Yesterday I did a post about how I hung new frames in my entryway. What I didn’t share was that I am gearing up for a Patriotic theme for summer. It was time to get rid of the Spring Bloom Entryway and make way for Stars and Stripes! So, on the opposite wall I created a lovely statement piece out of an old pallet board.
Outside by the dumpsters at work I often find pallets. I asked permission to take a few and was told I could take any of them that were out there! I enlisted help from my husband to load them in the back of our truck. For a while months they sat in our driveway and received a good bit of aging. Then when I was motivated enough I pulled out my friendly hammer and started taking them apart. Umm…. if anybody said this was easy they are WRONG-O!
After I got them apart I really wasn’t sure what to make out of them. There were so many possibilities, but I didn’t have enough boards to build something substantial. As I was planning out my entryway I knew I wanted some sort of board with ‘Stars and Stripes’ on it. While walking through the lumber section at Lowe’s I thought back to my pallet boards and instantly knew I didn’t want one of their shiny new boards!
To start I printed out ‘Stars & Stripes’ using Adobe Illustrator to make sure the font and size were perfect. You could also use Microsoft Word for this too! Then I lined it up and taped it to my board. Get our your ball point pen and get to tracin’!
You want to push sort of hard and pull back the paper to check your progress often. You can see the faint lines made by the ball point pen above. Now you can either hand paint or use a paint pen to trace the lines and fill it in. I chose my paint pen because kids were involved. Like usual- the boys were hovering over my shoulder, bumping into me, and trying to get in on the action!
After I finished painting I had to figure out how to hang this bad boy! I gathered up my friendly hammer (again), measuring tape, and some claw hook hanger things (don’t know their real name!). I did some math and figured out where to nail my new claw hook thingys.
Easy-peasy my friends! After all was said and done I thought it needed a little extra pizazz so I added some of my patriotic pinwheels and twine for embellishment.
Enjoy,