DIY “Home” String Art Barnwood Pallet Style Tutorial

I am so addicted to string art. Once you get the basic technique down, you can string any word or object in any color you’d like with whatever thread type & wood type you’d like. {I’m noticing that I pretty much say that for all my tutorials – what can I say. Versatile & customizable projects are the best, right?}

So I started by gathering the following materials:

• wood
• string
• wire nails (I used 1.5 packages of these nails)
• 

I used 3 slats of barn wood from Hobby Lobby (about 3″x 16″ pieces) – pretty much any wood will do. Just make sure it’s at least 1/2″ thick.

Then I put 2 pieces of wood in the back and used some of my wire nails to join them all together.

Once I had the wood pieces nailed together, I wrote the word “home” to fit the size of my board. You can either write/draw the word yourself, or use the template I have provided here: {Click on the pic and print at desired size to fit your board}

Once I had my word template ready, I laid it on top of the board and taped it with a couple pieces of clear tape to hold it in place.

Once my template was in place, I started hammering in nails all around the penciled outline. The key part to remember is that the closer together your nails are, the smoother your curves will be. Also, the nails should all be hammered in as close to the same depth as possible. Mine look like they are standing about 1/2″ above the surface.

I hammered, hammered, hammered until the entire outline was completed. {note: this may give you a headache if you’re sensitive to loud banging ;-)}

Tada – finished outline. Next I carefully tore the paper away from the nails. Gentle tugging does the job. If there’s a tiny piece of paper left that your fingers can’t pull out, use a pair of tweezers.

Next I got my string and tied one end to a starting point.

The best way to string your word is to start with the outline as pictured. Then go back and fill it in. There isn’t a special way to do this. Just weave in and out until it looks right. {One tip: during your outlining, wrapping your string on the inside of the curves will produce a tighter curve. It’s hard to explain but once you start you’ll see the difference between the inside curve and the outside curve.}

A lot of this involves just making it “look right.” If something looks un-right, just go back and do it again a little differently until it’s exactly the way you want it. I know. This is a terrible explanation but I promise you’ll understand and get the feel once you start.Now all that was left to do was to finish off the loose thread ends. I just took a paintbrush and a little bit of Elmer’s glue and brushed the ends up against the other string.

I made one for my sister, and it looks so pretty the way she styled it in her home!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you might also be interested in looking at the following projects!

Love family name signs? Try this budget-friendly, NON-expensive letter idea!

“IT IS WELL” PALLET SIGN

MINI PALLET COASTERS

SIMPLY BLESSED WOOD SIGN