USA Flag on Barn Wood

I probably haven’t made this clear in past posts, but I am trying to decorate (more like finally put together) two rooms in my house, the screened-in porch and the master bedroom. I’m probably halfway there for both of them, but adding final touches and décor has really been weighing me down. Part of it is that I’m scared of buying a piece that won’t go exactly like I want and that’s a fear I just need to get over. Another part of it is that we’ve been SO busy with family trips and wedding events!

The theme for the screened-in porch is rustic America…or at least that’s what I’m aiming for. Already, I have refurbished our patio furniture cushions (look out for a future blog posts…I redid the cushions with only fabric and a glue gun!) and changed out the plastic recycling bins with crab bushel baskets. I also made this wonderful rustic American flag out of old barn wood! Very excited about this!

How did I get old barn wood? Well, my mother-in-law was having the side of her shed redone and offered me some of the old wood. The original wood already had some red paint on it that had been worn away some so I thought this would be perfect for an American flag!

1. Cut the Boards. I determined that I’d need to use two boards nailed together to get the right size I wanted. I used a circular hand saw and the hubby to accomplish this. 

2. Secure Boards Together. Now there are several different ways I could’ve secured these boards together, but what I chose to do was to cut two small pieces and nail them to the back of both boards.

3. Mark and Measure. So I researched the actual proportions of the American flag and used painter’s tape, string, tape-measure, and a pencil to mark out everything on the boards.

4. Scrape off Non-red Areas. I wanted to keep the barn wood’s original red paint for the red stripes so I used a wire brush to scrape off the paint in areas that were going to be blue or white. This part was very messy so I’d recommend putting a drop cloth down or having a broom handy.

5. Paint. I watered down AS Old White and AS Napoleonic Blue and took my AS round brush and went to work! I did not apply the paint too heavily and made a point to make the new paint coverage match the original red.

6. Stars Forever. Once the blue paint dried (which was very quickly since it was watered down), I went to work on the fifty stars. First, I measured the spacing of the stars (per the real proportions) and put a little white dot of paint where each star’s center was to be. Then I went back and free-handed all of the stars. BOOM! Done!

We bought a black chain from Home Depot and nailed that to the back. The flag is hanging up in our screened-in porch and we love it! We love where it came from and I love the fact that this beautiful wood didn’t go to waste. I have more barn wood and more projects for it!

#barnwood #USA #flag #wirebrush #outdoor