Hey guys! In this tutorial, I’m going to show you step by step how I made this simple DIY geometric wood mosaic. It’s the perfect touch of southwestern-boho wall art if you have eclectic taste and shop at places like Anthropologie for home decor ideas.

Plus I have the free plans for you to download, so you can copy this design.

Grab them here:

Where should I send your Mosaic Build Plans?

Download Your Mosaic Plans!

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Are you ready?!

Here’s the DIY geometric wood mosaic we’re going to make:

Overview of Geometric Wood Mosaic:

1. Time: about 2 or 3 hours.
2. Cost: ~ $25
3. Difficulty: Easy (or medium if you’re new to a miter saw)

1. Gather Your Supplies:

Supplies Needed:

1. Plywood: 5/8 inch or thicker plywood, cut to 11 inches x 6-1/2 inches.
2. Thin strip of wood: I use cedar lath (used in lattice) and it is only 1/4″ thick. Mine is ripped down to 1″ wide. You can find them in 6 ft lengths, bundles of 10 strips, at Lowe’s or Home Depot.
3. Wood for frame: I use cheap cedar fence boards ripped down to 1/2″ thick by 1-1/2″ wide.
4. Acrylic craft paint colors – an assortment of 8 colors plus black and white. I use the cheap kind – always $0.99 to $1.99 per bottle.
5. Decorative scrap book paper and modpodge for the backer board.
6. Wood glue
7. Optional: Minwax polycrylic for clear coating your finished mosaic.

Tools I Used:

1. Miter saw for cutting the little mosaic pieces. You can do without a miter saw if you have a cheap hand saw and a miter box. A miter box guides your angled cuts with your hand saw and is pretty cheap!
2. Table saw for cutting the plywood backer board. (you can ask your lumber store to cut it for you if you don’t have a table saw.
3. Pneumatic nail guns: pin-nailer (23 ga) and brad-nailer (18 ga). But you can get by with wood glue if you don’t have these. Well, at least for the mosaic. The frame would be harder to do without a nail gun, but I suppose glue would do the job.

2. Cut Your Backer Board and Pieces

I made a list of all the cut dimensions of the little mosaic pieces.

You can download the cut list and build plans at the top of this post. It also includes a blank mosaic outline as a coloring sheet you can use to plan out your color scheme.

If you’d prefer a simpler mosaic project without an angled cuts, check out my mosaic coasters project here. It’s all made from little strips of wood.

Now that you have the backer board and little pieces cut for your mosaic wall art:

3. Lightly Sand Your Wood Pieces

1. Mark some gridlines on your backer board just as a guide for when you start affixing your pieces. I like having the center marked both directions, and then every 3 inches or so.
2. Lightly sand the edges of your backer board and cut mosaic pieces.

4. Paint Your Mosaic Pieces.

I don’t use anything special to paint my mosaic pieces.

In fact, it’s just the $0.99 acrylic craft paint you can find at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, anywhere. They come in small bottles.

I’m a junky for all the different colors. 🙂 It’s seriously a problem.

5. Cover the Backer Board in Decorative Paper

You can either use Mod Podge to cover the backer board with a decorative paper, or you can paint it a solid color.

Or heck, why not hand paint a simple pattern?

One step I forgot to show was that I did trim off the bare wood edges in the photos above and below.

Another option would be to cover it up with part of your wood frame.

6. Glue and Nail on the Mosaic Pieces

Start laying out your design. Play around with the arrangement!

Stack shapes, move them around, just experiment to see what looks good to you.

Then lightly glue the back of the pieces and nail them in place.

If you don’t have a nail gun – carefully glue your mosaic in place and set some books on top of it while the glue dries.

7. Frame Up the Geometric Wood Mosaic

When I cut the frame pieces I actually don’t use a measuring tape. I find that it’s more accurate if you just hold the frame up to the mosaic edge and mark the frame piece where you need to cut.

In the free plans you can download, I do give you the approximate measurements for the frame pieces, but it really depends on how accurately you cut that backerboard.

So it’s better to just hold it up next to the mosaic and mark it instead of measuring.

Framing Tip: When I frame with mitered corners, it can help to using painter’s tape to keep everything in place while your nail the frame on.

I do use both wood glue and nails to put the frame on.

Mitered frames can be pretty frustrating if you’re new to woodworking.

So an easier alternative is just using straight cuts, and have the long edge of the frame overlap the short edge to make the corner. It’s way simpler!

8. Apply Protective Clear Coat and Picture Hanging Hardware!

Would you like to make this simple mosaic? Or maybe copy the layout but use different colors or paper on the backerboard?

Download your free mosaic coloring sheet (and build plans) below, so you can plan out your own mosaic color scheme.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Mosaic coloring sheet (for planning your colors)
• 3 mosaic color schemes you can copy (including the one in this blog post)
• supplies list for shopping
• paint colors list to copy the color scheme in this blog post
• exact build plans and cut list for replicating this mosaic
• download it all for free below! 🙂

Where should I send your Mosaic Build Plans?

Download Your Mosaic Plans!

We keep our word – we don’t spam you or sell your info. Unsubscribe at anytime.

You’ll also get notified when I drop new free mosaic plans.

If you love color and pattern, then you’ll love making wood mosaics!

I’m kind of addicted.

So what did you think?

If you have any lingering questions, I’d love to help you out! Just leave a comment below and I’ll reply asap.

Or tell me if there’s a type of mosaic or color scheme you’d like to see next.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Liesell Maretta at Girls Build Club.