Recycled Wooden Fence Art

I mentioned in another post that I rescued one fence panel that a neighbor had left on the curb for trash pickup. The wood was in excellent condition, so of course I grabbed it. Well, the hubs grabbed it for me. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of that one fence panel and I wanted to share just a couple of things I've made so far (other than using it as the platform for my "Early Snow" art installation piece).

In the piece above, I dismantled the fence so I'd have a stack of individual wood planks to work with. My husband cut them down into manageable pieces. Then, I centered one dog-eared panel in the center and offset the other two on either side. I used wood glue between the pieces and held all three pieces together using strapping on the back (see the exposed strapping on the piece below). The screw holes and bracket "ghost" were left intact. I sanded the edges to round them out a bit and gave the entire piece a quick go over with the sander to create a rustic feel.

I love the look of a beach cottage, so I used some pastel colored craft paints to make each wood piece a different color. Two wood scraps create the shelves. Olaf seems quite happy in his hula skirt, playing the ukulele.

The art installation piece above was so much fun to make and cost literally pennies. I already had the metal "Hello" sign, which I'd purchased a while back at my local Michael's Store - I think I paid a dollar for the package of four different sayings. 

The planks were lightly brushed with various craft paints. They're attached together using incredibly inexpensive pipe strapping (comes in a fairly long roll and purchased for under two bucks at Walmart), which I attached slightly askew for added interest. I didn't like the look of the brand new, shiny metal, so I lightly spray painted the strapping with a rusty red color after the piece was put together. Overspray? Who cares? I think it gives it a more funky look. 

The flower heads were from a thick branch found on the ground during a walk with the dogs and the stems are branches from my own yard. My hubby sliced discs from the thick branch using the chop saw. The old gnarled knot in the center plank gives the piece character. 

I hope I've inspired you to recycle some old found wood. Now you can be on the lookout for discarded fencing to take home for your stash, since you never know when a creative idea will hit you. These ideas would easily work with pallet wood too.

Happy Crafting!