Pallet heART + Tutorial

Pallet decorating is so fun and inexpensive. Here's a quick pallet tutorial on how to paint and hang pallets for your home. Pallet art rocks!

A few weeks ago, a sweet friend posted that she saw a pile of pallets in her neighborhood that were up for grabs. And that's when I became obsessed with turning one of these leftover items into an art piece of sorts for my house. Hubs went and grabbed all five pallets in her neighborhood. I split the loot with a couple of other mama friends with pallets on the brain (thanks, pinterest, we're all *slightly* obsessed now).

I originally thought I would do a scripture or something on mine...but looking around my house, I have a lot of that going on. So...a heart seemed appropriate since it was going in our master bedroom.

The beginning of it all...it was ROUGH!! I did do a round or two with my hand sander...but I did want to leave it a bit textured.

Apparently, I didn't sand it quite enough...it was still quite rough. So rough, in fact, that it wreaked havoc on my sponge brush. Yikes.

After throwing a coat of white paint on it (I just used whatever was left from this project), I painted (freehand) a gold heart. I intentionally didn't do it even. But the slats on the pallet certainly helped with some spacing.

Then my team of sanders went after it. (No explanation as to why he was in a random Mario costume...life as we know it). 

Then I went back over the now distressed piece with stain that I wiped off to give it more of a worn look (does a pallet really need a more worn look?). I go into a lot more detail on this weathering/distressing technique in this post...I used the exact same method here.

Wiping the stain off. You can achieve different looks/levels of weatherization (is this really a word?) by the amount of stain you rub off or leave on.

She's ready to hang!

Hanging was a bit interesting. I had originally wanted to hang this on the wall above our bed. However once my handyman (aka, my dad) arrived and realized how heavy this thing was, he told me I'd have a death wish if I hung that above our bed. If it were to ever fall (although he said he guaranteed his hanging technique was fail-proof), it wouldn't be pretty.

We have a faux-fireplace in our bedroom that I decided to hang it above instead. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment...two years ago, I spent a good six hours painting a verse (with an overhead projector, a paintbrush, and a major neck ache) over that fireplace. But the flatness of painted words had kind of served its time for us (although we still adore the verse)...and I was so tired of looking at that font! 

These are what my dad used to hold two "L" brackets (or corner brackets) onto the wall...spaced according to the back of the pallet dimensions. 

Mounting the L-brackets that are secured into those WallGrippers in the above photo. And getting ready to cover up the verse....makes me a bit sad. The pallet basically sits on top of the L brackets and secured in from the top with screws. Just FYI: the top screws aren't actually load-bearing, they are simply in place to keep the pallet from coming off of the brackets.

My dad's pretty awesome. He works for endless cups of Donut-Shop Decaf and high-fives from my little guy.

Annnnnnd.....done! The thing I didn't think about is that you can indeed see between the slats...not great since there are still words on that wall! HA! I will be dragging out the paint and painting over that verse (makes me a little more sad).

But, I am happy with my little Pallet heART.









A Crafty Soiree, Catch a Glimpse Thursday, Commercial Break Thursday, Get Your Brag On!, Haute Stuff Thursday, Hookin’ Up With House of Hepworths, Show Off Your Stuff Party, Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails, Pin’Inspirational Thursdays, Show-It-Off Thursdays, Strut-Your-Stuff, Sweet Treats Link Party, Taking a Timeout, Thematic Thursday, Thingamajig Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Thrilling Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Polkadots On Parade, Lollipop Cards, JAQS Studio, Let Birdz Fly, Let Birdz Fly, My Girlish Whims, thethriftyhome, Transformation Thursdays, Somewhat simple, Show off your stuff, House of Hepworths, Delightful Order, My Simple Home Life, The Frugal Girls, Thrifty Thursday, DIY Diva Thursday, No Minimalists Here, Crafty, Scrappy, Happy, Thrifty Decorating, Between U and Me, 36th Avenue,  The Shabby nest, Show and Tell Friday, Finding Fabulous, I’m Loving it, Simply Sweet Home, Whipper Berry, Chic on a Shoestring decorating, Spunky Junky, Delicate Construction, Homemaker in Heels, Family Ever After, French Country Cottage, Common Ground, Young And Crafty, At the Picket Fence, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Miss Mustard Seed, Addicted to Decorating, Bacon Time with The Hungry Hypo, Making Lemonade, I Can't Stop Crafting, Over the Big Moon, Shabby Art, Answer is Chocolate, Freckled Laundry, Tatertots & Jello, Serenity Now, Lolly Jane, One Artsy Mama, Six Sisters, CRAFT, The Southern Institute, The Sweet Talk Shop, More Bang for your Bucks, Lady Behind the Curtain, Fusion Fridays at Jennifer Cooks, Miz Helen's Country Cottage, Answer is Chocolate, Every Creative Endeavor, Creative Bloggers’ Party & Hop (SJ@Homemaker on a Dime), The DIY Project Parade (Roeshel@The DIY Show Off), K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Sunday (Christina@The Tattered Tag), Not “Baaad” Sundays (Lamb Around), Sew Darn Crafty Party (Karen@Sew Many Ways), Sundae Scoop (Jamielyn@i heart naptime), Sunday Linky Party (Jen@Petite Hermine), Sunday Showcase (Stephanie Lynn@Under The Table & Dreaming), Sunday Showcase Child Centered Link Party (Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and Classified: Mom), Think Pink Sundays (Flamingo Toes)