How to make a CUTEST little hanging wall fruit basket

In This tutorial i will show you how I made it using my pocket hole system, miter saw, and orbital sander, but I'll include the alternative directions if you don't have those tools.
 

Here's a suggested shopping list:

• (1) 1x6x6 (cut in half, to 3' long)


• (1) 1x4x6 (cut to 3' long, or whatever length to match the 1x6 boards)


• (6) small screw hooks (I used 7/8" cup hooks from Home Depot, pictured below)


• (3) baskets (I bought mine from Michaels at 50% off, so $5 each, woo hoo! They came with burlap liners, but I didn't like those so I pulled them out, baskets pictured below)


• (2) picture frame hooks (to nail to the back to hang from the wall)

Additional materials if you don't already have them:

• fine line paint brush


• small bottle of white acrylic paint


• Wood stain (I used Varathane's "Briarsmoke"


• Protective coating (I used Varathane's "Matte" Polyurthane)


• Sponge brush for stain and poly


• Sandpaper (or orbital sander if you have one)


• Rustoleum's "Rubbed Oil Bronze" spray paint.

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1: Cut your boards

If you don't have a saw of sorts at home, most stores will cut wood for you. Cut both your boards in half, at 3' each.

2: Attach your boards

I used my Kreg Jig Pocket Hole System to attach the boards together, with one 1x4 in the middle, and a 1x6 board on either side of it, for three boards total. Here's how it looks from behind, after the holes were drilled:

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-3: Attach your hooks on the back

I did this before staining, so I could flip the boards over without waiting for the boards to dry, etc. Check your spacing to make sure the hooks are level with one another so it's level when you hang it. It should look something like this:

-4: Drill the holes for your basket hooks

Again, before staining, check the spacing for your baskets, make sure they are level and even spaced from one another, mark where the hooks will go, and drill the holes. I worked from the bottom up, leaving enough space at the top for the painted letters. Mine ended up being about 7.5" from the bottom to the screw hole, and 11" between screw holes. Mark the alignment with a pencil, and drill uisng a power drill. Here's how it looked when I laid it out:

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-5: Sand and stain your wood

Smooth out all the sides and edges, using either an orbital sander or a sanding block or sand paper- something to smooth it out. This will help to line up any uneven boards, too. Once everything is smoothed out, you can stain. I used Varathane's "Briarsmoke," which turned out beautifully. Originally I was going to paint over the stain and sand the edges away for a more distressed look, but I loved the stain so much that I left it "as is" (plus, the wood look looks better with my kitchen rather than something white)

Here's how it looked:

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-6: Spray your hooks

Originally I thought I was going to do the white sign, so when my choices in hook color were either brass or white, I went with white. After I decided to stick with the stain as my finish, I decided to paint the hooks to make them match the baskets as best I could. Luckily for me I had a bottle of Rustoleum's "Rubbed Oil Bronze" spray paint (that stuff is toally awesome, by the way), so I stuck my little hooks upright into a piece of cardboard, and sprayed from all angles:

 

-7: Paint your letters

While the hooks were drying and after the stain was completely dry, I decided to paint my "FARMERS MARKET" lettering at the top. To do this, I went online to 1001freefonts.com, and looked around until I found a font I wanted to use. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the font I went with for this, but I think it's under "handwriting" and is quite a few pages in. I measured the space I had to work with, and knew that my lettering couldn't be more than 3.5" tall and 13" wide. The lettering I used was just about perfect because it was about 3" tall and about 12" wide. Only problem was that there wasn't room for a rooster in between the words like the one I was modeling mine after. Just as well, the lettering by itself looked nice.

I picked the font size to get the lettering to the right size, and printed that on paper. I cut the two words out into giant squares, and taped them into place over the wood, like so:

To "transfer" the lettering onto the wood, I very FIRMLY traced the outline of the letters with a pencil (although in retrospect I'd recommend a ball point pen- it's smoother so it makes it a little easier on your hand. You want to press firmly enough so that the pen presses through to the other side and leaves a dent in the wood. Check as you go to make sure your outline is showing up on the other side.

Once the letters are all traced out and you can see the indentation in the wood, pull the paper away, and start filling the letters in with paint. For this I like to use a fine line, angled brush. It was actually just a cheap one that came in a variety pack from a craft store, but I use it for all my projects where I'm painting letters. You'd probably do fine with just a pointed brush, especially for this font. Sometimes it helps to look at it from an angle to best see your indentations. When it's all done, your lettering should look something like this:

You might have to do a touch up second coat in some areas, in case one coat of white isn't enough. As a side note, I showed this to my mom, and being the queen of grammar that she is, she responded: "Isn't there supposed to be an apostrophe between the 'r' and 's'?" Well, as my mother's daughter and having those same grammar genes in me, I looked it up before I painted it, and here's what I found: "Some farmers markets get it right, and some don't. No apostrophe is necessary in "farmers" because the phrase is what the AP Stylebook calls a descriptive phrase, not a possessive phrase. A descriptive phrase means the word "farmers" is being treated as an adjective, not as a noun." (Source: Frank Reust, STLtoday.com)
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-8: Protect your wood

A good protective coating is always a good idea. Because this is a little more of a "rustic" piece, however, I didn't want to use a polyurthane coating with any kind of gloss in it. Varathane makes a "matte" polyurthane that I just LOVE. I don't get paid to talk about how much I love it, but I'll tell you why anyway: This stuff is amazing. Super protective, goes on smooth with no trouble, no bubbles, and to my amazement, NO SMELL. I was a bit confused when I first opened it, because it's white like milk, but it dries clear, and without gloss. It's the perfect matte coating. Three coats of that AFTER you paint your lettering, and you're good to go! It's super fast-drying, too (like, 5-10 min?!)

-9: Hang your baskets

Once your boards and hooks are dry, you can screw your hooks in, and hang your baskets! Hopefully everything lines up and is even, and you're all set! Hang your board on a wall (I would recommend finding the studs and if none are available, use screw anchors- this is a heavy piece, so don't just screw into the drywall!!) When it's all done, it should look something like this: