Deconstructed Pallet Brewery Sign

For Christmas this year I had to get a little creative with Aaron's presents. I got him the new iPad Air which totally blew my budget (holy expensive) but I wanted him to have a few more things under the tree to open which led me to this project... which came out great! I wanted to make Aaron a sign for his brewery that also had the ability to display what we had on tap. Also I'm obsessed with chalkboard paint so I'll make up any excuse to use it. In my head the design was based off old ice cream shop signs. You know the kind-- where they hang the different flavors available?

I have a pallet hoarding situation in the garage which is a blessing & a curse. We have a 2 car garage yet no room to fit any cars in it. There's a sofa, a few pallets, the "brewery", and a lot of giant boxes that need to be broken down, among other things. I thought using one of the pallets would be a double gift to Aaron, hehe. Clearing some space in the garage AND making an awesome sign.

These instructions are going to be kind of vague... as I totally "winged it." There were no tape measures involved, just eyeballs and it made for a very rustic look, which is what I was going for.

What You'll Need

An old pallet (or scrap wood, or even new wood)

Hammer & Nails

Handsaw (or as I call it, "Christmas Tree Saw")

Computer/Printer

Regular Paint

Chalkboard Paint

Small Paint Brushes 

Hook Screws & Eye Screws

"Directions"

To deconstruct your pallet: I used 2 wide panels nailed together for the top section of the sign, held together by nailing them into smaller pieces long enough to span the gap between the slats. (See diagram.) You'll want to hammer the nails in from the front.

view from back of sign

I used narrower panels for the hanging sections. All pieces came from the same pallet. To deconstruct I just used the handsaw to cut pieces directly off the pallet. 

To paint text: Choose a large bold font for your text. Print off onto regular printer paper - this will act as your stencil so make sure it fits your wood pieces properly and as you'd like to see it as a finished project. Cut off excess paper and tape to your wood. Firmly trace the text with a regular pen - the wood is soft enough that this should leave an indent to use as a guide when painting. Remove stencil and paint text.

Paint the narrower slats with a few brush strokes of chalkboard paint so that you can write the "on tap" selections. You can cut/paint as many of these as you might need. We only have a 2 tap kegerator so I only painted two. Allow all paint to dry thoroughly. 

Attach eye screws and hook screws to your pieces. (you might actually want a tape measure for this). I did mine about 3 inches in on each side of the sign. Since the edges weren't cut exactly straight, I had to do a little adjustments to one side or the other by tapping the screws lightly with a hammer. 

And that's it... easy right?

*And yes, the walls in my kitchen are lime green... I promise it works, it just looks a little weird in these pictures without the rest of the kitchen.