Pallet Letter Sign

I recently started seeing these circular letter signs on IG and thought I would give it a try. My dad works in a shop and is able to get pallets pretty easily. I asked him to pick up a pallet for me and I cut it apart with my Ryobi jig saw. Next, I used my Ryobi orbital sander and sanded down the boards a little bit, still leaving them with that rough pallet look. 

My next step was figuring out how to get all the boards into a perfect circle. I am still trying to master this. For this one, I laid out all the boards and then used my tape measure to measure out 10 inches from a dot I made in the center. This turned out to be a 20 inch sign. I marked this around the wood and used this as my guide to cut out the circle with my jig saw. 

After this, I printed out a very large S from Microsoft Word and used that as my stencil for the letter. It significantly helped to have all my boards numbered, I would highly recommend doing this with a light pencil mark. Next, I was trying think of how I should assemble the boards to stay together. My boyfriend introduced me to a dowel jig when he built this Restoration Hardware knockoff media console. Here are some pictures of this amazing piece he did for his living room.

So I decided to use dowels to connect these boards together with this dowel jig. If I were to make more of these signs, next time I would cut a thin piece of plywood and use my nail gun to secure these. It was a lot of work with the dowel jig. I then used a wood file to smooth out some of the edges. Here it is after I got it all assembled.

Next, I used some Minwax dark walnut stain to get a nice dark wood look for the sign. 

 

I actually really liked it with just the stain on it as well. But, I decided to go white with it. White has been my obsession lately! I used Fusion mineral paint in limestone to paint it and then some light sanding to distress it. I love how it turned out and currently have it displayed in my bedroom.

What do you all think?

Thanks for reading!
Shayla

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Table & Chairs Round Two

When I first moved into my condo, I never would have thought about re-doing a dining room set for myself. That changed quickly after I did my first desk for my place and found this love for furniture. I have a small dining room area that has become even smaller due to my buffet/dresser that I am determined to keep even though I do not have a ton of room for it. That buffet/dresser will be another blog post. Here is a little preview of it.

My first goal for this table set was ideally to find an entire set for a good price. I had been looking for about 2-3 months and was not finding anything I liked. Then, one day my furniture friend Kim had texted me that she was at Goodwill and they had a set of four matching chairs. That was a start. I was having a hard time finding a good set of four all matching chairs. Here they are!

I loved all the great character they had and wide seat base. Then my next step was the table. I did a little searching and found one from a friend that she had already painted, but never completed. It was a very cute oak pedestal table that would fit great in my little dining room. I didn't take too many pictures. but I basically sanded off all the paint for the top wood part in anticipation of Java gel stain, my favorite! I used my Ryobi orbital sander a lot. Here it is after one coat. 

I was hoping it would take darker, so I did two coats. It just was not getting as dark as I hoped, but I knew the polyurethane would darken it a bit as well. It all just really depends on the wood itself for exactly how dark it will go with Java gel stain. I did three coats in my favorite polyurethane in gloss to protect the table. I then had this fabric from Jo Ann's for the chairs. I hand painted the base of the table and all the chairs. Still need to get that sprayer, the chairs just take so much time and have so much detail. I used my favorite charcoal grey color I have found, orion grey by Behr. I used the same grey & fabric in this desk here. I absolutely love the combination.

I had used this table once for Easter and then determined it would be nice to have the ability to fit six people. So pretty soon after I finished this table, I was on the hunt for a similar table with the ability to have a leaf. You can see how packed it was with all the chairs in my tight little dining room space here. 

I just finally finished up the final touches on this table and sold it this past weekend. I did find an amazing table with leaf and a set of six matching chairs with two captain chairs that I will be redoing for myself very soon. Stay tuned for that posted!

Thanks so much for reading!

Shayla

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