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Twin Tuesday: DIY Patio Pallet Sign

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

Hello! Dania here. If you’re a new Designing Dawn reader, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Dawn’s twin sister, and I occasionally pop in with random posts here on her blog. (You can see all my Twin Tuesday posts by clicking here, in case you’re curious.)

Today, I have a tutorial for you on a really fun project I spent some time on this past summer. I’m a teacher, and home during the warm months, so I have some free time to get extra crafty. A few months ago, I spied this giant pallet in a dumpster at a new home construction site near my house. I kept my eye on it for a few days (to make sure it really was being thrown out) before I made my husband help me drag it out of the dumpster and into our garage. Living in a new construction neighborhood has its advantages.

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

When I say this was a huge pallet, I mean super huge. It weighed easily 100 lbs, so my hubby cut it into smaller, manageable sections for me. Then I removed the large back bracing boards and re-positioned the main pallet boards closer together, using 2×4’s in place of the giant heavy posts that were previously on the back. This made the whole thing quite a bit lighter, and less bulky to hang.

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

I only used one section of this giant thing for the pallet sign in this tutorial, so I have a few more projects to go, and a couple fun ones in mind! The possibilities are endless. :D

Back to the tutorial! Once I had the pallet all cleaned and prepped for my project, I sanded it down and painted it with chalk paint. The next step was to decide what I wanted it to say. I typed out my text on the computer, and printed it out at the size I needed. To do this, I had to tile my image onto several pieces of paper and tape them together (you could also have a large black and white print — or engineering blueprint — made at an office supply store). Once I knew my lettering was the right size, I taped it to the front of my board.

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com   DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

With the paper template taped down, I traced around the outside of all the text with a ball point pen, making sure to press the pen down enough that it would leave an indent on the painted wood underneath. (I forgot to take a photo of this step, so just use your imagination here, ok?) This was by far the most tedious part, but it’s worth it, I promise. Once the font was all outlined, I removed the paper and use a paint pen to paint the words on, using the letter outlines I had created as a guide and filling in each letter as I went.

Pro tip: A paint pen is WAY easier for this type of detail work than a standard paintbrush. I actually started out with a paintbrush, and Dawn suggested that I try a paint pen (affiliate link) after I lamented to her about how much work the brush was. I was able to get much cleaner and more precise results with the pen, and it just felt much more natural to me.

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

Filling in all the letters is my favorite part! You can really see the sign coming together, and once it’s all finished it looks amazing!

Ta-da! A finished DIY pallet sign that was super inexpensive. I hung this giant using a French cleat to evenly support the weight and make sure it was nice and stable. It has been such a fun addition to our outdoor patio space. I’ve gotten lots of compliments on it, and a couple requests to make more!

DIY Pallet Sign - DesigningDawn.com

I hope you like my little DIY project today. Look for more of me here in the future, and if you’d like, come follow me on Instagram!

-Dania

 

 

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