Rustic Gray and Yellow Chicken Wire Heart

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to show you how easy it is to make a Rustic Chicken Wire Heart!

Remember last week’s craft tutorial I shared for my Patriotic Vintage-Style Box? I think it had approximately 30+ steps to it, right? Today’s DIY is much easier!

It all starts with a pre-made chicken wire heart you can purchase from Darice Crafts for less than $7.

(I said easy, 0h yes I did!)

The heart measures approximately 14 inches by 16 inches and the wood is already painted in a rustic white finish. It also has a nice twine hanging loop at the top. For many of us – me included – this is a ready-made solution to decorating!

However, I wanted to paint mine to show you how easy it is to do. I used two of the new craft paint colors from DecoArt: Sunny Day and Grey Storm. (See image below.)

Step One: First I painted two coats of the Sunny Day on the heart. (See image above.) I did these coats quickly and if my paint brush missed a few spots here and there, I wasn’t worried about it. We’re going for a rustic look!

Step Two: Next I painted on Grey Storm, waiting just a few seconds, then wiped off the paint here and there – in the direction of the heart shape – with a wet (old) washcloth. (See image above.) Make sure your washcloth is wet but not dripping wet. Keep painting on the Grey Storm and then wiping back until you love how it looks.

This is one of those quick paint crafts where there’s no right or wrong way!

Here’s how mine turned out:

And here’s a close-up shot so you can see the paint finish. It looks like a weathered, distressed finish. No sanding is involved – which is always nice – and you achieve a rustic look!

I felt like the heart needed a little “something” on it, so I gathered up some grey ribbons I had on hand, as well as some vintage lace seam binding in the same yellow shade. I included twine as well since the hanging loop on the heart is twine.

I ended up choosing one gray ribbon, the seam binding and the twine, cut them into the same lengths, and made a simple bow at the bottom of the heart.