DIY Pallet Flag Wall Hanging

Here's a Step By Step for how we made this adorable shabby chic flag out of a pallet! 

-Pallets(s) {I ended up using wood from 3 since some pieces split or were not great to start with}

-Nail Gun/Staple Gun/ Brad Gun for connecting the wooden planks together

-Wire and nails (for making a spot to hang on your wall)

-Paintbrush (1 Large and 1 small)

-White wood stain 

-Kitchen Sponge

-Scissors

(the green bucket is full of all the scraps and pieces that weren't usable)

I had some pieces of palette that were shorter and some that were longer. I kept 6 shorter pieces to create the sectioned off look of the "star section" of the flag. but this is totally up to you! you can use all long pieces if you prefer! 

 

Once you have the pieces you would like picked out you want to lay them out to make sure they line up. We did a rough cut ( not all are 100% even as I wanted a rustic look) with a Ryobi! Make sure to wear safety glasses because there will be lots of wood chips! 

*Tip: save some extra pieces of wood in case an of yours split while cutting* 

Once you have the front side of your flag laid out how you would like it, measure out 3 more pieces to run along the back side of your flag (like in the photo). This will help support the weight and give the pieces something to attach to.

You can use any tool youd like for this!  I personally used a Nail Master 2 Electric Brad Gun, but a nail gun or staple gun would work as well. If you don't have any power tools a nail and hammer would work too it just make take a while longer 

front side ^

back side ^

I didn't take a photo of exactly how i secured the pieces together ( so sorry! ) but i made sure that each piece was secure on the back side 3 planks. Also, I put the  about 1 inch inward so that were not visible from the front as i wanted the edges to be a little rough.

Step 6: Attach a wire for hanging (I also forgot to take a photo of this) 

But what I did was secure one nail on either end (horizontally) of the flag. I kept them sticking out a bit. Then I took some heavy duty wire and wrapped it around each end giving some slack in the middle for hanging. You could also glue or nail a wall hanging hook or 2 to the back of the flag if you choose. 

 

I used a sharpie to draw a star on the sponge and then just regular scissors to cut it out. It's not the most perfectly even star, but I cleaned up any rough or uneven edges with a small paintbrush after the fact. Again, we are going for a rustic look so they don't have to be super crisp!

 

I bought Benjamin Moore Arborcoat Exterior Stain in Semi Solid White. I wanted to be able to see the wood grain through the paint so I picked a stain instead of a flat white paint. My local store didn't have any interior options so I went with the exterior one! This was the only thing I had to buy and it was only $8.99! 

For the stripes I used each plank as its own stripe. My flag is not 100% to scale so O only have 7 stripes. If you want it to be more accurate you can tape off the wood and paint accordingly. I alternated between no paint and paint for the stripes. Since I wanted the wood grain to come through iI only used one coat to achieve my final look.

For the stars I dipped the sponge into the paint (wiping off ant excess paint) and alternated each row with 5 stars and then 4 stars in the spaces of the row above (similar to the actual american flag). Again mine is not to scale, but you get the idea ;)

Stamping the stars ^

 

Getting the excess paint off of the sponge ^

That's it! Super simple and so much room to play around with! You can make it more traditional and use red, white, and blue paint or experiment with different stains! Let us know, in the comments, if you tried out this tutorial and what other posts you would like to see from us! XO!