DIY Repurposed Pallet Sign

You guys….I finally got around to making my own pallet sign!

Ok…so this was a work of love, for sure.
It's messy and "splintery" (it's my blog…I can say whatever words I want).
But it was worth all of the blood, sweat, and tears.

But here's how I did it.

First, find a free pallet. Yes, make sure it's free. It makes it all the better.
I just checked on craigslist for a free pallet and found one right away. Woo hoo!

Next, break that bad boy apart.
This sucks! I broke so many of the boards because the nails were rusted and completely indented into the wood. There was no way to get it out without splintering the wood.
Geesh!

So after working up a good sweat doing that….use connectors to put them back together.
I found these at Home Depot in the roofing section.
And because I had split so many boards I had to put the individual boards back together while connecting them all together.
Find shallow screws so that you will not screw though the front of the boards.
Put them together as closely as possible so that there will not be any huge gaps between boards. But be careful not to joint the two boards together where there will be a natural gap, you don't want the connectors showing through. (Sorry if that makes no sense…it makes sense in my head).

After it's all connected together flip it over and paint it.
I really wanted mine to look rustic but uniform, so I chose a white paint and I watered it down. Just to give it a white-washed look.
Color test before you do so, you don't want to have to sand and fix the sign.

Find a good helper.

Next, I really had a specific idea in mind of how I wanted the words to look. I knew I couldn't' just free hand it and make it look good…so….let the work begin!

I used my Silhouette and contact paper to cut out the letters I wanted. I chose to use contact paper instead of vinyl because it comes off of the wood much easier than the vinyl and it's so much cheaper.

I just cut out the correct size to fit on my mat. Found the right fonts, and let the machine do it's thing.

I then put the letters where I wanted them and traced each letter with a pencil. I am sure there is a better solution for this…but this is how I roll….

I even let Jo get in on the action.
He's got such an eye for detail and he was so exited to help me.
Plus…he's cute, and I like cute boys.

 Once it's all traced out, get to painting. I just used white acrylic paint. It's cheap and I had it on hand.

Then hang it. I literally had to drill it into the wall, but I'm ok with that.
Use four hands to get this thing hung. I did it by myself and nearly died in the process. I also measured wrong the first time (surprise, surprise). That's why you can see the "oops" in the photo above. I did use hallow wall anchors to make sure that thing was in nice and sturdy. It's hanging in the playroom and I didn't want it toppling down on anybody!
I don't plan on moving it. Ever. I love it. Love it. Love it.

These kids are hams!

Don't mind the 5 year old in his undies…it's hot here folks.

So there ya have it. This board cost me about $15 total, and I adore it.

Don't forget that I'm moving to BlogLovin. Join me there!