Shortly after I became slightly obsessed with the show Fixer Upper, I noticed Joanna Gaines’s gorgeous large roman numeral faux clock in her farmhouse. I loved the large statement that it made in her living room! The huge size and the contrast of black and white just spoke to me. After scouring the web for a similar clock I quickly realized that one of these clocks would come with a big price tag. I knew that I could re-create my own large clock by making it myself and saving lots of money!
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The first step to make this clock was to find a large round piece of wood. On one of my local Facebook buy/sell/trade groups I found a round table top for sale for only $10! It is a pretty heavy piece of wood, but it is the perfect size and was in good condition. Then I got to work on creating my faux clock!
Materials Needed
- Round Table Top
- Stain (I used the DIY natural stain recipe in this post!)
- Chip Paint Brush
- Pencil
- Measuring tape / Ruler
- Pushpin
- String
- Paint
- Paint Pen
- Paint Brush
- French Cleat
- Screwdriver
- Clock Hands
- Glue
- Printer
How To Make A DIY Large Roman Numeral Faux Clock
After I acquired my large round table top, I made up some of my favorite DIY natural stain (that I used on my DIY rolling storage crate). I tested a small spot with the stain on the backside of the table top to make sure that I liked how the stain looked on the wood. Within just 1 hour I saw the beautiful color pop on the wood, and knew that it would be perfect.
Next I stained the entire surface of the front of the table top with a chip paint brush, and let it dry for 24 hours. I love this process because you can see the color of the wood start to change almost immediately, and see it change gradually as it dries.
Painting The Clock
Then I started to draw the outlines of my circles. For this step I measured the width of the table top and divided that number in half to find my center point. Then I placed a push pin down in the center so that it stood up on it’s own. Next I tied my string to the metal portion of the pin, as close to the surface of the table top as possible.
Then I decided where I wanted the very outside circle to be – for me it was about 1.5 inches from the edge. I tied the end of the string to my pencil so that when I pulled it taut it was 1.5 inches from the edge. I had to adjust the knot on the string slightly to get it in the right position. After that was done I placed the pencil down on the wood and slowly started to draw my circle around the entire table top.
Next I repeated this same process with the inside circle. When I decided where I would draw the inside circle, I took into account how much room I would need for the numbers. I knew I would print them as large as possible on an 8.5×11 sized paper, so I made the distance between both circles around 11 inches.
I’m going to be honest with you – this next step was the most difficult and time-consuming! When it was time to start painting the white portion and follow along the lines of the circles I drew, it was hard to stay within the lines. I used a small paint brush for this portion and it was challenging to stay along the lines and not make mistakes. Because of the uneven and unpredictable texture of the wood I would sometimes hit a bump and my paintbrush would go awry! It took a lot of patience and time to fix my little mistakes and even out the circles to keep them looking round.
I painted 2 coats of white paint to create the white portion of the clock, and made sure it was evenly coated with paint. After letting it dry I was ready to create my Roman numerals.
Creating The Roman Numerals
Then I opened up Illustrator on my computer and picked the font I would use for the numbers. I made them around 9 inches tall and printed each number on it’s own sheet of 8.5×11 paper. For the Roman numerals 7 and 8 they can get a bit wide for the paper size, so I had to condense the width a bit to get them to fit on the page.
I laid out my numbers onto the clock to make sure I had my spacing even between each number. First I started with the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9 and made sure that each number was directly across from the number on the opposite side of the clock. Then I added in the other numbers and made sure the spacing was even.
Then I started to make the minute marks with my pencil centered above each number. I made the marks above each number thicker than the four marks between each hour. To make the smaller minute marks I took my ruler and measured the distance between each number mark and divided it by five. That equaled the distance between each mark. Then I went over each mark with a paint pen, making the hour marks larger than the others.
To transfer the numbers I used my pencil transfer trick that I used on my easy DIY hand-lettered canvas. I shaded the back of the numbers with pencil lead, then flipped the paper over and traced over the outline of each number with my pencil. This left me with a pencil outline of the numbers on the clock. After I transferred all my numbers I went over the pencil outlines with my black paint pen and filled them in with black paint.
Lastly I picked up some black metal clock hands and glued them to the center of the clock. I glued on the minute hand first and held it down for a few minutes to make sure it stuck, and then added the hour hand on top of it. My hour hand had a slightly raised section around the center that made it difficult to get it to lay flat. I applied my glue to the length of the hand to get it to stick along the hand. This helped it stay flat on the clock. I used this amazing glue that does such a great job at holding things together!
I didn’t want to create an actual functioning clock, so I didn’t need to purchase an entire clock mechanism. Side note: my husband does not enjoy the sound of ticking clocks! He will actually remove the batteries of my clocks if he can hear them! Thankfully he approves of this non-ticking clock of mine 😉
For the hanging hardware I purchased a French cleat (similar one here) and had my husband attach it to the back of the clock. This hardware helps support heavy objects, which is perfect for this super heavy clock! And I can say that this clock has now been on my wall for just over 2 years and it has stayed put with no issues! It is definitely well supported. Note: Always make sure to follow the installation instructions to ensure proper support!
I absolutely love how this large Roman numeral faux clock turned out! It brings some beautiful visual interest to our large living room wall. The black, white, and wood tones are perfect for my farmhouse decor!
Now you can make one for yourself! Thanks for stopping by friends!
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Did you love this DIY project? You’ll also want to check out my farmhouse coffee table makeover, DIY drop cloth headboard, and my simple DIY cake stand!
