DIY Big Wall Clock

It's finally here- the reveal of the surprise project I talked about in this post and the crackle glaze tutorial!  Turns out, all this time I was making a big clock to hang on the wall.

Yeah! Many of you know that a big clock can cost you an arm and a leg at somewhere like Pottery Barn or even Amazon.  Mine ended up costing me $13, which was what I paid for the actual clock movement.  Yes, it really tells the time!  Everything else was stuff I already had on-hand.  I am so pleased with how it turned out, although there were some unexpected difficulties, which we will get into later.  As a quick recap, here's what I started with:

First thing, I took the legs and the hardware used to attach them off.  Maybe they will reappear in a new project, but I didn't need them for this.  Then, I sanded the table top and did my crackle glaze technique on it.  After the crackle glaze, I was left with this:

At this point I should have done a clear coat to seal it.  I will say this one more time: DO A CLEAR COAT AFTER THE CRACKLE GLAZE.  This was the one thing that gave me trouble.  I didn't do a clear coat until after some of the next steps, and the paint I added over the top sort of reactivated the glaze.  After the crackle glaze, I did a little bit more weathering/distressing with a simple black acrylic paint.

First, I painted on the black, then took a paper towel and wiped it off until I got the look I wanted.  I kept the middle mostly the same and got progressively darker as I moved to the edges.  Once the paint was dry, I used my Silhouette to make vinyl stencils for the numbers.

The font I used is called Market Deco.  Lining the numbers up was a bit of work.  I used a T-square to find the center of the circle, then I used my quilting ruler to get all the numbers in the right places.

Before I peeled off the backing on the vinyl, I positioned them and temporarily held them in place with painter's tape.  When I was satisfied with where the numbers were, I put the vinyl on and filled in the stencils with the same black I used for the glazing.

If you look closely, you can see that I didn't completely paint the numbers in.  I left intentional horizontal brush strokes to add to the weathered look.  I pulled the vinyl off (had some trouble with the previously mentioned reactivated glaze) and finally sprayed on a clear coat.  At this point all I had to do was let the clear coat dry and install the clock mechanism.

To install the movement, I drilled a hole in the middle of the circle and used a Dremel tool to carve out a little bit of the back so the box would sit in a little bit more.  I also had a broken clock from Old Navy that had much bigger metal hands, so I used them instead of the ones that came in the kit, which was a big improvement for me.

I am still trying to decide how to hang it.  I am thinking of either drilling a hole in the back for a nail or putting on picture wire.  I'm leaning toward the picture wire, which seems more stable.  Your thoughts?

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