Tasteful Artistry at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

On Thursday afternoons Artist Point at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge turns into an art studio! Yes, in a touch of Disney magic, this popular dining spot becomes a great place for arts and crafts. More specifically, Tasteful Artistry. Here, they offer a 2.5-3 hour class where you can create either a wood tray or a wood key holder which includes staining and paining your boards.

A few years ago we decided we wanted to try some of the lesser known activities around Disney World, so we signed up for a signature art activity at our resort. Our first adventure was the mosaic making at the Contemporary and we loved it! That got us hooked on these art activities, so now we try to do one each time we stay at a resort that offers one.

Our most recent experience was the Tasteful Artistry at the Wilderness Lodge.

This experience is a bit more pricey than the other signature activities, however it includes food and drink which the others we’ve tried have not. It is also taught by an outside vendor unlike the other art activities at the resorts which are run by the recreation cast members. When we went it was $129 for two people to share a single board, or you could pay an additional $60 and each get your own board. We opted to spend the extra money so we could each do our own design.

The day we did it, the class started at noon. We arrived at 11:45 and they were already checking people in, and we were some of the last people to arrive.

Upon arrival they showed us the various designs we could pick from. They had 6-8 different designs, some we really liked were the Main Street Bakery one and the Wilderness Lodge logo. Once we each decided on our design, we finished paying, then went to find our seat. The seats are assigned, and it looks like assigned based on when you book. We booked very early, 60 days prior to the event, so ended up in the first row.

There was still a bit of time left prior to the class starting, but the cast members were already coming around taking drink orders. The price includes one alcoholic beverage and the options are a red or white wine and various beers. We opted to get the grapefruit beer since that is one of our favorites!

Shortly after putting our drink order in, the class got started. The instructor went over the process for the art, and then had us come up to pick up our stencil, board, and pick out our stain color. They had nine different stain options ranging from white to various grays, three browns, a black, and a navy. We both opted to select brown stains.

The instructor then poured out a bit of the stain for us and we took that and our boards and stencils back to the table to wait for instructions.

We started the class with the staining of the boards. The staining was relatively easy, and we did get aprons to protect our clothes since the stain would, well, stain. For those who went with the hook option, only the front of the board needed to be stained, but those who went with the tray had to stain both sides.

The stains dried quickly, and we had fans on them to help speed up the drying.

Once the stains were dry, it was time to apply the stencil! This was probably the hardest part just trying to get it on perfectly straight and centered, but the instructor did offer to do it for you if you didn’t feel comfortable.

I managed to do mine myself, but my friend had the instructor do hers.

Once the stencil was on, it was time to select paint colors! They had a wide variety of colors to chose from ranging from pastels to more primary colors, and the instructor helped with the selection so the paint would look good on the stain you used and all the colors you selected would go well together.

After we had all selected and received our paint, the instructor went over how to apply it. We were given little makeup sponges to dab the paint on, and we were instructed to dab very thin layers and to do 4-6 layers total. This ended up taking the most time since you had to wait for the layer of paint to dry before adding the next, but this was a perfect time to grab the food that came with this event!

 

 

For food they had a loaded potato flatbread which was delicious, and then the popcorn sampler from Territory Lounge. The spicy popcorn was surprisingly spicy by Disney standards but was really good!

Once we completed the last layer of paint and let it dry, it was finally time to remove the stencil and see how our art came out! The main larger portion of the stencil was pretty easy to remove, it did take a bit of strength since it was really stuck on there, but the smaller detailed portions of the stencil was where it got a bit tricky. We were given tweezers to help peel those portions of the stencil off, and at first is was hard to get under the stencil without chipping the paint, but after a bit of practice it became much easier and we managed to get it all removed.

The hooks or handles, depending on which board you picked, were handed out as we were removing the stencil, they recommended leaving them off until you got home and had time to add polyurethane to the board. It also made it easier to pack with just flat boards rather than having the handles or hooks sticking out. The handles and hooks all came with the mounting hardware, and the holes for them were already drilled into the board, so it was very easy to assemble once we got home. They had two color options for both the hooks and handles, either an oil rubbed bronze, or a silver. We both opted to get the oil rubbed bronze.

Now they do recommend to add water based polyurethane once home to protect the boards, which we did, and they came out looking so good afterwards! We opted for the matte finish poly since we didn’t want it too shiny, and it looks great!

Overall this was a great class! It is a lot more expensive than the other signature activities offered at other resorts, but considering it includes food and drink, and the instructor is an outside vendor rather than a Disney recreation cast member, we found it was worth the price. It is a very popular activity to do, when we were checking in there was a family ahead of us who wanted to sign up to do it that day, but were turned away since the class was full, so I do recommend booking early. You can book up to 60 days prior to the class. Our class had about 15 groups in it, which I was very surprised by considering the higher price and our experience with these signature activities at other resorts which have had much lighter attendance.

I hope you all get a chance to try this one sometime and have an amazing time making art!