HopeAbound: Pallet LOVE

There's a craze going around blog world. Say hello to pallet renovation and let's go green!! Tons and tons of people are snatching up those rustic old pallets that are tossed to the bottomless trash pits and vamping them up in ways that are sometimes unreal like.

I'm an admirer. I admit it. But my imagination just doesn't flow in a way that allows me to picture the outcome of such rustic manner. Somehow, though, a couple planks of old fence does. Not sure how.

The same day I made my sunshine sign for my eat in kitchen, I whipped up an extra piece for my dining room. I had the idea in my head and just went with it.

Here's how it all played out.... one whole day without my husband...girl's down to bed. Chores done. House cleaned. All spells out PLAY TIME for Moma!!

A few thin slats of old fence cut down to a small size and piece together to form a large wooden canvas.

You can see here that they're not all the same length. I actually liked it that way though...and I apologize for the dark pictures. .

I sanded down the edges and all of the splintery spots. This took a bit of time and I think the neighbors got a little irritated...I would have with a noisy sander going on and on at 7:30-8 at night.

I brought the piece inside to keep myself from getting the West Nile and got to work on finishing the project. I grabbed some plain white paint and added some water to thin it out in hopes to create a white washed finish. I used an old rag and just wiped the whole thing down. You can see the difference here.

It turned out more white than I wanted, but I sure wasn't going back out to sand it down. I was convinced the neighbors would have seriously protested.

I found a picture I liked off of google. I just typed in the word flower and looked through all of the results until I saw one I liked. A little black paint and some high hopes and ...

it actually turned out better than I thought it would. I guess I can paint after all. *smile*

I really wanted to have the word LOVE on there and so with a yellow paint, I softly wrote it out in case I didn't like it. I did, so I filled it in.

And in the bottom corner, I added a little something.

Not too bad for a quick late night project, huh? It fits really well with the rest of our so called "decor" in the house. Mike says it looks good enough to sell...ha! Any buyers??!??!??! *wink*