How to Make a DIY Travel Map

Make a DIY travel map showing where you’ve traveled in the USA or around the world. All you need is some wooden planks, a pencil, paint, and a wood-etching pen. This project includes a DIY video with full instructions. Make this map for yourself, or give it to a loved one who loves traveling the world!

This project is a wooden wall display that details your travels across the United States. You could also include neighboring countries or make a different map altogether! The project requires minimal materials and woodworking experience, but you will need some tools.

To help you with making this DIY travel map, I’ve included a full instructional video. It shows the full process of making it! That includes the base, staining the wood, creating the outline, and burning the design. You can watch the video above and on YouTube.

Another fun thing about the project is that you could use the map as a tabletop (more instructions below). When your travels end, you could then mount it on the wall. Every coffee mug stain, graffiti by people you meet on the road, and notes you make will become priceless souvenirs.

Step 1: DIY Travel Map Base

You could easily use pallet wood, but this time I went with new pine planks from the lumber yard. Cut them with a hand saw or jigsaw, then sand all edges and surfaces. My finished piece uses seven planks laid side by side, secured with two additional planks on the back. The back planks are screwed into each facing plank with screws that don’t go all the way through, so you can’t see them on the front.

The overall dimensions are 25×31 inches (63.5×80 cm), and I’ve also drilled two holes in the back planks so it can be mounted on the wall. If you’re planning to make this piece into a table, check out the tip in step 8 before drilling the back planks.

Step 2: Stain the Wood

I bought a small pot of ‘Antique Pine’ wood stain and applied a single coat to both sides of the wooden piece. Be sure to get the edges, too. It dried quickly, and I have not applied a wood stain yet.

Step 3: Print the Map

The map will be pretty big, so you’ll need to ’tile’ it across several pages when printing it out, then tape it together. You can download this map for the design I used. Press print and in the print dialog box under ‘Page Sizing and Handling’ choose the button/option that says ‘Poster’. This will ensure that the map prints on more than 12 pages. Tape them together using ordinary tape.

Step 4: Transfer the Map Outline

You transfer the map’s outlines to the wood with graphite. Graphite is what’s inside a pencil, so you can use one of them for this step (as I’ve done), or you can buy graphite paper to save time. To use a pencil, flip your map over and scribble darkly over all the lines you want to transfer. For graphite paper, just layer 12 sheets over the wood before placing the map on it. Either way, tape the map down so it doesn’t shift as you work your way around it.

You’ll have come across this idea before when filling out documents and contracts that have duplicates and triplicates. Running a blunt object, like the end of a paintbrush, over the printed design will leave a pencil drawing on the wood.

Step 5: Burn the Map Outline into the Wood

Burning the map into the wood was the exciting part for me because the last time I’d used a wood-burning pen was in junior high! What you’ll need to do is use a relatively large attachment and press it into the wood along the pencil marks you made in the previous step. This will leave a deep groove in the charred black wood. I suppose you could simply use a Sharpie for this step, but the wood-burning tool gives this project such a unique look and defined borders that I’d really recommend using it.

This step can be time-consuming, but I enjoyed the flow state of pure focus as I etched the map outline onto my piece. Make yourself a cuppa, put on some tunes, and enjoy this very mindful activity.

Step 6: Paint in Placed You’ve Visited

Paint in the countries, counties, districts, towns, or areas you’ve already visited. I used a couple of coats of inexpensive white acrylic paint, and the burned outlines gave it a fantastic border. If you used a Sharpie for the outlines, you might have a lot more paint overlap than with the etched ones, so if you choose that route (haha), just be extra careful of where you place that paintbrush.

Step 7: Customize Your Map

Here’s the really, really fun part! Use permanent markers to label areas and to write memories of the places you’ve visited. I’ve also pinned a string to the board to show a potential road trip idea (Route 66), and the grooves in the burned outlines are perfect for placing pins into. You could also pin photos, postcards, receipts, and other mementos to the map. The possibilities are endless!

Now, at this point, you could just drill some screws, roll plugs into the wall, and mount your piece for all to admire (especially yourself!), but the size of this piece makes it perfect for a camping tabletop. If you’d like to create a practical map to take with you on your travels, follow the steps below. The idea is to use an existing table so that when the time comes, it will be simple to detach the map and display it where you’d like.

Step 8: Drill the Map to a Folding Table

I think this TV dinner tray table is from IKEA, but you can use a different one. What you’re going to do is first secure the TV tray tabletop to the back of the map piece, then pre-drill four holes through the tabletop and into the map. Make sure you go slightly less than the depth of the screws you’ll use to join the two elements.

Before you begin, measure the width of the TV tray table. Ensure that the planks on the back side of your map are situated wide enough apart that the table will fit in between. Protect the face of the map by covering your work surface with a soft cloth. I used an old white tablecloth on top of a wooden pallet.

DIY Travel Map as a Camper Table

As a table, it’s the perfect size for an indoor VW Camper meal for two or for taking out and setting up for games or socializing. The TV dinner tray table’s folding legs make the piece compact and easy to store.

Maps are fascinating things, and every time you look at one, you’ll spot landmarks you’ve never noticed before. The most important are the places you’ve been and the memories you’ve created there. Sharing your memories as a family or with friends with a personal map makes the trips more vivid and, as wall art, can become a beautiful and exciting conversation piece.

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