Pallet for Home

I'm slowly knocking out projects for the new office!  It is taking me longer than I anticipated.  I almost always underestimate how much time I need, so that's no surprise to me.

Rather than wait ten years to show you the final reveal, I'll show you little bits and pieces along the way!  Mmkay?

Last month I found Grey Luster Girl's framed thread holder tutorial on pinterest and flipped out!  I knew I was going to try this as soon as I saw it, just with my own little spin! :)

I changed my mind about fifteen billion times before settling on my final color and style.  Originally I was going to frame it - then it was going to be all one color - then it was going to be yellow and white chevron heavily distressed.  See?  Creativity ADHD!

Once it was stained though I loved it so much I didn't want to cover it up!!  Rather than frame it, I decided to tape off a 1.5 inch border to create the illusion of a frame.

 1.  I bought this basic piece of wood at Lowes for 8 bucks.  It's something like 1.5 x 2.5 feet.       2.  Then I used my favorite stain, Minwax Dark Walnut, to stain it.  3.  Next I grabbed some ScotchBlue painter's tape and taped off the borders, then taped a chevron pattern (eyeballed it, of course).  4.  I painted over it with white then peeled the tape off!

Once the paint was dry I took my orbital sander to it and distressed the mess out of it!

Now for the tedious part - math. Blah! I placed some freezer paper on top so I could still see the pattern, but draw directly on the board (can you tell I'm obsessed with this stuff? I use it for everything!)

I figured out how wide and tall the work area was, then I spaced out thread to determine how many spools I could fit into a horizontal and vertical row.

For example, I could fit 9 spools on the bottom row.  I had 13 inches of space (remember, I'm not counting the border).  So 13 divided by 9 is approximately 1.4 inches. 

Doing the same math for the vertical row, I ended up with a grid that had 1.4 x 1.5 inch squares.  I just traced it right on the freezer paper, leaving a little space on each edge so the spool of thread would sit right inside the border, not on it.

I used a small drill bit to place pilot holes, removed the paper, then hammered in all the nails. 

I broke out in a sweat people! A SWEAT!

Now, it's hard to see in the photo, but the nails are actually in the shape of an "H". Look real hard, you'll see it!

I had this idea when I realized how few spools of thread I had.  It would take an eternity for me to fill up the entire board, so I thought I would make the nails an "H." 

Now my thread holder is a double piece of art - cool chevron pattern AND an initial!

*SQUEAL!*