How to Make an Oversized Faux Metallic Alphabet Letter

This project is probably one of the zaniest projects I’ve EVER done. Today is Monthly DIY Challenge day and the theme is ‘metallic’. By the way, please support and visit all my friends’ metallic challenge projects too! I linked them at the bottom of this post.

Here are the supplies I used to create a DIY Giant Metallic Marquis Letter from Plywood!

• A large piece of low-grade plywood
• a Workmate or Cutting Table
• A corded Jigsaw
• Clamps – I really like these ones for lightweight projects like this
• A pencil (and an eraser!!)
• Krylon Silver Spray Paint in Brilliant Finish
• Dark Furniture glaze or wax
• A small scale craft letter (optional)

How to Make an Oversized Faux Metallic Alphabet Letter 

I kid you not. I can’t explain how this all happened. I must have lapsed into some crazed DIY waking coma or something. But it did and now I have a gigantic B on my wall that cost me pennies to make and I’m in love with it. #ErinLovesB

First thing is to find a flat surface to work on. I put my giant piece of plywood on my Workmate. It was so big, that even standing on my ladder to take the pic – my camera lens couldn’t get it all in! Anyway – I’m sure you get the idea. 

(Oh and more apologies for the state of my studio. It is up next for a makeover, so we’ve been piling and sorting and planning in there and it makes a mess!)

K – moving on. Now to draw the B. This is definitely the hardest part! I had a small B from Michael’s that I really liked, so I did my best to use the x’s on my plywood to help guide me in drawing that style B, but bigger. It took me a whole bunch of tries and a lot of erasing, but eventually I got it. It helped to look at my plywood from above.

Next is the fun part. Clamp your letter to a work surface as best you can. I had to call Dan in to help me hold the B steady because it was just so big. I’d recommend a second set of hands for this part if you have them around 🙂

Using your jig saw, carefully cut your letter from the plywood. Try to keep your blade moving for as long a period as possible. I find starting and stopping with a jigsaw will lead to your cuts being jagged. Another trick I learned is to apply the same principles to using a jigsaw as you would a sewing needle. Always look at where the saw is going rather than where the saw is – it will really help keep your hand steady on the line.

If your letter has inner holes, like my B, use a power drill to create a hole for your saw blade to start cutting.

Once that’s done, grab your spray paint and get painting! My B took two coats before I liked how shiny it was. The last step was to dab furniture glaze in dark brown onto a clean, lint-free rag and rub it in (with force) going with the grain of the wood as much as possible. I focused my glaze on the outer edges of my B.

Because I used plywood, it’s SUPER lightweight and I was able to hang it on the wall using two plain old thumb tacks.

Hey, you gotta admit – for a quickie project that was free, this turned out alright!

There are some good peeks in these shots of the rest of the rec room, but I still have a few finishing touches I want to do before I show that part to you. I still need to figure out the styling on the shelf and paint up or do something to those plain wooden bins.

All in good time!

Alright – who wants MORE METALLICS?! Hop on over to my besties blogs and check out how they are up-cycling, welding, building and decorating using metallics this month.

Here are a few more quirky and fun projects I’ve done that you might like too!

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