One Day Closer to Crazy: Filling my spare time

I am off for Christmas break for two whole weeks! My pinterest addiction is actually starting to pay off. Yesterday I worked on a couple of "pallet" projects that I have been ~~lusting over~~ wanting to do.

I am working on Addie's big girl room. We love animals. Let me clarify...Addie and I love animals! So decided to do some animal artwork for her room. I saw this on Restoration Hardware's website and swore that I could make my version of this for MUCH cheaper than $170 or whatever they were charging plus shipping. I didn't want the silhouette to be black and I didn't like the metal ties.

Here is my version!

How to: Andrew took apart the old pallets for me. They were old and brittle with lots of nails in them so it wasn't something I wanted to do.

I got the two side pieces from Lowes. I think they were $1.00 each. Originally I was going to put them on the back to hold the wood together but instead of making the dog bigger, I decided to put them on the front. I went ahead and painted and sanded these pieces to make them look old.

I picked out four "pretty" wood planks (some of them were split in half but it doesn't matter) and laid them out how I wanted them positioned.

I made a dog template with poster board and traced it with chalk.

Then I put my two holding pieces on the front and screwed those in with 1 1/2 inch nail screws. I would suggest shorter screws because ours poked through the back...we just put foam over them.

To minimize the fact that I used 1,000 screws, I painted over them again.

Then, I painted inside of my chalk outline, let it dry, and wiped the chalk off.

All in all, it was a cheap and fun project.

I put it high above her bed only because she will have a big fabric headboard. We still have a long way to go with her room...

Project #2 was super easy. The pallet was already missing the middle board so all I had to do was paint it. I didn't sand it or anything before because I didn't want to lose the weathered look.