love one another

This weekend I finally got around to finishing a project I started over a month ago.  I have been eying wall art on pinterest made from pallets (heck I even have a board devoted to it) and finally gathered up the necessary supplies to create my own.  Here is a brief overview on how I did it:

"love one another" pallet art

Inspired by pallet art seen here

I started with a piece of a pallet that I found at the school near our house where I often take Lucy for walks.  It was sitting just to the side of the dumpster with some broken chairs and other irreparable furniture, just waiting for me to take it home.

Using our power sander, I smoothed out the surfaces and sides of the boards.  

It was surprisingly easy to pry the boards apart, but I was left with rusty nails sticking out the sides.

 

 After hammering out the nails, I was left with four pretty, sanded planks of wood.

Unfortunately this is where I stopped taking pictures of the process.  I let the wood sit on the back deck for several weeks before I was able to get around to finishing the project.  The next step was to hand sand the edges of all the boards.  I then put on a coat of danish oil, which stains and lightly seals the wood.  After that dried, I used a length of 1"x2" board that I had cut to size, and put the pallet boards back together.  It is much lighter and smaller than the original boards.  I put it together with dark color screws, using the same nail holes as before.  After it was all assembled, I used a 3" letter stencil and yellow craft paint to add the words.

The bunting was made with scrapbook paper, twine, and clothespins that I made smaller by cutting off the ends and sanding smooth.

I am so in love with how it turned out, and the message puts a smile on my face every time I read it.  We really have no place to hang it up in our current house, but I think it will look lovely on the fireplace mantle in the new house!