DIY Rustic Heart Clock

I bought this wood heart a while ago, and I had no idea what to do with it. First, I thought I would paint it and hang it on my wall. Then I thought about using it as a tray for my desk. I finally decided to turn the wood heart into a clock when I became inspired by so many beautiful, rustic-looking clocks I saw in stores and on Pinterest.

I began by sanding the heart with fine grit sandpaper. There were a few rough spots and splinters that needed removing. Next, I wiped off the wood dust and began painting the heart with the wood tint. This was my first time using wood tint. I saw it was on sale for under $4, so I decided to give it a try. It’s like a watered-down version of paint. It goes on very light and thin and lets you see more of the wood grain. The tint is kind of expensive without being on sale or using a coupon, so if you want to save money and use an alternative, I would suggest adding water to some acrylic paint. I feel this method will bring a similar result as the wood tint.

To get the rustic look, I painted the heart with two coats of the white wood tint. I waited about an 1.5 hours for the tint to dry, next I lightly sanded the heart and rubbed the distress ink pad on top of the heart. Then I put a small amount of water on a paint brush and started to blend the ink into the tint.

Next, I drilled a hole in the center of the heart with a 3/4″ drill bit, and installed the clock kit.

This is what the clock looked like when I finished assembling all the pieces:

I thought it looked pretty good, but my husband said the numbers were too hard for him to see because they were small and light. So I decided to draw some numbers on the clock with black Sharpie markers and a stencil.