This TikToker Made Antique Portraits with Those Wood Plaques You Always See at the Thrift Store

If you’re an avid thrifter then you know all about the “wood section.” It’s basically the part of those big chain thrift shops that houses wooden shelves, boxes, bowls, and other random wood items that have been donated to the store. Often times, you can find oodles of wood plaques in the section. Sometimes they’re already painted with something, and sometimes they already have a hanging system attached. Other times they’re blank and ready for your creativity to unfold. 

One TikToker found a great way to use these plaques to decorate their space and all you need is some paint, Mod Podge, and a printer.

“I’m awful about using all of the craft supplies I buy,” TikTok user Grotto (@9rotto) said in a January video. “I end up with … piles of things that I like but don’t know what to do with — like these wooden plaques.”

So, in an effort to cut the plaque stash in half, Grotto painted one of the plaques black and then decoupaged an image of Mary Shelley onto the surface using Mod Podge to glue the picture to the plaque, and then to seal the surface of the picture.

To clean the portrait up and put their “too much gene” to work, Grotto then sanded around the edges of the Shelley photo, added a bit of gold gilding wax to create a fancier vintage feel, and even attached an image of Shelley’s actual signature underneath the portrait.

After applying hanging hardware, the portrait was ready to be put on display in Grotto’s dark academia-inspired home. Imagine an entire gallery wall of plaque portraits? Perfection!

Next time you’re at the thrift store, scan the wood section and don’t bypass those wooden plaques. They could be the impetus of your next best craft project.