DIY Fence American Flag

You may have seen in the news how much rain our part of the country has received over that past month and a half. Combine that with the tornadoes and crazy storms (with STRONG wind) and you have a ton of homes having to replace their fences, resulting in a lot of old fence on the curbside. Kevin and I were walking our neighborhood one Sunday and thought, what if we took one of these fence sections and made it into an American flag? That evening, on our way home from groceries, we picked one up. We were in Kevin's small car so we literally shoved the fence into the backseat and left the door open, we were just going to the next street. Oh, what a sight that was!

We love how it all came together and since it was pretty easy, and relatively quick, I knew we had to share it. It's been a long while since I shared a DIY. This one was just so fun and it's great for renters who may not be able to hang an actual flag!

Materials:
-Circular Saw
-Orbit Sander
-Straight Edge
-Sawhorses
-Flat head
-Flat Sponges (or star stamp)
-Red, Blue, and White paint
-Paint brush with an angled edge.
-Fine Point Paint Brush
-Clear Epoxy Spray Paint (if you want to keep it outside)
-Fence (either find one on the side of the road, at a Habitat re-store, or buy new)

Note: Kevin spent time working on the math to make sure the dimensions were just right. He is detailed so he even made an Excel spreadsheet for it! Using the figures from this website, he set up the sheet to calculate the length and dimensions based on the width alone.


Steps:
1. Cut down the fence to the specializations(above) with a circular saw as it sits on your sawhorses.
2. Go over the entire piece with the orbit sander, you want to sand it down to where you see most of the original wood tone coming through, but it doesn't have to be perfect.
3. Make sure to clean the boards with a wet rag and let dry.
4. Measure out the blue area of the flag using a straight edge and mark with wood with the flat head. This will give you a stopping point that is easy to see.
5. Paint the blue area. Let dry.

6. As the blue portion dries, measure and mark the red/white stripes.
7. Print off a star from you computer, cut it out, and use your cut out to trace the star onto the sponge. Then cut it out. This will be your stamp for the stars.
8. Paint the red and white stripes. Use the angle of your brush to cut in your lines smoothly. Start with the edge and then fill in the middle. It's best to start with your red paint. Let dry.

9. As your stripes dry, use your sponge star stamp, dip in the white and gently press. We guesstimated on how to place the stars in the blue portion, though you could spend some time measuring this out too. Just make sure you fit in all 50 stars. Use a fine point paint brush to straighten out edges and smooth out any paint bubbles. Let dry.
10. After everything has dried, spray the whole thing over with the clear epoxy. This will hold in your color and keep the paint from fading quickly.

Ours lives on our porch and might chill in the garage or backyard in off-season. Whatcha think? What patriotic DIYs have you done?


Pearls:
1. Depending how specific you are, you'll want to make sure the stars you print off are the correct size to fit the scale of your flag.
2. You don't have to be this specific with the flag dimensions. If you're like me, you would just guesstimate it all, but Kevin loves the numbers so he did that side of the work.
3. You might want to do two or more coats of paint, it depends how saturated you want the colors to be.
4. We chose to make it vertical, meaning that it will always lean against a wall vertically. You'll want to mirror this design if you'd like to hang it horizontally.