"Always Give Thanks" Pallet Project

I have a slight obsession with painting pallets right now. First of all, you can get them for free. And they are perfect for an area of your front porch that needs some height or weight to it. Paint them for fall and you have instant drama!

This is my absolute favorite of all the pallets I've painted (and I've painted a lot). The color is just amazing on the front of my house!

We started with a plain pallet. I find them mostly at new construction sites. If you can find one with the slats tightly together, you are golden. If not, use a Sawzall and cut the slats off and then re-nail them back on close together using some slats off of the back of the pallet to fill in the gaps.

Then I used a paint color called "Shirley's Pumpkin" from Heirloom Traditions on 95% of the pallet. You can purchase that exact color on my website at www.themagicbrushinc.com/shop .

I covered about 90-95% of the pallet by just brushing the paint on. After that paint dried, I wiped a bit of Dark Walnut gel stain over the orange paint just to "dirty" the orange color just a bit. The stain ends up DEEPENING the wood color that was still showing. I just apply that stain with a sponge and mix it with a bit of paint thinner so it isn't too thick and darken the orange too much!

I used this stencil that I had custom designed for me to do the words because no one has time for free handing or trying to use single letter stencils!! These oversized stencils from Mad Stencilist make all of my pallet projects so much easier. Contact me at info@themagicbrushinc.com for the stencil info.

I stenciled the words with a cheap brush and some additional gel stain.... this time NOT thinned down. I wanted the letters dark.

And here is what the end result looks like! This is a QUICK, easy project that I probably did in less than 30 minutes! And just in time for Thanksgiving!

You can see more of my projects by finding my business page for "Jennifer Allwood" on Facebook and I have this pinned on my Pinterest account as well. I'd love to connect with you in both of those places!

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/10940154/always-give-thanks-pallet-project site