2×4 Wood Hearts for Valentine’s Day

Do you have a 2×4 or scraps from a 2×4 lying around? Then you can make gorgeous 2×4 wood hearts and use them to decorate your home for Valentine’s Day.

The options for how you finish these 2×4 wood hearts is endless.

I chose to stain mine because that goes with my home decor a little better. However, you could paint them, decoupage them, bedazzle them, or even apply a stone-like treatment to them.

I also like the idea of adding a name or names to the hearts. Instead of carving initials in a live tree, how about adding them to a 2×4 heart? Or you could turn the 2×4 hearts into place cards for a fancy dinner or a wedding reception.

Here’s how we made our 2×4 hearts.

First, I drew hearts on the 2x4s with a pencil. I freehanded mine, so they are a little wonky. I cannot draw a perfectly symmetrical heart to save my life.

Then we cut the hearts out on the bandsaw. You could also use a jigsaw.

Next, we sanded them so they didn’t have any sharp edges.

Since the hearts are kind of small and hard to hold onto if you’re using an orbital sander, it’s safest to hand sand them. Ask me how I know.

I trust you can do what works best for you.

Last, I stained the wood hearts using a combination of special walnut stain, mahogany stain, and cherry stain. I sealed mine with wax but you could seal them with a clear coat of some sort if you’d prefer.

If you are staining the heart, you can definitely have fun with it. On some of my hearts, the edge of the heart is a darker stain and the flat part of the heart is a lighter stain.

I used a rag to do all of the staining on these 2×4 wood hearts. A rag or even a paper towel gives me a lot more control with how much stain I’m applying in any one area.

It feels SO good to use up wood scraps that are too small to use for building projects and are destined to be tossed or burned.

If you don’t have 2×4 scraps to work with, don’t worry.

1×4 scraps work well for this craft too.

Both 2×4 and 1×4 hearts will stand on their sides, which means you can display them on a shelf or windowsill.

I was originally going to put these 2×4 wood hearts in a bowl or tray on our coffee table with some other rustic wood hearts I have.

However, I’ve been having fun with this “Where’s Waldo” situation of placing the hearts in unexpected places around the house.

Love is everywhere!

I purposefully chose for our 2×4 wood hearts to be a little imperfect.

It kind of reminds me of our own hearts in a proverbial sense. They’ve all been through different things. Our hearts might look and feel different and have unique cracks and dings. Yet, every single one of them is full of worth and beautiful in their own way.

That said, you could easily use a template to make these hearts a little more uniform. Do what makes you happy and works best for your project.

What do you think of these 2×4 wood hearts? Do you have any other ideas of how they could be used? I’d love to know. You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Thanks for spending part of your day here. I appreciate it! Here are some other blog posts you might love reading. 

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