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:
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.
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!
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.
