Dock Love

I have become addicted to pinning crafts on Pinterest. I don't know where I think I will find the time, patience, or skill to complete even a small percentage of these crafts, but I find myself pinning and pinning as though eventually I will miraculously transform into Martha Stewart (looking at my recipe pin board it appears I also intend to become Julia Child but that is an entirely different issue; how am I supposed to loose the extra baby weight with pictures of homemade snickers cheesecake taunting me?).

Anyways I've set a goal for myself to complete one craft or diy project per month...If I can't do that, no more pinning...sure.

This is the project we did for month one.

I had been seeing this "love" sign floating around Pinterest in various forms:

I believe this blog post by House*Tweaking to be the original (at least as far as I can tell)...

Some of the other versions were just as beautiful like this one that is made from a wood pallet by Young and Crafty:

(The tutorial for this one can be accessed here)

I just really love the shabby-chicness of these boards... I love the idea of using it for a headboard, I can picture it in a guest bedroom.

Here's what we did:

My husband and some friends recently repaired the dock in front of the house we rent.  From what I understand, the dock went up sometime in the 1960's. It had been damaged by the storms a few years back and was falling apart.

The weathered boards they removed reminded me of the images above that I had pinned a few weeks earlier. (Pinterest makes me look at "trash" in a whole new light, I am a few steps away from becoming a dumpster diver). We saved some planks and gave it a go (after they sat for a few months of course). We didn't follow any of the tutorials closely since we were working with different material.

1) Scrubbed the boards with soapy water and removed all the nails
2) Sanded the boards with electric sander, just enough to smooth out splintery edges, we still wanted the wood to have some character
3) Painted the boards. Has anyone else used these "painting pyramids?" Brice spotted them at the check out line of Home Depot. They are great for painting both sides of the boards,
4)Screwed the boards together. Note: You need to use wood screws. We first tried regular screws we had laying around. Fail!
5) Sketched "love" in pencil
6) Painted "love", sanded to achieve "weathered look", and glazed. I used this glazing technique from All Things Thrifty and was really happy with the results. It really helped pull out all the "nooks and crannies" in the wood.

Here is the final Product:

We are happy with how it turned out and love that we will have a piece of our family's first home as a keepsake. Not bad for an old dock. Hopefully next months project goes as well.