My Crafty Half

Just a warning: I plan to brag on my husband in this post. I vow not to use superlatives and label him "the best husband ever in the world/universe/galaxy." I will, however, dedicate this post to him and his mad crafting skills. That doesn't sound too manly, does it.

For the almost 2 years we've lived in our house, there has been a large, blank gray all staring me down every day. In our living room, we have a fireplace with a pretty good sized metal medallion-type thing hanging above it. I knew that was the focal point so I always struggled with what to put on the adjacent wall. I already had picture frames up nearby so that was out. I thought about what kind of artwork I might like, but could never settle on one.

Until pinterest came along.

You may also frequent that site, which turned out to be the place of inspiration for me. I found on there a couple who had made a piece of art from little rods of wood. They looked like the cuisanaire rods from math class, but stylishly arranged. I showed Ben (who is actually quite picky; he had already turned down awesome chevron ideas I had.) and he liked it!

So literally, the next day, Ben heads over to Lowe's and picks up small paint cans & the few other things we needed. And so began our project.

Ben, not wanting to be photographed. This is after we had cut all the boards with his big saw. Or Ben cut the boards & I caught them at the end.

I don't have any of the painting part pictured, which is sad because that was a time-consuming portion. A lot of our neighbors were interested in what we were up to. One has commented to me that she "always sees your husband working in the garage." Yup.
The above picture was where Ben really impressed me. He arranged all of the pieces on his own & glued them all down as shown. He has a lot more sticktoittiveness than I do.

And now, the finished product!!

I love it. Ben rigged it up pretty cool by screwing it into the wall so it lays totally flat. Two of the slats are secretive & can be removed to get to the screws. Pretty ingenious.

Here it is up close, with weird lighting. You can kind of see how some of the slats are thicker than others, giving it a nice 3-d effect.
So, my husband is pretty darn talented. More than his actual craftsmanship, I am constantly humbled by how attentive he is to detail and how dedicated to the task at hand he is.

Because I'm not those things. Hence why he's my crafty half.