Scavenger Chic

Black and White Pallet Wood Wall Art

• By Joan
• January 27, 2021
• 4 Comments

Black and White Pallet Wood Wall Art

I watch design shows a lot!   I would like to blame my obsession on being at home due to Covid…I would like to, but I really can’t,  I’ve had this HGTV problem for years.

And one thing I’ve noticed lately is a lot of black and white art popping up.  Usually it’s on the more contemporary or modern  houses  but  not  always.

I’ll give you a couple of examples.  This one from HGTV, ” it’s sure to evoke gallery-worthy grace no matter where you set it.” That was their words, not mine.

This one was from West Elm.  It sells for $350. 

I’m pretty sure I could make a pretty good copy of either of these but that is not where I’m headed today. I’m just pointing out black and white artwork.

    Well now I want to paint one of these, but that will have to be another day. Seriously folks, $350?

Today I’m making a black and white design from pallet wood.

Pick out enough pallet wood for however large you want your final picture to be and plywood backing board to match.  The pallet wood strips all need to  be the exact same width.

As wide as your pallet wood is, is how wide you need to make your squares. Mark your pallet wood cut lines leaving an extra 1/8″ allowance for the width of the saw blade.

With my chop saw, I’m making all my diagonal cuts first.  The saw is set at a 45° angle. 

By doing the angle cuts first, I’m left with all the straight cuts and it’s easier to keep my fingers out of the way.

Paint all the triangle blocks with black chalk paint.

Cover up the black on half the triangles with white chalk paint.

Take out your sander to let the pallet woodiness shine thru. 

Sand off the splintery edges and smooth the uneven texture of the top of the pallets.  Sanding will also allow some of the black to show thru on the white triangles.

Paint the plywood backing black.  Pallet wood is notorious for  not having the straightest edges.  If any gaps do peek thru you’ll want to see the black which will appear as a shadow instead of the plywood.

Create Your Black and White Design

Here is the fun part, start playing with your triangle design.

There really are thousands of possibilities.

Get ready to make your pallet wood triangle art permanent.  Draw evenly spaced pencil lines on your backer board the width of your pallet wood blocks.  These lines will help keep your rows straight.

When you finally do decide that this is the one, this is the final design, this is the one you want to live with forever,  use builders adhesive to attach the triangles to the backing.

If you don’t want to glue the triangles down permanently, or if you have extras, they make a great design toy for the kids. 

These were some of my leftover triangles that were just a little off.  Grandson Felix didn’t seem to care and I believe Dad helped him with his wagon design.

Picked out by my husband (because I couldn’t decide) this was my final design.

Just one more idea…make smaller design squares.  The squares could be hung vertically, horizontally or as a square grouping.

For a less modern take, paint the triangles with colors and arrange the triangles with a more traditional quilt design.

Have fun, design away and stay inspired.

Pallet Wood Quilt

Here is an example of my more traditional quilt square from 2018. It too, is made of pallet wood.

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