Get art for $4

Aah, more from Ikea hackers' favourite haunt - the As-Is section. Markus picks up some vanilla As-Is MDF boards and does a bang up job turning them into wall decor. Love how serene they look on his wall.

He says, "My favorite area of Ikea is the 'As-Is' section. And one of my favorite parts of the 'As-Is' section is where they have all their wood parts, such as drawer fronts, cabinet doors, desk parts, etc. I love the variety in color, size and finish of the pieces. Tons of ideas come to mind as I look through the assortment.

I came across 4 identical 13.75" x 13.75" square white pieces of MDF. There was nothing wrong with them and they were only $.99 each. My wife and I wanted to create our own original artwork to put up on one of our walls. A laser engraver would be our means of doing this. I used to work at a trophy / sign shop and practically perfected the laser machine and experimented thoroughly! The owner still lets me use it when I want, which I greatly appreciate (he doesn't even charge me!). We wanted a nice floral/natural image to encompass the 4 pieces which would be laid out in a big square.

I found some cool photoshop brushes online that I wanted to incorporate into the image. So the image was laid out across the 4 pieces subtracting an inch gap between all of them. The image was prepared for lasering and lasered with great success removing the white laminate and revealing the natural MDF beneath. We hung them up and in the square arrangement on the wall and love them! Not bad for a $4 project!"