Chic DIY Antler Wall Decor

If you are married to a hunter, or are a hunter yourself, you may find yourself with a collection of trophies for the wall.  Since my husband has been an extremely successful hunter, he has accumulated quite a few over the years.  The plan was to have a trophy “room” which has expanded to a scattering throughout the basement and a few more at our cabin.

Although most of these trophies are worthy of display, there are some older ones that need to either decorate a garage or have a major overhaul.

One such case was a set of elk antlers that my husband mounted many years ago.  The other day I hesitantly asked him if I could have free reign over them and see what I could do to make them look a little nicer.  To my surprise, he said that I could!  I don’t think I actually said that I wanted to chic them up a little….

Here is what they looked like before:

elk antlers before picture

DIY Antler Wall Decor

Basically, I like the antlers and that is it.  The leather color was not for me and I wanted to also lighten up the wood.  Since I also didn’t care for the exact shape of the part covered with leather, I decided to cover it with something that had texture.  I used snow-tex.

elk antlers before picture

What I love about snow-tex is that it sticks so nice to any surface once it is dry and it is fairly easy to apply.  I normally use it for winter crafts and making snowballs.  I used an old paint brush to brush it on, filling in any gaps where the leather did not meet the edges.

After the snow-tex was dry, I painted the wood back and the snow-tex with a semi-gloss latex paint.  I put on two coats and then sanded it smooth.  Since I wanted a small amount of the wood to show through, for a distressed look, I sanded a little heavier in a couple of areas.

Then, instead of hanging the antlers back up in my husband’s trophy room, I moved them into our basement family room!

elk antlers by rustic-crafts.com

chic elk antlers by rustic-crafts.com

elk antlers by rustic-crafts.com

I’m happy with how they fit in with our lodge-y space and now there is more room in his trophy “room” for more trophies!

For more ideas on decorating with antlers, check out Decorating With Antlers For A Rustic Chic Style.

 

 

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Creating rustic styling on a budget by giving new life to old things and using the beauty that is already found in nature. Read more about me.
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