙂
So sometimes you just need to invest the time in something to get what you want. Then again, I guess you could say that about a lot of things in life. 🙂
Happy DIY’ing!
Col
