Shabby Painted Pallet Wood Art

Last week I shared this diy pallet wood star with you all. I had made the star for my porch. When I went to hang it, it looked a little plain for my taste, so I decided to paint it. I love the look of painted old wood. Typically I am not a fan of distressing wood. I like the crispness of clean painted furniture. However sometimes there is a piece that is just perfect distressed. There are a lot of ways to distress wood. A friend told me about the vaseline method, so I thought I’d give that one a try since it seemed the easiest to me. I had a great time painting my star! It’s so easy and fast to give it a little update with paint and vaseline too!

Here’s What You Need:

*White Paint (I used regular latex interior paint for this project)

*Paint in the colors you like best

*Vaseline

*Paint Brush

*Sandpaper

The first thing you need to do is apply a thin layer of vaseline in the areas you want the natural wood to show through. I used my finger to apply the vaseline. Be careful because you can get splinters. I think a paint brush or pallet knife would work to apply it too.

Next, Paint your whole star with your white paint. You may need a few coats of white to completely cover. I think I used three coats of the white paint. Let the white paint dry.

Now, apply the vaseline again over the areas where you would like the white to show through the colored paint.

Next paint the different planks in your colored paints. I used red and aqua to go with the color scheme on my porch. Paint a couple of coats of paint and set your piece aside to dry.

Once your paint is thoroughly dry, lightly sand the wood. The areas where the vaseline is, the paint will come off easily. I have also found that if you blast the piece with water from your hose the paint will flake off in the areas where the vaseline is as well. It’s a little less work, but then you have to let the piece dry out for a day or so. Enjoy your distressed pallet art!

I liked my star before, but now I am totally in love with it! It is going to look so fantastic on my porch! Pallet wood is so much fun to distress! I hope you all will give this method a try some time. It was both easy and fun! I’ll be back soon with another fun project. Until then…

Happy Crafting!