I've seen photos of these wooden mountains here and there floating around Reddit and I always thought they were pretty neat looking so I decided to try this myself. This was my first attempt and I'm pretty happy with the results. When I remodeled my house I was going for that rustic and modern feel and this fits right in. Here's what I used for the build:

TOOLS:

HAMMER
NAIL SET
MITER SAW
TABLE SAW
ORBITAL SANDER
TAPE MEASURE
TRI-SQUARE
BRAD NAILER
CIRCULAR SAW
CARPENTER SQUARE OR DRYWALL SQUARE
CLAMPS

MATERIALS:

WOOD GLUE
BRAD NAILS
3/4 ASPEN WOOD
3/4 OAK WOOD
3/4 MAHOGANY WOOD
1/4 OAK PLYWOOD
220 GRIT SANDPAPER

***CHECK OUT THE VIDEO FOR A MORE IN-DEPTH TUTORIAL***

Step 1: STEP 1: Make the Backer

I bought a 4'x4'x1/4" piece of oak plywood for my backer. I measured out 21 inches by 41 inches and marked it with my drywall square. I left it a little long because I'm not too precise with the circular saw and I would use the table saw to rip it down to the correct length and width. It probably would have been easier to set up a fence for my circular saw; that way I wouldn't have had to use the table saw to cut everything down.

Either way, after I rough cut the backer, I brought it over to the table saw and ripped the backer to 20 inches, then it was off to the miter saw to cut the width to 40".

Step 2: STEP 2: Draw Your Design & Make a Boarder

This took me a few different tries but I finally found a design that I liked with the mountains. I simply used my tri-square and laid everything out. Everything was mitered at a 45 degree angle and the tri-square measures one inch wide so I went with that.

Then I proceeded to the table saw where I ripped everything down to 1 inch wide strips.

I cut the border first using aspen. The border would be the same width and height as the backer we previously made. I test fit everything first and then used wood glue and a few brad nails to hold it in place.

The only problem that I had was that my brad nails were a little too long and they stuck out a little ways so I had to grind them off using a flapper wheel on my grinder.

Step 3: STEP 3: Measure / Cut / Glue / Nail

Using my tri-square, I was able to get most of my measurements. I set my miter saw for 45 degrees, and began cutting everything to length. For each mountain base, I would cut all the strips first and then glue and nail after. This way I could be sure that everything was going to line up the way I wanted.

I only used 2 or 3 nails in each strip, depending on how long they were, and for some pieces just one nail was enough.

All the mountain bases were made from oak.

Step 4: STEP 4: SNOW CAPS

I treated the snow caps a little differently. For one, I did not use any nails, these were cut very tightly so that they would be "pressure fit", but I also used glue on them. I did not want the nail holes interfering with the look of the caps since that's mostly what your eye is drawn to.

The caps were made with aspen since that was the whitest colored wood I could find.

For the caps I would cut them a little longer and mark where they should end; because I followed my drawing I made on the backer piece the entire way for the most part. I then would glue each level one at a time instead of cutting them all at once.

Step 5: STEP 5: the Sky

For the sky I ended up alternating oak strips with mahogany strips and I staggered them so the seams would not be next to each other. Cutting around the caps of the mountains was easy also because everything was at a 45 degree angle. For this I would lay the strip on top of the caps and mark where I needed to cut and measure down. I then cut these out with my scroll saw.

Step 6: STEP 6: Add Hangers and Sand

I, sadly, had to grind off all the nails that stuck through the back side. This actually wasn't really that bad to do, but if I were to have had shorter brad nails, I could have skipped this step.

After the grinding was done, I added 2 sawtooth hangers and sanded the picture with 220 grit sandpaper. I didn't need to spend much time sanding because I was still going to that rustic and rougher look when I was all done.

Step 7: STEP 7: Apply Finish

After sanding I dusted everything off and finished the picture off with some butcher block oil. I ended up doing 2 coats and after a week or so I added another coat.

I hope everyone enjoyed this instructable. I would love to hear what you guys think. Let me know in the comments section! Thanks for looking!

***CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR MORE TUTORIALS LIKE THIS***

www.youtube.com/c/adamfleisch