How to make a Wooden Barn Quilt

How to make a wooden barn quilt

Wooden Barn quilts have become so popular on Pinterest at the moment, that I had to join in and have a try.  Like most projects I try, I always seem to jump in feet first.  Instead of trying a small basic design first, I jump straight in and made a kingsize headboard with a unique design.  Lucky for me it worked out great, but I had lots of pieces leftover.  I am now going back to basics and doing a wooden barn quilt wall hanging to use up all the pieces.

How to make a wooden barn quilt

I was not familiar with where the idea of a wooden barn quilt came from, so I did a little research.  You may be really surprised to see that they started off as a painted design.  Donna Sue Groves wished to honour her mother, Maxine, and her Appalachian heritage by having a painted quilt hung on her barn in Adams County, Ohio. Full History 

I am not too sure who started making barn quilts up out of lots of small cuts of wood, but I totally love the idea. It looks like a difficult process, but it is very simple when you see it broken down into steps.  The headboard I made had been painted to suit my daughter’s decor, so this barn quilt was going to be stained with wood stain.

How to Make a Wooden Barn Quilt

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This project is perfect if you have lots of scraps of wood laying around.  I used plywood because my son is a builder, and he brings me all the scraps laying around after a job has been completed.  It really does not matter if the plywood is bent because once it is cut into smaller pieces it is not noticeable. You do need to use the same thickness to get a nice finish though. For this project, I used 12 mm thick plywood. It is a good idea to sand the wood before for start cutting, rather than sanding all the small pieces. I used an orbital sander with 220 grit sandpaper.

How to make a wooden barn quilt

Cutting the strips of plywood

To cut the strips of plywood I used a table saw and set the width to 50 mm. I ripped all the strips in one go to make sure they are all the same width.

How to make a wooden barn quilt

Once you have cut the strips it is time to cut them into the small shapes. You can have different lengths, but it is important to have all the angles the same, which is 45 degrees.  This step is very easy to do using a miter saw. To get all the pieces the same size you can set up a stop block on your saw. A very important piece of information I learned by doing this is you need to add a spacer block between the cut and the stop block.  This is an extra piece of wood that can be removed before you make the cut. This will give the offcut somewhere to go instead of flying up, which can be a hazard.

How to make a wooden barn quilt

Once you have all the pieces cut it is time to add them to the base.

How to make a wooden barn quilt

Marking out the base

The base can be any size as long as it is a square.  Using a straight piece of wood mark out the board like the image below.  This is important to keep the design straight. Ignore the mess on the wood, because it is free and recycled it is not in the best shape.  But this does not affect the outcome.

wooden barn quilt

Laying out the design

Start in the centre and make arrows with the first 2 pieces, then duplicate this for all the centrepieces.  We are not gluing at this stage, just working out the design that you want. The arrow shapes should fit in place along the lines.

wooden barn quilt

This is where you can be creative by using different shapes, like triangles and squares.  Fit the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.  When you get to the outside pieces, they could end up overlapping the base, but not to worry these will be cut flush with the base at the end.

wooden barn quilt

Staining the wood

Start in the middle staining the wood as you go along, this pattern is very basic, so it was easy to stain. You can keep moving the pieces around until you are happy with the design.

wooden barn quilt

Gluing the barn quilt

I did a few tests on the best way to fix the pieces to the base, and a hot glue gun worked best.  But saying this I did use good quality glue sticks from the hardware store as opposed to the budget store brand. Using hot glue allows you to continue working without waiting for glue to dry.  You can use a nail gun, but I found the nails were visible.

wooden barn quilt

One thing I did notice about using plywood, was that the colour of the wood stain was not consistent.  I believe this was because I used multiple different pieces of plywood.  But I was still happy with the look. Once all the pieces were glued in place, I cut away the excess that was hanging over the edges using the drop saw.

wooden barn quilt

Adding wood veneer tape

I was so happy with the look I decided not to build a frame, but I still need to finish off the edges.  To do this I used wood veneer edging tape. It is so quick and easy to use which was great.

wooden barn quilt

It is a good idea to use an old iron for this step because you could end up with adhesive on the iron. Place the tape on the edges and heat with a hot iron with no steam.  You can use a rag between the wood veneer and the iron. The iron will melt the adhesive and stick the tape to the edges.

wooden barn quilt

Use a Stanley knife to remove the excess veneer.

wooden barn quilt

To seal the barn quilt before going on my wall, I added 2 coats of satin spray polyurethane.  Please feel free to leave a comment or share this project.

wooden barn quilt

This was my first wooden barn quilt which was very ambitious, and not without its problems which you can read about here. 

Barn quilt headboard

For more project ideas check out this really cute cold water auto feeder.  I made this for my dogs to keep their water bowl full and cool during the hot summer days.

Pet water auto feeder

How to make a wooden barn quilt
How to make a wooden barn quilt

How to make a wooden barn quilt

If you are looking for any of the items used in this project, please consider using our links. By clicking on the links we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.  Which helps us come up with new and exciting ideas to share with you.

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38 Comments

  • Reply
    Michele Morin
    April 7, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    What patience and precision this project required! So beautiful!

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 8, 2020 at 9:59 am

      Thank you so much, it really does look harder than it actually is.

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 13, 2020 at 10:47 am

      Thank you so much, It is honestly not that difficult you should give it a try.

  • Reply
    Michelle
    April 9, 2020 at 11:38 am

    This is beautiful! You did an amazing job on this! I love barn quilts. It’s so nice seeing them pop up all over town where I live recently.

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 13, 2020 at 10:49 am

      Thank you so much, I had never seen them until about 6 months ago. Now I love them.

  • Reply
    Kristen Hubert
    April 9, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    I love this especially all the different shades of the wood.

  • Reply
    Michelle Leslie
    April 12, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    It looks stunning Anita. Every time I see one of your projects I always wish we’de met in our home country. Damn girl, we would have had so much fun together. Your stuff is always so inspiring and unique. Thank goodness for people like you who jump in feet first 😀

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 13, 2020 at 10:44 am

      AWWW, Thank you so much Michelle for the beautiful comment, I feel the same when I see your work. I am sure we would come up with some really crazy ideas if we did get together.

  • Reply
    Cecilia
    April 13, 2020 at 1:49 am

    Back in the 90s, I bought a kit like this featuring a raw quilted house design that I painted, and I hung onto it for years. I’m very impressed that you cut your own! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 13, 2020 at 10:42 am

      Thank you so much Cecilia, I would love to see it if you still have it.

  • Reply
    Grandma's House DIY
    April 14, 2020 at 12:45 am

    Thanks so much for sharing with us! I’ll be featuring you this week on my blog, Instragam and Facebook!
    To Grandma’s house we go link party at https://www.grandmashousediy.com

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 15, 2020 at 10:23 am

      Thank you so much for the feature on my Barn quilt.

  • Reply
    Sarah @ The DIY Mommy
    April 14, 2020 at 7:24 am

    What a great project! It looks fantastic!

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 15, 2020 at 10:23 am

      Thank you so much. Sarah.

    • Reply
      Deshai
      May 16, 2020 at 4:39 am

      I absolutely love this project. Came across it when researching to do my own. If you dont mind sharing, what are the measurements of each little shape? It looks like a 2 in X 2 in. Thank you so much!

      • Reply
        Anita Holland
        May 16, 2020 at 5:28 pm

        Hi Deshai, I can’t get my head around inches but in millimetres, the width is 50mm x 70mm length. It honestly does not matter what size you cut them as long as they are the same width to start and you cut them all at 45 degrees. You can even mix different lengths. Here is one I made just to give you an idea. https://uniquecreationsbyanita.com/barn-quilt-headboard/ It would be easier to start with a basic one first.

  • Reply
    Waste Not Wednesday 201
    April 15, 2020 at 10:00 am

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    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 15, 2020 at 10:22 am

      Thank you so much for the shout out on my Barn Quilt. It is greatly appreciated.

  • Reply
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    April 15, 2020 at 11:00 am

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  • Reply
    Sam _ Raggedy Bits
    April 16, 2020 at 10:24 am

    This turned out so beautiful Anita!! A perfect and different way to display all the beautiful Barn quilt patterns!

  • Reply
    Michelle @ The Painted Hinge
    April 17, 2020 at 3:03 am

    This is gorgeous Anita! Thank you so much for sharing this at Farmhouse Friday – I’m featuring it at tomorrow’s party!

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 19, 2020 at 11:57 am

      Thank you so much Michelle for the lovely comment and the feature. See you next week. X

  • Reply
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    April 17, 2020 at 10:07 pm

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    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      April 19, 2020 at 11:59 am

      Thank you so much for the feature on my wooden barn quilt. It is greatly appreciated.

  • Reply
    Leanna Forsythe
    April 18, 2020 at 10:40 am

    This is beautiful, it takes lots of patience and skill to do these cuts. Beautiful job,

  • Reply
    Linda at Mixed Kreations
    November 11, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    Your barn wood quilt is lovely! And WOW on your headboard, it’s amazing! I don’t think that I would have enough patience to make one with all the cuts. Beautiful work!

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      November 13, 2020 at 7:05 pm

      Thank you so much, Linda, I find it so relaxing until the last few because they never fit properly. lol

  • Reply
    Jeanne
    December 31, 2020 at 3:59 am

    I really like your wooden quilts! So many possibilities

    Here is a link to a quilt I made…
    http://jeanneselep.blogspot.com/2011/09/batik-star-quilt.html

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      December 31, 2020 at 10:57 am

      It is very beautiful and so much work, well done.

  • Reply
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  • Reply
    Sharon
    February 8, 2022 at 2:32 am

    I love this! My quilting group has decided to make barn quilts to display in our yards and designate us as members. Additionally, Hubs is a marvelous woodworker, and I work with a scroll saw, so we always have tons of scrap materials. Have you ever tried staining the pieces of wood, and then cutting into desired shapes?

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      February 8, 2022 at 6:33 am

      Thank you. I did try staining first, but found my saw at times chipped the surface and I had to go back and add for stain. I also prefer to add stain down the sides because it make the design blend better together. The white down the sides stands out more. I just found it easier.

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  • Reply
    Marti Bowland
    August 20, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    Cutting precision using a mix of plywoods like you achieved is hard to do. Your barn quilt is beautiful. Let me ask you: could I do this using a variety of remnant luxury vinyl flooring if they are all the same thickness?

  • Reply
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  • Reply
    Tim Ahlfeld
    October 12, 2023 at 7:59 am

    This is a nice project. Love the color design. Looks 3D

    I have a question regarding the dimensions. It would be easiest if you told us how large the square is. Once we have that information, we can cut the wood to the desired lengths.

    Thank you.

    • Reply
      Anita Holland
      October 14, 2023 at 7:43 am

      Thanks for your comment Tim. Mine was 45cm square, but it really does not matter what size it is because all the pieces are the same and will just fit in until the final pieces.

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