Let's Fall In LOVE! Upcycled Heart Art

For some time now I have been enamored with vintage signs.  Tin, wood, plastic, neon, any material. I just 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...

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.

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.

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

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

 

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.