Let’s Fall In Love: Creating an UpCycled Pallet Valentine Art

Date
Feb, 08, 2014

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Heart Pallet Art

For some time now I have been enamored with vintage signs.  Tin, wood, plastic, neon, any material. I love letters, quotes and shapes in general. I recently got a shipment of paints that came via courier on a wooden pallet. It just leaned against our garage door waiting for me to take it to the curb. I even put it in my car to bring it to a pallet recycling center. It never made it… because it turned into a fabulous painted pallet art.

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Deconstructing the Pallet

I used a crowbar to disassemble the pallet. The nails were long and the wood was tough. It was a serious workout! There’s a reason why these pallets hold heavy weight, they’re super tough.

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I placed all the loose boards touching. I temporarily nailed a board perpendicular so that I could maneuver the pallet boards. Using a large piece of poster paper I folded kindergarden style a large heart. ( If it ain’t broke don’t fix it) . I still make hearts that way so that the are symmetrical. I traced the heart onto the boards and using a electric jig saw cut just inside the marker lines.IMG_5866

 Rulers as Art

We flipped the boards over and nailed 1 by 1 boards to the back so that all the boards were attached to one another.IMG_5903

I used a yard stick and foldable ruler for the arrow. We nailed and glue them to the back.IMG_5902 IMG_5904

Adding paint but making sure that the grain shows through.
Adding paint but making sure that the grain shows through.

Rustic Farmhouse Style Painting

It was then ready to be painted. I wanted to have this heart look old so the paint job needed to let the weathered wood show thru. I watered down some red paint and painted to entire red heart adding some pinker highlights to the edges. I then laid out letter and number stencils and spray painted the words “Let’s fall in love 3-2-1”. It didn’t bother me that the spray paint went outside the stencil. I did all of this outdoors and with a mask on. I let it dry for an hour and brought it back inside and sanded it down to expose some of the natural wood color and further gave it a distressed look by rubbing a dark wax in areas and around the edges. If you don’t have wax then show polish will do just make sure that you apply it with a rag.
Detail of the lettering and distressing. I especially love the drip mark on the V. To hang I attached 2-60 lb. picture frame hooks. Never hang a piece of art this large or heavy with one hook or wire.
 
Total amount of time to complete -4 hours
Total cost of project-  $24.
 

 

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Amie Freling

"Life's too short for white walls .." Amie Freling-Brown, a Rochester, NY-based designer and artist who transforms ho-hum spaces into works of art. Her creative designs can be found in many fine homes, restaurants and businesses. Her work has been featured in national magazines, on HGTV and has been sold through retailers nationwide from True Value Hardware to Nordstroms. She proudly offers such professional services as design, staging, color consultations and fine art.

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