Little White Pallet Fence

As the weather quickly changes and the temperatures drop, snow is in the horizon here in Canada.

The worst part is never knowing, it could be the middle of November and so warm that our parkas are still packed away, or we are scrambling to find them Halloween night.

A week before Halloween we got to building this, and let’s just say I wish ruining my parka with paint wasn’t an issue, we froze in the garage even with the shop heater.

That brings me to why we struggled through that cold weekend garage project.

One good snowfall in Canada and the Christmas decor is buried, long gone are the days I had the time and energy to dig it all out, not to mention the days being a wrestler is a requirement to yank frozen blow ups from the cold dead hands of a Canadian ice storm.

So this year we built a picket fence, a long 12 foot piece, then a smaller 4 ft section for near the sidewalk area.

It’s my goal to do a simple display this year and pray to the Canadian winter Gods that by December it’s not a hot mess..bad mom joke, I know!

We used

• 1×3 framing lumber for the backs

• 1×4 framing lumber for the pickets

• 1 1/4 inch screws

• Behr Stain & Sealer

tinted in their slate shade

• White water based outdoor paint in a flat finish, we used Tremclad

• Copper Piping and Straps

you can use metal straping around the pipes as a cheaper alternative

• Cotton rags that can be tossed out after

• An electric sander to smooth out any really rough areas on the wood prior to staining and painting, you don’t want a perfect surface, the idea is to make it look like it was made from reclaimed wood.

For the weathered, reclaimed pallet look you want to stain the wood, let it stand a few minutes then use a cloth (old cut up tees are my go to) to “rub it off”

Let the stain dry about 15 20 mins

If you don’t want to buy a can of stain, a trick is to lightly dust your wood with flat black or dark grey spray paint and quickly rub it off and into the wood,but the behr mixed up in the slate in my opinion gives the old pallet look best.

Now use a brush barley dipped in your white paint and dry brush the white onto your wood.

Again let it stand and with a clean cloth,”rub it off”

Our pickets are 1×4 @32 inch high, you can get 3 out of an 8 ft piece of wood. The back slats are 1×3 (cut to desired fence lengths)

You will need roughly 8 pickets per 4 foot sections of fence you want to build, spacing each 3 inches apart.

We hammer pieces of pipe cut to roughly the same height as the fence into the ground, behind it, then use the copper pipe straps and screw the pipe against the fence to keep it sturdy, Canadian winter winds can be brutal too.

See you soon when we have it up, and as we start to decorate around it.

SHARED AT THESE LINK PARTIES

LOVE MY LITTLE COTTAGE

MY THRIFT STORE ADDICTION

OUR HOPEFUL HOME

GRANDMA’S HOUSE DIY

ARTSY FARSTY MAMA

PIN JUNKIE

TWO CHICKS AND A MOM

PAINTED HINGE

LIFE AND LINDA