Thursday, August 11, 2011

Pallet Art

Out the back of our place we have a couple of pallets. I haven't been able to bring myself to throw them out, they scream DIY to me!


A while back I tried to use one to make a side table. I was only able to salvage short pieces of timber though because the nails had rusted leaving the longer bits unusable. Bummer.

Last week, inspired by this pin, I decided to make a piece of art to hang in the laundry. Although I decided to have a quote on my boards instead of a picture.

You can kind of see the corner of it here in the post I did about my floor mat.

Here's how it came together:

I got together the couple of pieces of timber and sawed up a couple more. They were absolutely filthy from being outside for so long so I gave them a good scrub and put them back out in the sun to dry.




Now, when I go into a DIY I generally don't think more than one step ahead. It probably would be a good idea to plan the whole thing out first and then get started, but it's just not how my little brain works :)

So when it came time to join up the boards I couldn't decide if I should glue, nail or screw the support plank into the other planks.

First up I decided to use nails. The top two on each side went in ok, but as I started hammering in more nails the top ones would pop right out! Definitely not what I wanted.

I changed tack and decided to glue the boards down first. I used a stack of old text books to hold down the boards while the glue dried (I always knew the would come in handy!).



Once the glue was dry I decided to add screws as well. They went in a lot better than the nails and in no time I had a canvas to start working on.


I decided to use white paint and a letter stamps to write out my quote. I did a practice run on the back of the boards while the glue was drying and I liked how it looked.

Instead of using my normal clear acrylic block to do the stamping I used a clear plastic lid. I did this because I was often stamping across the join in to boards and wanted something that had enough give for me to press into the join.


I also started each word from the middle and worked out so that my mid-line stayed nice and neat.

 And here we go. My new pallet art! It's perfect for out laundry :)




26 comments

  1. this looks great Tamsyn. love the words!

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  2. Oh my! You are too clever for your own good! And yeah, why are there so many songs about rainbows? lol

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  3. LoVE that! What an awesome idea. I'm going to have to try that!

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  4. This really great art it looks amazing!

    I love your blog learn from you every time I visit.

    Always Wendy

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  5. You are so clever. That looks amazing :)

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  6. Wow!! That looks brilliant! You are so clever!

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  7. This is so creative. You do the best DIYs out there.
    OveLoves

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  8. ohmygoodness, The Muppets - Rainbow Connection lyrics! i remember that song from my childhood. my class sang it in school for an assembly. makes me tear up every time i hear it. you pallet art looks great, Tamsyn. love the words!

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  9. Aw you did a good job - you are very handy!!

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  10. Thanks girls, I love the song too :) Every time I walk into the laundry I feel like breaking out my kermit voice and singing at the top of my lungs!

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  11. I was away on vacation so just catching up on all my blog reading and wanted to say that I LOVE this! If I had crates I would try one of my own! My eyes are peeled for them now! (Pinning!) haha

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  12. love this! super cute. i have a pallet waiting in my garage for a project :)

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  13. Because rainbows have nothing to hide!

    I absolutely love this, perfect song choice too!

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    1. Thanks Niki, it still puts a smile on my face every time I do laundry :)

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  14. It's so cute! I should do this. Thank you for sharing. Visiting from Throwback Thurs. Would love it if you would share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/make-it-pretty-monday-week-7.html Hope to see you at the bash! Wishing you a grand week. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

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    1. Hi Kathryn, thanks for visiting. I'll come by and check out your link up :)

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  15. This is so cute! I love pallet art! I would love for you to share this at my link party http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/07/share-it-link-party-21-giveaway.html
    (you can also enter to win a $50 gift card to Amazon just by linking up. It closes today)

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    1. Thanks Sarah! I'll check it out tonight :)

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  16. Thank you so much for sharing this at my Throwback Thursday party, Tamsyn. I featured you this week! And hope to see you again :)

    http://www.hubbymademe.com/throwback-thursday-no-4/

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  17. I love your pallet sign so cool! I just wanted to ask a question how do you make or where do you get the stamps for the letters? I would love to try to make some pallet signs but I have not yet gotten started. Thank you and God bless you!

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