DIY! Discarded Drawer to Modern Wall Art

We found an old drawer in a pile of rubbish on the side of the road while walking one morning and because we're in renovation mode lately, we decided it had potential!

We turned this...

into this!

First I pulled the drawer apart and painted the base an reddish bronwnish colour ... just because ...

Then I collected a heap of these sticks which used to be stuck to a set of three of these containers (... until  a certain little someone pulled them off again and again, despite a million attempts of gluing them back on ... grrrrrr)

and using a hot glue gun, I attached some hempish-looking string around one end of each stick.  This was the least fun part.  I burned every one of my fingers in my impatience to get the job finished while the little one slept.  

This is what I ended up with - a big messy pile of sticky sticks!

Next, it was time to knock together some kind of frame using the four sides of the drawer.  One of the sides was wider than the others so hubby took a sliver off the edge with the circular saw we borrowed for the pergola (and hadn't returned until now...)  Unfortunately the blade went off course slightly and we ended up with this little burn mark.  Personally, I like it.   I think it adds character.

After the sawing and a little bit of hammering, the frame turned out like this.

The inside edges looked too raw so I painted them the same colour as the back.

Once all this was done, I started on the artistic bit.  With the nerve endings of my fingers already burnt off, it took no time at all to hot glue all the sticks into the frame.

And wah-lah!  It was done.  A little something to hang on the huge empty wall above our TV.