My uncle lived on a farm in Kingfisher County in an area just northwest of Oklahoma City. A few family issues and whispers later, he was left with a ton of wood from a downed fence. My mother secured some and gave me a few posts.
The finished product is below.
My goal was to make something like this from a photo I saw on Pintrest. Really dug the Chevron pattern.
I think I got pretty close. Obviously, I'm no Ansel Adams so I'll blame any disparity on my shutter speed.
I started the project with a 3/4 inch sheet of MDF. Dimension were 2 feet by 4 feet.
Then I did a 45 degree miter cut on the nicer pieces of the fence wood. I'd estimate this wood is cedar but it had a nice gray to it; I can only assume due to wind and sun exposure for a few decades.
I used the 90 framing square to draw my line down the middle of the MDF. And to make sure I was nailing the fence board at a 45 degree angle. I used tiny nails with a small head, not easily visible on the final project.
I originally cut the boards to perfectly fit the MDF. But I can to scrap a few because my cuts left an 1/8 inch gap that would eventually make the MDF visible when I put on the frames. So I began making imprecise cuts and figured I'd cut the excess off with a band saw.
Here is when I got most of the boards nailed to the MDF.
Resembles the throne from Game of Thrones a bit. Laid down the hammer to look cool.
After sanding with a belt sander, I put a coat of polyurethane (without stain) on the wood. This brown color started to come out. I guess this may have been the wood's original color? Either way, I liked the old color better.
Then I took one inch tall whiteboards to make a frame around the chevron.
I really couldn't kick my dislike of the new brown color. So I sanded alternating boards to create a different pattern. Which I think came out better.
Total cost was about $18. I had the nails and support boards laying. The frames were about $6 and the MDF was about $12. It's pretty heavy. But a nice piece. Especially for a first try.