Here in the city there is never a shortage of wooden pallets. You can make all kinds of things with wooden pallets. I watched someone on Youtube once build a little house with some. I believe the big home stores sell them too, if you can’t find any laying around being tossed. Make sure they are being tossed, usually they will be the ones that are too damaged to use again. But you can use some of the wood from those to make little wooden houses with.

You will need someone who has a saw to cut them into house shapes. If you don’t have a saw yourself or know anyone who does, then I believe the big home stores will also cut your wood into shapes for a fee.

Supplies needed:

small wooden houses cut from a pallet

Off white chalk paint

Red and Navy chalk paint

Bag of assorted small wooden rectangles (you can purchase in the hobby stores in the kits sections)

Wood stain

tacky glue

small beads/buttons to be used for doorknobs. (optional)

Once you have your house shapes you can sand them down for smoother textures. I only sanded some of the smaller houses.

The rest I left rustic looking making sure to remove the nails or staples from the wood. Pallet wood comes with all kinds of scratches and holes. I think it adds to the folk art texture of this project. I like it when the wood has different textures and patterns to it.

Using an assortment of chalk paints, start painting your houses. I left some wood showing on some of the houses.

I knew the texture of the wood would come out once I distressed the pieces after the paint dried a little. Tip on distressing an item- the less coats you paint, the easier the distressing it is.

To distress the paint off and give your houses a worn look just get a wet rag or scrub brush/sand paper and scrub away paint areas you want worn sections to show through.

I stained the wooden pieces that were going to be doors and windows for the houses but you can leave them plain or paint them whatever color you like. Either way looks nice.

The hardest part of this project is distressing the piece to give it that worn and vintage look.

This would be a fun project for the whole family. The houses are done up in patriotic colors in celebration of the 4^th here in my country but they can also be used for the Christmas holidays too, just leave out flags and add tiny fairy lights instead. Happy crafting everyone.

Nailed it moment- I made a couple mistakes with this project so don’t make the same ones I did when making these cute little homes. I drew in a line where the house and roof were separate and used a pen that showed through the paint. Use a pencil instead and lightly draw in a paint line. Or just free hand it, if it is a little off that just adds to the rustic part of it. You can also use painters tape for separating paint lines. The second mistake was that a couple of the doors and windows I glued on the houses were not so straight. I believe they started out straight but they slipped and dried crooked. So be extra careful of that too. You can also repaint and remove the windows and door to start over when that happens.

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