simple + sweet diy painted wood hangers

My adorable cousin and her husband had the sweetest baby last weekend. This is their first and we could not be more excited for this new addition to our family.

I know all families are different, so when you hear ‘cousin’ it might not be that big of a deal. But my sisters and I grew up feeling like our cousins were our extra siblings. We are a tight family who loves being together – holidays, birthdays, our annual Jones family vacation (where, ironically, out of the 24 people there, only two still have the last name of Jones!). What I’m trying to say is that sure, she’s my cousin, but Jen feels more like a little sister to me. And her new sweet baby? He’s practically my nephew :)

The baby was born last Sunday – on what would have been our late grandfather’s birthday. How special is that?! Of course we were praying for a healthy baby boy, but we were extra excited because they had not shared his name with us yet. Believe me, we tried and tried to get it out of them. I knew I wanted to make these painted wooden hangers for the baby and tried to find out his initials long before he was born … but to no avail. They were tight-lipped.

So on Sunday, January 14th when that baby was born, we were thrilled to learn his name:

Blake James.

And I finally got to paint him a set of wooden hangers.

I did this project years and years ago before I was a blogger. I figured it would be fun to share the simple diy in case you are looking for a unique, personal and inexpensive gift to give a new baby in your life.

Here’s what you’ll need:

wood baby hangers | pencil | craft paint | paintbrush

I get our wood hangers from IKEA. These petite hangers are $2.99 for five. You could also order them online (like these from Amazon).

STEP ONE: draw your designs

For baby Blake, I knew I wanted to do one with his initial, one with his full name and a few with simple outdoorsy icons. I found a font with simple adventure icons and used it as inspiration for my paintings.

The hangers are flat and very easy to draw on (and erase, if you want to re-do like I did a million times).

STEP TWO: paint the designs

Using a fine round brush and craft paint, I followed my outlines and added a coat of paint. Let it dry for a few minutes as you move on to the next hanger, then come back and go over with a second (and third, if necessary) coat of paint.

I gave my drawings a little bit of shading and a few extra details, just for fun.

The hangers only took an hour or so and turned out so cute.

To seal the paint, feel free to lightly spray with a spray clear acrylic (like this).

I needed to see how cute the hanger would look holding baby clothes so I dug through a bin with some of the boys’ baby clothes, found a sweet white sweater outfit (with yellow stains that appear with age – ugh) and gave one a try.

It’s a simple + sweet diy that makes for a unique keepsake for a special baby.

Congratulations, Jen and Brett and welcome to the world, baby Blake. xoxo.