When we shared the duplex backyard makeovers last month, I promised a detailed look at how we made the decorative oars that hang on each shed. Here’s a full tutorial — including the mistakes I made so you can avoid them — plus a few useful tips you asked about.
The oars weren’t in the original plan. After the sheds were built we decided not to run electricity to them (to save money and because they really didn’t need it). That left an empty area above the door where we’d originally planned to mount a light, and it needed something decorative.
We were inspired after spotting a decorative surfboard at HomeGoods. Cape Charles isn’t a surfing town, but it has lots of kayak and paddleboard activity, so oars felt more appropriate. I looked at Etsy and found great options but they were pricey — often $350+ for a set of four — which felt hard to justify.
Then we found two decorative oars at HomeGoods for $25 each. The colors and design weren’t right, but paint can fix that. We bought them and tested the size and shape at the house before altering them, to make sure we liked how they’d look.
With two more found at a second HomeGoods, we had four oars for a bit over $100. They didn’t look great together at first, so I sanded them down to raw wood to start fresh. I used an orbital sander, which made the job much easier.
It took some elbow grease, but sanding transformed them. Once sanded, I stained the oars to even out the wood tones. I mixed leftover stains from the garage — Rustoleum Summer Oak and Minwax Weathered Oak layered together got the look I wanted.
Before painting, I photographed the grouped oars and experimented with stripe designs digitally. That helped me settle on a color palette inspired by the duplex: mint green shutters, white siding, and muted pink and green from the interior doors. The mock-ups made painting decisions easier and saved paint time.
Next, I taped off the oars with painter’s tape according to the digital mock-up. I intentionally left many wood stripes because when two painted colors meet you must let one dry before painting the adjacent color. Minimizing those transitions sped up the process.
I primed each taped area first, then painted. The mint color we used was SW Pale Patina; the white was a contractor exterior white (SW Snowbound), and the pink and navy were slightly more saturated versions of the interior hues (SW Downing Pink and SW Riverway). Important: use exterior paint for pieces you’ll hang outdoors — sunlight and weather wash colors differently than interior lighting, so go a bit bolder than you might indoors.
Paint dried quickly in the heat and the tape lines came off crisp. Then I made the classic mistake: I sealed everything with an oil-based exterior polyurethane to protect the oars for outdoor use. I should have tested it first, but I was rushing to finish before a weekend trip.
Oil-based sealants tend to yellow as they cure. On these slightly rounded oars the sealer pooled in spots, leaving brownish-yellow streaks and dots and dulling the painted colors. The finish still would have been fine at a distance, but it changed the crisp, vibrant look I aimed for.
To fix it I sanded the streaky areas, taped them again, and repainted all four oars. That restored the bright colors, though it didn’t remove the slight wood yellowing. The key lesson: because exterior paints are already durable, you should seal the raw wood before painting the design. Seal both sides of the wood first with an exterior-grade sealer appropriate for your paint, then paint the stripes and details. That avoids yellowing over painted areas and eliminates the need to repaint.
Hanging the oars was straightforward. We predrilled a small hole through the oar and siding and drove a 3″ exterior screw into a stud. I tried to place screws through wood-toned areas where they blend in more, but from a normal viewing distance they’re barely noticeable.
This process works for any wood piece you want to sand, stain, paint, and hang outside — surfboards, signs, or other decorative elements. One final tip: string lights make a big difference for outdoor spaces, so consider adding them to complete the look.
In the end everything turned out well. The oars add a custom, coastal touch to the duplex sheds, and the project was an affordable way to get a coordinated, meaningful detail. If you tackle a similar project, remember: sand, seal the bare wood first, then paint — and you’ll avoid the cedar-yellowing pitfall I ran into.
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