With Halloween coming it only made sense to do my first Happily Homemade post based on the holiday! Our sons’ were ADAMANT to decorate our yard last year - but our bank said: “Nah better not”. I knew we had a plethora of pallets (#palletproject to the max over here so buckle up) and I had a bunch of leftover acrylic paint from a paint and sip we put on at our home with some friends and family. You can find pallets on the side of the roads, at warehouses, auto part places - call around and ask if they’re FREE. So we rounded up the troops and headed out to the crisp fall day and got to work.
Cody and the boys broke down the pallets while I assembled the paints needed. I knew we needed black and orange obviously - then I thought how cool a Frankenstein would be! The paint was gathered and mixed if necessary, I had to mix the bare bones of each green we had together in order to have enough to cover 3 planks of wood for "Frankie". Now if you’re not familiar with how to break down pallets I found this video to be rather helpful! We received many tools as a housewarming gift - so we had everything we needed on hand. You can search around for a different video that uses the tools you personally have!
By the time I got outside with the paint, paint brushes and the ideas I had for what to build - the boys had already broken down all the pallets I needed. I told Cody I wanted to do some vertical signs, and some horizontal. He jumped right in and lined up 3 boards next to each other, squared them up and then placed a "lattice" board horizontal across the 3 main boards and nailed them to keep them close together and in place - 1 across the top and 1 across the bottom for good sturdy support. I have found using roofing nails to be the best - they will hold 2 boards together and not usually go through the other side. Then he added a bracer post so they would stand up. Next, he made the horizontal posts with vertical lattice support on the back to keep them together and a added a verticle post that was cut to a point at the bottom to bang them into the ground.
Once the signs were assembled we got to paint! The boys were really excited about this part - they painted the background color while I focused on the details so they would look more finished. We did a "BOO" sign with a spider and web, a Frankenstein one, more of a goofy friendly one, and a trick or treat sign with another spider as I was rather good at them. Once they dried we set them up and marveled at our work. It was a perfect example of - we needed decorations - but didn’t have/want to spend the big box store prices - so we looked at what we had and made it work!! I can’t wait to set these back up again in a few weeks! I may add a string of solar powered fairy lights I got for super cheap (using a website for discount Amazon items!) this year to light them up at night!
Let me know in the comments below if you plan to make any this year or have in the past!!
Feel free to share your pallet projects on my Facebook page, I'd love to see them!
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