I love the look of big monogram décor on front porches, and had an idea in my head to pull off something showstopping! Unfortunately, we don’t have an obvious place to put something this large on either of our two porchy areas, so I decided to make it for my parents… can we call it a Mother’s Day gift?! Hehe!

*This post is sponsored by Rockler. Thank you for supporting the brand partners that make Reality Daydream possible! This post contains affiliate links.*

This is SUCH A SIMPLE project, and is an excellent DIY for someone that isn’t proficient in power tools yet, but has the desire! Let’s do this together!

Circle Monogram Pallet Wood Décor

Supplies:

• Pine or pallet wood (we used a variety of widths, but you wouldn’t have to)
• Outdoor Wood Glue
• Biscuit joiner
• Biscuits
• Pipe clamps
• Paint and Stain of choice
• Circle Cutting Jig
• Plunge router
• Scroll Saw (or jigsaw would work too!)
• Hefty Picture Hanger

 

After sanding down our strips of pine and rounding the edges a bit, we decided to add a little color using this technique… this time using a terra cotta bronze-y color (I mixed Unicorn Spit… orange, brown and black) and slathered it on with some white. Randomness is key! Tiny helper optional but totally encouraged!

Once you’ve got it looking all streaky and, well… a hot mess… let it dry! I completely acknowledge that this looks like a crime scene, or maybe something you’d see at a butcher house. But stay with me!

Now that your paint is dry, sand it down real hard with a rough grit sandpaper (80 or 60 grit). I use my orbital sander for this, but I’ve done it by hand before and it isn’t that bad. Just a little elbow grease!

So you see how after sanding it’s not as choppy and abrupt-looking? Now we’re going to add some stain! For me, this is where the magic happens. It mutes that brightness of the terra cotta color and adds a deep/rich brown, while still allowing that gorgeous woodgrain to pop through!

Here’s a video showing the process of staining/sanding/staining so you can see how it comes together before your eyes time-lapse-style!

. .

 

Time to affix these boards together! In the past, we’ve often used a 1/4” board as a substrate for the backing, but we want to keep this thing a light as possible since it’s already a ton of wood. So we used our biscuit joiner and some wood glue to keep these babies together as one board!

We wiped off excess glue that was bulging between the boards, and let these sit clamped up overnight. Now it’s time to cut THE CIRCLE! This is way more fun than any single thing should be.

We laid our big slab of glued-together-boards upside down with a piece of plywood underneath it. We drew a line to connect the corners and make an ‘X’ to find the center. Then drilled a 1/8 inch pilot hole and set the threaded spur that came with the circle cutting jig into the hole.

We measured and set the location on the Circle Jig and secured it in place. You can make your circle as small or as big as you want! (within reason)

Set the depth of the plunge router so that you are plunging into the wood about an 1/8 – 1/4 inch, Raise the bit above the work surface, start the router, plunge into the wood and rotate the jig in a counter clockwise motion.

This process will probably take three to four passes and it would behoove you to vacuum the sawdust out of the groove between passes.  Keep going around until you see air on the other side!

I mean, this was FUN. And the edges were so clean we didn’t even have to sand them.

Next, I printed the letter ‘K’ onto a transparency and projected/traced the K onto my circle. If you don’t have an overhead projector, try checking with your local library or craigslist. You can always fall back on the chalk transfer technique too. (more Projector Projects HERE)

I drilled a hole on the inside corner of my ‘K’ so I could feed my scroll saw blade through, and got to cutting! (This is the scroll saw I use) …You could totally use a jigsaw for this too if that’s what you have. (more Scroll Saw Projects HERE!)

I usually don’t try to cut my corners too perfect on the first pass. After you get all the way around, you can go back and crisp up those corners.

Boom.

We added the French Cleat Picture Hanger (which holds up to 60 lbs) and mi Madre popped this bad boy up on her front porch!

I think she likes it pretty good, and it looks great on their porch! My mom was going to try to get the cat to pose in the rocking chair in this pic, but it looks like that was a failed attempt. Ain’t nobody tells Bella what to do.

Be sure to check out these other similar projects we’ve done by clicking the pictures below!

Bracket-Shaped Barnboard Plaque

Circle Quote Artwork

Thanks for pinning!