DIY Wooden World Map Art
Decorate your walls with this beautiful DIY Wooden World Map for a fraction of store bought price.
Last week while perusing the web I came across an amazing Wooden World Map on Vivaterra (no longer available). I thought that it would be a gorgeous addition to my son Jack’s room-he is very much a little geography nut. The price tag however-a whopping $475-was not going to work. I knew I could make my own knock-off.
If you like this DIY tutorial you should also check out how to hang curtains with command hooks!
How to Make a Wood World Map
I started by creating a wood base with scraps left over from my DIY Headboard build a while back. I simply nailed the planks to the scrap wood on the back to stabilize them.
I then printed off a map template online and began the painstaking process of tracing it onto the wood-the easiest way to do this is using carbon paper between the printed map and the wood. The stain you use later will cover the traced lines.
Below you can see the map traced onto the wood. After I traced the map I prepared the wood with a wood conditioner and sanded it with a fine grain sandpaper. (DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP-YOUR STAIN WILL BLEED IF YOU DO NOT CONDITION YOUR WOOD!!)
I then used the leftover Mission Oak stain from my headboard project and a small paintbrush to paint the map design onto the wood. Use very fine paint brushes to outline sections at a time then fill in with a wider brush. Updated to add: I used a variety pack of inexpensive brushes like this when I made these maps to sell years ago because the stain pretty much ruins the brushes.
And here it is! I love it! I like that it has a rustic, distressed look to it. It was quite the process to make but I am just tickled at how it turned out-so much so that I decided to make them to order through my Etsy shop as well! (Update: I am not currently selling these maps.)
Now I need your opinion-I had originally planned to hang this on the wall in my son’s room but one of the other projects I started this weekend was making him a headboard-my husband had the idea of framing this out and making it into his headboard…what do you think? I think it could look pretty cool but I’m not 100% convinced yet. Your thoughts?
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Other map projects:
What a neat idea! That must have taken so much work! I found you on Tip ME Tuesday,
Love this idea!
Thank you for sharing the process!!
All the best,
Mary
Mixed-Media Map Art
I say GO FOR IT!!! I think it would look really nice!!
Thanks for sharing at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality!!
I think this looks great! I can imagine that it took forever to finish.
I think it would look fantastic as a headboard and I don’t even think it would need to be trimmed out (unless it’s a width issue). If it were me, I would make the decision based on if you have a specific empty wall you were planning to put it on. If there is a perfect wall, then a similarly styled headboard would give the room great rustic balance.
Wow that is amazing! I think it would be gorgeous styled as a headboard!
It looks like all that work was worth it.. it’s gorgeous!
That is wicked cool – great job!
I would love if you came by my party to link this up – the party is happening now!
Stacey of Embracing Change
https://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com
i LOVE that! totally looks professional and something a store would charge a lot of money for. great job!
Love that. love that. love that. truly orginal! hope you come share it and participate in our linky party: https://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
I absolutely love it! I’ve seen a few versions of this and just love the concept. Yours came out so great!! 🙂
Oh. My. Gosh. I’m in love! Amazing, amazing, amazing. Yeah, you should sell those.
Bobi
https://westernwarmth.blogspot.com
Oh wow. That is so cool- as art or as a headboard, it will be a focal point in the room. Great work!
This is stunning. What a fantastic project. Tweeting this!
I love this idea. It looks natural, yet interesting. Really nice!
That would be an awesome headboard! So great! Thank you for the inspiration!
This is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time! I would hang it on the wall, but it would make an awesome headboard as well. You can’t go wrong with this beauty 🙂
That turned out fantastic! I love it!!! Pinning.
This is a really great project! It turned out fantastic. I hope you will come link it up at my Pinworthy Projects Party!
This turned out great! I would love for you to share this at my link party
https://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/06/share-it-link-party-16.html
wow wow wow. that’s cool. came out amazingly great. thank you for linking it up at our party at https://www.finecraftguild.com
this is awesome~ I imagine it would take a long time with all of the detail of the map. great job!
lovely!
I love this!
WOW! My hubby would love this (former history/geo/social studies teacher). I think it would make a great head board but agree with Miranda. Either way, you can’t go wrong.
Love this idea! You did a fabulous job!! The stain just makes it!
This is beautiful. What wood and stain did you use? -Kourtney S
Hi Kourtney, it is pine wood with Minwax Mission Oak stain. I used Minwax wood conditioner as well and finished with polyurethane.
This is super-cool! What a neat idea, and your execution is just right. I’m sure the process of tracing was no fun, but it was worth it!
I love this! How did you trace from the map?
An idea is to go to a sign shop and get them to cut the map into thin tape like plastic. Stick it down, stain then peel. I want to make it and mark everywhere I travel 🙂
Looks great! I was also wondering how you traced the map onto the wood and what website you got the map template from? Thank you!
— Ade H.
Hi Ade!
I used this site to print the map I wanted-they have tons of options for maps and different sizes up to almost 6′ by 6′:
https://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps.htm
Then I taped it to my wood panel and traced it with a pencil hard enough to leave an impression on the wood (I used a soft wood) After I traced the entire thing I went back and painted it with the stain using the impression outline as my guide.
Let me know if you have any other questions, hope this helps!
Melissa
Recently I saw another DIY project that required tracing onto wood. You might find this a bit quicker…this lady blacked out the back of her paper with charcoal, taped it to the wood and just traced over the image. That transferred the charcoal lines onto the wood and she was able to go from there. I hope that makes sense. If not…I’ll link to her tutorial on her project.
Great idea! Thanks!
Hi Melissa,
I’m making this for my boyfriend’s birthday present. I had a couple questions though…
What size wood did you use?
What size map from the website did you use?
Thank you!
Absolutely amazing! I’m speechless!! I love it. Megan
This is wonderful! I would keep the headboard and the art – that is use the headboard for the headboard and keep this for the wall. I think you should have at least one really cool thing to look at while you are in bed. This would be it.
Beautiful!!!! How did you attach the front to the back support beams?
I just used a small board to attach the wood planks together but when I build my next one I’ll be using joining strips from the hardware store to reduce bulk.
Melissa — I love this project and I’m attempting it myself! I’m posting about it on my (very) new blog, and I’ve added a picture that leads to this page, if that’s alright with you!
That’s great Jess! Can you send me a link?
Here it is: https://www.thecopycat.org/2012/07/24/copycatmapart/
wow this is simply amazing! good job!!!
You remembered New Zealand! You wouldn’t believe how many people leave us off maps. 🙂
How did you make such a clear cut line? I would think the stain would bleed with the grain of the wood.
Sorry but you REALLY messed up the whole east coast of Canada!!!!
This is AWESOME! I hadn’t thought of “painting” with stain. Thanks for sharing!!
When I first saw this, I immediately thought it could be my son’s headboard. He loves maps… I don’t know if I would make it, may just visit your etsy shop…
Would it have been easier to use carbon paper for the tracing? I would like to see you experiment with making each country a different shade of stain. I know that when staining concrete they cut the concrete outside of the design. Perhaps tracing the edges with an Exacto knife would prevent different stains from running into each other. Perhaps that would give it an inlaid wood appearance. This would make a great coffee table too. Also a link to the map you used would be great.
This is awesome…and really inspiring! An alternative to printing the map and tracing it would be to project the image onto the boards and trace it that way (using a laptop and LCD projector) I’ve personally tried this method with other projects, and it certainly saves a lot of time. Love this!
Hi! this is really cool! is there any way you can link the prints of the world so i can just print those?
hi
do you have a picture of the final framed product?
looks great! How did you trace it onto the wood??
Thanks Georgia! I take the map printout and rub pencil on the back, then turn it and trace so the pencil rubbings transfer to the wood. Let me know if you have any more questions!
For anyone looking for tips on tracing… I read this on another blog but newspaper also works as tracing paper. I found an ad in the newspaper that was almost entirely black. Put it dark side down on the wood then trace on top of it. It will leave an outline for you. I did it piece by piece of the 9 page map to keep track better of what I had traced. It only took me an hour to trace the entire map.
Great tip Kristen! I’ll have to try that on my next one, I’ve been using a pencil to color the back of the lines on my printout then tracing to get the same effect but newspaper would be so much faster! Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely LOVE this! I may try to do something similar but honestly don’t know if I’d have the patience! It came out beautiful though!! Happy New Year! XO
Thanks Christine! It does take patience but you could do it for sure! I’m working on my second one of the week!
Oh My Goodness!!!!! How amazingly cool! I am SO inspired! I would have never thought to use stain on plain wood like this to get such a great look! Thank you SO much for sharing! And to say I am tempted to order one of these on your esty shop is an understatement! Thank you SO much for sharing at Happy Hour! I am pinning your project to our Happy Hour Feature board right now!
Jaime
Thanks so much Jamie!! You’re too sweet! They do take a good bit of patience but the finished product is worth it-I’m working on one right now actually!
Sorry I misspelled your name-answering from my iPhone!
This is absolutely gorgeous! The two tone wood is perfect, I could definitely see this in my home! Love it. Great job and lovely tutorial. Featured you on my FB page and Pinned 🙂
Wow, thanks so much Taryn! I love your blog & projects so it’s extra-special coming from you! Happy New Year!
How did you keep the stain from bleeding into the wood. I tried this and traced the map, but when I started to stain it, the stain bled past my tracing
Hi Amanda, It’s very importance to use Wood Conditioner on the wood prior to staining. I’ve had numerous people contact me about their stain bleeding and all of them forgot that step. Did you condition your wood? I’m going to go back in the post to make sure that step is highlighted.
You should know that site called DIYhomedesignpins.com stole your pictures and is using it to generate clicks via Pinterest
Thank you SO much for letting my know, I’ve contacted them to ask it is removed. There were a lot of blogging friend’s projects on there too, I’ve let some know as well. Again-thank you so much!
My only question is, does the sanding take off the tracing?
The sanding is so light that it doesn’t affect the tracing and to be quite honest you can skip it without affecting the final outcome. As long as you condition the wood you’ll be good-you absolutely can’t skip that step!
To make the tracing easier you could cut out the stencil of the map on vinyl using a Silhouette Cameo. After the vinyl is cut, just use transfer paper to move the stencil onto the wood and trace!
Hi Ben…
do you think you can print out the 9 page map on printable vinyl and do the same thing?
Thanks!
How did you trace the template onto the wood???? Thanks!!
Hi Madeline! What I do is print off my template and tape the pieces of paper together. Then I turn the paper over and color over all the lines on the back to create my own version of carbon paper! Then turn it back over, tape in place on my wood panel and trace, I check periodically to make sure the design is transferring clearly. I considered buying carbon paper at one point but it was pricy in my area.This works well enough for me!
I LOVE THIS! My husband and I are travel nuts and so we are doing the guest room in a “travel the world” kind of theme with maps and pictures from all the places we have been and want to go! I think this would make an EXCELLENT addition! But I did have a question…did you sand and condition AFTER you traced the map onto the wood and did you ONLY do the areas you were going to be staining or the entire piece? Thank you so much!
Quick question….I understand that I need to use wood conditioner before the stain, but do I put the conditioner over all of the wood or just over the wood that I don’t want stained?
This has such a great design!!! I am doing an adventurer big boy room for my growing toddler and will be attempting to make this! May I ask what kind of wood you used? 🙂
Hi Alyssa! I just use regular white wood in the lumber section at Lowes. It costs under $3 for a 6′ section.
I love this idea! I am attempting to make it for my best friend for a wedding gift. I had one question for you, the Minewax pre-stain conditioner’s directions said that the stain must be applied between 15 min-2 hours after being conditioned. Do you have to finish the painting of the stain within two hours of conditioning the wood?
How did you trace the map onto your wood?
You can use carbon paper to transfer the design but I just rub pencil on the back of my printed map then trace-sort of makeshift carbon paper I guess!
Hello, I am in love with this project idea. I was wondering about the carbon paper transferring idea. Brilliant makeshift with the penciling!
Beautiful work!
Thanks so much Nina!
This is beautiful! I want to use stain with a vinyl stencil. Do you think the wood conditioner would prevent the stain from leaking under the stencil?
How exactly did you trace the map onto the wood? It looks so great, I’d love to try it myself.
Carbon paper Carrie!
Hello Melissa, do you cover the entire top with the conditioner or just where the stain will be? And do you trace after of before you apply the conditioner ?
-Jen
Hi Jen! I condition the entire piece and then trace the design after it’s dried at least 2 hours. I’d love to see how yours turns out when you finish! Have a great weekend, Melissa
I just found this out and instantly fell in love!
I was thinking of making one of these and fit some tube lights on the back, giving it a dual function..room decor during the day and night light during the night
Just one question though, after you traced the map did you sand the entire surface area of the wood or just the area within the map lines?
I sanded the entire piece and primed it before tracing the map!
This is awesome! I really want to make this for my own home <3
Awesome work! I would attempt this, but any thoughts on how i could make the map in different colors?
Thanks!
How much did this cost you make including all materials?
It was under $25 if I remember correctly.
But a pretty decent time investment!
Thanks so much for sharing this. It was super helpful!! My boyfriend and I made one of these maps (using your post) over a year ago, and now we’re using it to mark all the places we’re traveling to – I’ve posted a photo of our map here.
Thanks again!
Diana Southern
North to South, A Full Time Travel Blog
Thanks so much for sharing it, yours looks gorgeous!
I’ve been searching high and low for a nice world map that I can mark all the places I’ve been, my husband has been, and we’ve both been together. This is it! Iive always wanted to frame a world map but never did because I was never thrilled about the looks of a traditional world map. I just doesn’t go nicely with our homes style. I think this will be a great way to do it. Looks beautiful!
I’m so glad you found it Andrea! I hope it works out for you and if you make your own I’d love to see a picture of the finished product!
This looks awesome! What are the dimensions of the wood panel you used?
It ended up being 21″ by 31″
I saw this idea and had to try it, or at least a version of it. I made a headboard using 8 inch wide boards, 40 inches wide. I found a map 24 x 30 inches and traced the outline of the continents on craft paper by taping the map to a well lit glass door, cut out the continents and spaced out on the headboard. The cutting out did take quite a while- about 5 hours and the staining of the landforms took another 5 hours. All in all, about a 20 hour project to complete; but WELL WORTH THE RESULTS.
You’ve probably answered this question before, I’m sorry if so! When you conditioned the wood before staining it, which part of the board did you condition and sand? The whole thing? Only the part where you were going to add the stain? Or in the parts where you didn’t want the stain to touch?
Never mind, I found my answer in the comments! 🙂
Ok, or wood is EXTREMELY cheap in America. Or I am missing something here. 6 + 2 planks for the back (but lets say one cut in half for the back if you are lucky) planks of that size thickness. Here that would costs you a 250€ or 279$ for the wood alone. And that’s with thinner wooden planks then the planks shown here =/
The wood planks I used are not finished, they are very rough and used for outdoor projects-they cost under $3 a board here in the States. I made these for multiple years to sell online and would search through the wood for the best/straightest pieces. I could get the entire thing made with 4 boards (The boards were 6 feet long and I cut into 30 inch pieces), so it cost under $12 for the wood. I then sanded the wood down myself to smooth it prior to staining so it looks like a nicer plank than I started with.
I think it is cool that you made this for yourself, but not so cool to be selling it since it was someone else’s original idea. Just sayin’
Do you use the wood conditioner before or after sanding?
Hey!
This diy certainly turned out amazing! I have a question: where I’m from (the Netherlands) blue carbon paper is easier to get and cheaper, is there a reason to go for black carbon paper to trace the map or will blue work also?
I’m not staining the map but cutting it out of plywood and burning in the countries borders into the wood. I’m hoping to make it into a massive statement piece 🙂
Thanks in advance!
As long as you think the wood burning would cover the blue I don’t see why it would be an issue Marissa!
This is an old post so I may not get a reply but just thought I’d try…
I’m attempting to make this but I’m having major problems with the stain bleeding and I am using the wood conditioner recommended and following the directions on the can.
I’ve been racking my brain for things I can use as a barrier over the pencil boarders, glue, crayon wax, etc. But nothing is working. Any tips would we greatly appreciated. Yours is so beautiful, thanks for posting your tutorial!
I’m sorry Kira, I’m not sure why you’re getting bleeding if you have conditioned the wood prior…I have never had any issues with it if I did the conditioning step in all the maps I used to make to sell on Etsy. I’m sorry not to be of more help!
Hi there!
About to give this a try this weekend. Just wondering what you used to remove any excess stain? or did you just ensure you weren’t using too much at once?
I’m either going with the Minwax conditioner & stain or the Varathane stain which doesn’t require conditioning and then following up with polyurethane.
My understanding is you sand (going from maybe 120, 150, to a 180 grit), apply the conditioner, waiting at least 15 mins, then removing any excess at which point you can start staining. I’ve heard you can leave the conditioner on as long as you want but wanted to get a sense of what you did over time?
Any tips would be appreciated, doing this for my gf’s birthday. T
Thanks!
Hi Dan, I used a very fine paintbrush for the stain and did not load much stain at once so did not have to remove excess. I did minimal sanding on my wood, just really to remove any very rough spots or splinters. I don’t have any experience with Varathane but in my experience not conditioning the wood led to bleeding of the stain. I would apply the conditioner and let it soak up in the wood and spread any excess. Once the wood was dry from the conditioner I’d start the staining process. Good luck with the project, let me know if you have any more questions! ~Melissa
Did you trace the map before or after conditioning and sanding? Seems the sanding would erase your tracing.
I traced it after the sanding and conditioning Angie! ~Melissa
I just tried this DIY and used a wood conditioner but my stain still bled. Does the type of wood used make a difference? If so, what type did you use? Thank you!
Oh no Shana!I normally use cheap wood planks from the outdoor lumber section at Lowes-it’s been a really long time since I’ve made one so I don’t remember the exact name they were called but they were less than $3 for a 6 foot length. Can you do a test area with more conditioner? Maybe it’s extra porous and you need to let it soak in more conditioner before it won’t bleed with the stain… Sorry not to be more help, that’s the only thing I can think of to try. ~Melissa
Hi I saw that you mentioned thewood dimensions were 21″x31″. I was wondering what size map did you use?
Thanks
I believe it was the printout that was 4 by 4 pages ~Melissa
Hello! I could haave sworn I’ve visited this web site before but after going through some of the articles I realized it’s new to me.
Regardless, I’m definitely pleased I discovered it aand I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back regularly!
We are making a coffee table, and I wouldn’t love for it to have something extra like this on top. Could you paint the map on and then stain over for a different affect? What paint would you suggest?
I knew I could make my own knock-off.