More than one person thought I’d lost it when I started cladding a bedroom wall with lath I’d saved after pulling down a dividing wall between my dining room and kitchen. But even before I’d finished, I knew I was in love. That was almost four years ago. (Yikes!) Ever since then I’ve found it impossible to pass a city dumpster without peering inside. Usually I’ll see nothing but rubbish. Every once in a while, though, I’ll come upon a few bundles of lath and maybe even some old tongue-and-groove flooring or joists or studs with stripes running down the side where plaster made it through the gaps in the lath. Pure history and possibility.

When you need to work some magic on a tight budget, it doesn’t get any better than free. Today we managed to whip together three wall hangings for around five dollars total. That includes the botany charts, from a set of thirty we scored at Brimfield last year for next to nothing. Oh, and it only took about five minutes.

First we cut the lath to length–four strips per chart, two on top and two on bottom–allowing for a slight overhang on either side. Then we stapled the tops and bottoms of each chart to the front strips of lath from behind, before lining up the back strips of lath and securing them to the front strips with 1/2″ screws, charts sandwiched in between. One hanger per chart and voila!