Upcycle Scrap Wood Into a Unique Wall Key Holder
I seem to spend half my life looking for my keys especially my car keys. What I need to do is put them in the same place every time so I know where they are!
That’s why I decided to make a fun wall key holder for them. And you know what it works, when I come in I hang my keys up and I don’t have to hunt for them anymore!
When I say that this wall key holder is made from junk I’m not exaggerating, it’s literally some scraps of wood and rusty nails. My husband thought I’d lost it when I went on the hunt for some rusty nails in the garden for my project.
The houses are supposed to represent the homes on my street, which they kind of look like except we don’t have flowery roofs, unfortunately. That’s why I stamped our street name on the key rack. I even used a bit of old skirting board (baseboard) from the house.
These key holders would make a lovely gift, especially if you stamped the recipients street name on the rack. For my next one, I want to get a bit more ambitious and do one for my old home in Hong Kong with some icon buildings made out of scrap wood.
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What you need to make a wooden wall key holder
- Scraps of wood, some long thin bits (ie 2″x 1″) and a bit of skirting board (baseboard). Or some other piece of molded wood like architrave.
- Rusty nails, small ones for the houses and large ones to use as hooks.
- Hacksaw
- Acrylic paint in various colours.
- Fabric scraps or decorative washi tape
- Letter stamp set and a black stamp pad.
- Green felting wool and a felting needle and sponge
How to Make a Wooden Wall Key Holder
Making the cute houses…
- First using a hack saw cut scraps of wood into 3 small pieces approximately 2″ high 1″ wide. Using the saw create a pointed roof. Don’t worry too much about getting a perfect shape the wonkiness of the houses gives them their charm.
- Smooth any jagged edges on the houses with a hand chisel.
- Paint each house a different base colour. Stick fabric scraps or decorative washi tape on the pointed roofs.
- When the base colour has dried paint white dots for the windows and a coloured door.
- After the window and door paint has dried paint black window frames around them.
- To finish off the houses hammer a rusty into the roof for a chimney.
Making the felt tree..
- There are lots of trees on my street so I wanted a tree on my key holder. To make a tree, firstly I needle felted some green roving wall into a round tree shape.
If you are not familiar with needle felting there are loads of tutorials on the YouTube like this one from Hawthorn Handmade.
- Once you have your tree shaped green felted ball simply stick it on top of one of the big rusty nails.
- I used a piece of skirting board (baseboard) for my key holder but any molded bit of wood would work well. Just saw and shape into a piece about 7″ long and 5″ wide.
- To personalise your wooden key rack and make it extra special using a letter stamp kit stamp your street name onto the skirting board base.
- Get four large rusty nails hammer on into the top of your stamped key rack this is for the tree. The other 3 nails hammer into the front of the rack equal distance apart. Bend the nails with the hammer so that they form a hook.
- Finally the last thing to do is to glue the wooden houses onto the rack using a hot glue gun.
Stamping and making the key holder rack..
Assembling the wall key holder..
You can find many more great crafts like this one on favecrafts.com
Linda at Mixed Kreations
What an adorable little key holder! Love the little houses and tree and how you used the nails for the hooks. Super cute!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much.
Julie
Sooo cute. Pretty and practical – another fabulous project Claire. Thanks for sharing it with us at #HandmadeMonday 🙂
Claire Armstrong
Thank you Julie, I really enjoyed making it.
Sandra Garth
The fabric scraps on the rooftops are just too cute. You’ve reminded me that in a closet somewhere I have a keyholder and I should dig it out. I throw my keys in my purse and this is a much better idea. Thanks for linking up with us at Celebrate Your Story and I hope you have plans for a fun weekend.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you Sandra. I’ll be crafting in the sunshine this weekend.
Christina Makri
So many cute details make this keyholder very special! Great idea!!!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much!
Cecilia
So cute! Love the floral roofs–thanks for sharing @Vintage Charm!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you! Yes, I wish we had floral roofs in real life, that would be fun.
Leanna
This is such a adorable idea. Love the little houses and the pairing of keys and houses is fun. Love this little key holder.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much Leanna, it does look cute on my kitchen wall.
Wendy
This is so darn cute! It reminds me of a little ceramic key holder I bought in France and we’ve been using it for 20 years!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you Wendy. Maybe this one will last as long hopefully.
Ann
Such a clever way to use scraps – I love this idea!
Pinning it!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you and Cheers for the share.
Menaka Bharathi
Now this looks totally cute and adorable….A perfect gift too for someone s house warming
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much!
Katy SkipTheBag
This is so beautiful and you are right, it would make an adorable housewarming gift. Thanks for sharing on the #WasteLessWednesday Blog hop
Claire Armstrong
Thank you 😊
Demi | made by demi
Such a unique idea!! I love it 🙂
Claire Armstrong
Thank you 😊
creativejewishmom/sara
I just LOVE this Claire, truly great in so many ways…..the nail chimneys and tree trunk is a little brilliant moment of creativity that I imagine just came to you as you were creating……thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you Sara. You are right the tree was something that just came too me as I was creating it.
Ezgi
It is wonderful Idea. I love it..
Claire Armstrong
Thank you very much.
Susan
This is so charming. I really love how the imperfections really make the craft so cute. Many times I see a tutorial and I think “there’s no way I can make mine perfect like that” so I don’t even try.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, sometimes it’s the imperfections that make things great, perfection is over rated.
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled
OMG, I love this project! I could probably handle this type of wood working project. Love the houses. You’ve inspired me to want to create something totally fun like them this weekend. Visiting from Creativity Unleashed party.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Victoria. It is easy and fun to make you could even involve the kids.
IOANNA
Adorable,I love it!!!!!!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you 😊
Rossella
How cute and how beautiful! I absolutely love your key holder.
I immediately go to find some old wood scraps!
Excuse for my imperfect english and congratulations for your blog.
Hugs from Verona (Italy)
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, and good luck I’d love to see how it turns out.
Susie
Stopped by to Stumble and just had to linger. This is such a cute post! Wildly creative. 🙂 Susie from The Chelsea Project
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Susie, I really enjoyed making it.
DEBRASHOPPENO5
This is such an adorable project. I like the gift idea, how special to receive something like this. And it is so handy to have a hook by the door to hang the keys.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, it is handy and I can’t wait to make another one.
Margot
Everything here is adorable! I love this! Thanks so much for visiting my blog. I will definitely be back.
Cheers,
Madge
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Madge and thanks for popping over.
Carol ("Mimi")
This is such a cute key holder. I like the primitive art approach. The little houses and the tree on the piece of antique molding give the piece lots of character.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, they idea was to create something almost child-like and primitive.