DIY Painted Wood Block Nursery Art
Looking for a pop of color and totally custom addition to your little one’s room? This is a very doable nursery art DIY for those of us who are not natural born artists.
It’s simply painting a wood block square, adhering a print out of a baby animal (or anything of your choice) and you’ve created these bold, modern DIY nursery art pieces.
We love making simple art for nurseries and little one’s rooms. This modern bird house project is so fun and we adore how this simple gold heart canvas turned out.
Read more for the instructions for the DIY Painted Wood Block Nursery Art and to get your baby animal printable.
Calla and I picked out these images of her favorite African animals through a simple Google search. I resized them to fit on the square blocks of wood.
We chose these bright hues for a more modern feel. I love the black and white images against the almost neon colors. 
The supply list:
- wood blocks (I had my local lumberyard cut a 1×4 into squares for me)
- images
- your choice of acrylic craft paint
- paintbrushes
- Mod Podge
- scissors
How to make DIY Painted Wood Block Nursery Art
1. Sand any rough edges on your wood blocks.
2. Paint two coats of your choice of acrylic craft paint on the top and sides of the wood blocks. Let them dry completely.
3. Cut out the animals and cover back with thin coat of Mod Podge. Press them down on desired location on wood block. Smooth out any air bubbles with your fingers or credit card. Allow to dry.
4. Apply a top coat of Mod Podge to the top and sides of the wood block.
5. Let dry and hang! I like to use the Scotch removable mounting squares.
You can download the free printable here: wood block nursery block printable
Enjoy this fun, simple DIY project to brighten up your little one’s room or nursery. I think I’m going to try some more with pictures of the kids. What will you use on yours? Don’t hesitate to share your creations with us!
–Melissa
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All images by Melissa for alice & lois. All rights reserved.
These look awesome!
Thanks Amber… have fun making them!
These look amazing!
One question though, what paper did you use to print out the animals figures?
I used regular weight copy paper. Have fun!
Oh, they are beautiful. I can definitely use these to add more colors to my room! Thanks for the awesome idea!
If want a bit of 3D effect print on card stock. Can use a contrasting color and glue to a piece of balsa wood. Can use a piece of sponge to glue to wood block and take piece of covered balsa wood with print on it and glue to piece of sponge. It gives a three demensional look to blocks.
I would try the above but on piece of longer wood and adjust different heights of different animals printed on different pieces of card stock.
Great ideas, Christina!
I love your creations!!
Used this idea in my nursery for artwork over the crib! Used nature theme instead but came out really cool! ThAnks for the idea!
Valerie – we would love to see what you made! Send us a pic at info at aliceandlois dot com.
I’m trying to make these but I’m worried when I apply the mod podge top coat it will run the ink of the paper? I just printed my pictures from my printer onto regular paper. Is this how u did it? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Hi Krista,
I did not have any problem Mod Podging mine. I did allow the prints to dry all the way before putting them on. Hope that helps 🙂
–Melissa
great idea, do you think this would also work on canvas?
Yes, I think it would work great on canvas. Have fun with the project!
I love this iDea and these colours aRe The perfect tones for our nursery. wHich Acrylic pAints & Which colours did you use? X
I used the martha stewart multi-surface satin finish paints in Party streamer, beACH glass and granny smith.
im loving Them. What a nice cOlourful idea. Thanks for shaRing It with us.
I made three of these in red yellow and green for my sons room. My husband callS me lion, i call him monkey, and our son’s middle name is fox so those are the animals i used to represent our little family. They turned out great. My son can’t stop staring at them!
Yeah! Love your nicknames for each other 🙂
love them!
Thanks Jo!
does it needs to be a special type of paper for the fotos, or just the regular we all have in your printers?
Just regular paper works fine!
WOW!!! So simple, yet a crazy amazing look!!! totally have to try this!!!
Thanks so much!
hi
Nice idea and simply enoUgh.
I shall try these at school.
Thanks.
Hi there,
Wondering what i did wrong… I applied a thin coat of mod podge to the back of my cut out image, laid it on the painted wood and smoothed it out with a creditcard as instructed.
However when i began to apply the Top coat of mod podge, the image began to bubble and lift?
Should i have waited for the bAck coat to dry and stick the image to the block before applying the top coat?
These were images i cut out of a magazine, so possibly it was the paper thinness or Quality?
Any adVice will help! Thanks 🙂
Hi Jen – We recommend allowing the image to dry before applying the top coat. I think that the thinner the paper used, the higher chance of bubbles. Also if you apply too much mod podge it can bubble. (Just from experience). I would recommend applying the mod lodge to the wood, lay the image flat and smooth out. Allow to dry. Then apply the top coat. Hope this helps!
I JUST MADE THESE! I dont consider myself crafty at all, but i loved this idea so much, i made it with images of baby and parent animals. Thank you so much!
Elana – we are so happy you made the wood block art! Aren’t they easy?! Now you can and should consider yourself crafty!
Hi,
I love these and have just made them for my baby girls room. I’m just wondering though for the top coat, did you coat the whole block with mod podge or just over the image?
Thanks
Hi Anna,
I did do a thin coat over the whole surface just so it would have a consistent look. So glad you made these! We love them in my little girl’s room 🙂
Hi can we use glue sticks to hang them on wall
Glue sticks would not be recommended to hang on wall.
Wonderful! tHANKS 🙂
My grandson has a birthday coming up I think I will make these for his room they are so cute!
Hey quick question! what size of pictures would i print out?
Lydia, it all depends on what size wood blocks you are using. I would just make sure that the images you print out are proportionally smaller than your square piece of wood.
Melissa, thank you so much for sharing this tutorial! My wood blocks came out so beautiful, I cannot wait to hang them in my kids’ room. I shared them on my blog, with a link back to your blog. Check it out 🙂
https://whispersofawannabe.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/wood-block-wall-art/
Yours turned out beautifully! Thanks so much for sharing!
This may be a dumb question but why do you use Mod Podge as a top coat? Won’t it be sticky afterwards? I just assumed that Mod Podge was more of a glue.
No, it drys clear!