Ombre Pallet Wood

I really like playing with wood and paint.

This piece was super fun to play with.

I took the color combination idea from Beyond the Picket Fence

and made an Ombre version.

Keeping with the bird theme I have going right now, 

I had to add a bird on a branch.

However, Becky over at BTPF uses stain on her wood.

The little disclaimer about not storing used stain rags 

kind of freaked me out.

I definitely don't want to burn my house down 

because of some stain rags left in my garage.

So I went back to the super easy 

and cheap method of steel wool and apple cider vinegar.

It produces the same staining effect, at a fraction of the cost and 

vinegar isn't going to burn my house down.

Remember the longer the steel wool sits in the apple cider vinegar,

the darker the color you get on the wood.

I left mine in for about 24-36 hours.

You can see another project using this method here.

The steel wool was pretty much disintegrated so I used a cut up piece of sponge

that was left over from a youth activity our church had recently.

Instead of water balloons, they used sponges to have a huge water fight.

Super fun and you don't have to pick up latex pieces of balloon afterwards.

Be sure to wear gloves when using the vinegar or it will stain your hands.

Use the sponge to wipe on the vinegar mixture.

It will look a little light at first but darkens as it drys.

After the vinegar dries completely, I gathered my paint colors.

I had 4 slats and 3 paint colors so I mixed two to make the color for the other slat.

They got a light dry brush layer of paint.

Let dry and sand slightly to age a bit.

After the Ombre paint dried, I screwed the back slat to the wood to hold them together.

These aren't the same pieces but the process is exactly the same.

I got out my stencils from the last batch of pallet wood projects.

Press the contact paper in place and brush the paint on.

Let the paint dry completely before removing the stencil.

It will give you cleaner lines.

Sand again slightly and apply a finish coat.

I usually use a wax paste top coat, but a quick spray of polyurethane would also do the trick.

Add hanging hardware if desired and you're done!

I thought it would be fun to put the sign on my vintage suitcase in my living room for the photo op.

Ombre Pallet wood birds.

Simple and sweet.

Happy Crafting!