Pallet Wall Art

This post has been a long time coming.  The project itself was a series of starts and stops over a period of months, then once I got it finished it sat for weeks before we mounted it on the wall and then the photos have been waiting to be blogged for quite a while now.  So before I get distracted again, let me share the latest addition to my craft room.

It all started with a stack of wooden pallets that the builders in the neighborhood abandoned.  And like a lot of my ideas lately, I had seen a number of fantastic Pinterest projects using those weathered pallets - everything from outdoor coffee tables to flower boxes.  I found myself drawn again and again to the pallet wall art and finally I decided that the perfect place for some wall art of my own would be above the dresser I refinished for my craft room.

Have you ever tried to pull apart a wooden pallet?  Geesh!  Those babies are built to last! LOL  Eventually the husband got sick of watching me struggle with them and helped me pull them apart.  I have a phobia about bugs, and since moving to North Carolina it has only gotten worse.  So I laid out all the pieces on the patio and hosed them down.  Sprayed them with bug killer and let them sit.  Did it all again when I decided they had been sitting too long.  And one more time before moving them into the garage.  Just for good measure, right?

Eventually I found a day when the power tools were out and I used the nail gun to attach the weathered wood pieces to some newer 1x4 scraps.  Then realized that the finish nails, though well hidden weren't going to keep it all together well enough.  So I added some screws, stained it to bring out even more of the character in the wood and left it to sit again while I decided which quote I wanted to display.  See, this is where the perfectionist in me rears its ugly head.  Was that one too cheesy?  Did this one fit the feeling of what I had in mind for the room?  It took me weeks to come back around to my original thought of simply using the word Create.

 

It was a pretty simple matter to cut a stencil using my Silhouette.  A bit trickier to get it all lined up right and keep all the edges of the contact paper down while I added the paint.

In the end, I was very happy with the result, but it felt like there was a bit too much "white space" now.  So I free-handed some swirls.  Then let it sit in the garage for a while longer before I decided I liked the swirls and could finally recruit the husband to hang it on the wall. 

Oh wait!  We were out of picture hanging supplies! LOL  Eventually though it did make it onto the wall and I get to admire it every time I use my printer.