Wooden Floor Mat

{Pinterest Challenge}


Have you seen this project from Lowe's Creative Ideas.  I think it's a popular pin on Pinterest which is where I first saw it {and subsequently pinned it.}  {I wish I could figure out how to put a picture of it here.}


The fun colors first captured my attention but it was also a unique idea.  I thought it would be a nice cheery addition to my front patio.  So it immediately went to the top of my project list.  And I completed it just in time for summer.

I love it!

Because making it involved power tools, I had to enlist the help of my dad so I owe him a big thank you.  {He gets roped into a lot of my projects but I think he secretly enjoys it.}  This also means I have to do some planning as far as when to make the project since we live a couple of hours apart.  Easter was going to be the perfect weekend to start this project so on Good Friday, I made a trip to Lowe's to get my supplies.

I started in the paint department and after consulting with the very helpful Maurice, I picked out the following paint colors from Valspar {semi gloss}:


Montpelier Peach
Fresh Basin
Iris Reverie
Jekyll Crane Cottage Green


I really loved the colors on the inspiration piece but I didn't want to buy that many cans of paint.  {Maurice told me that the exterior paint did not come in sample sizes so I would have to buy a quart of each.}  I decided to make my mat with five colors.  I had a can of yellow - Fresh Pineapple - exterior {satin} Glidden paint from this project {I just painted the chair and footrest, it was handmade by a friend of my aunt.}:

Then the very helpful Marvin helped me get the rest of my supplies.  He even cut the boards in half for me so they would fit in my car.  Next stop - my dad's workshop.

My dad cut the boards to size and drilled the holes while I manned the sander and my nephew {he was spending the weekend so we forced him to help} handled the air hose and cleared the dust while the holes were drilled.  {He enjoyed the air hose a little too much!  We couldn't get him to turn it off.}  After laying out the pieces, we decided to make a design change.  I didn't like the exposed rods on the ends.  We had extra boards {I may or may not have purchased too many boards.} so we decided to add a 2 1/4" piece in each of those open spots.

My dad cut the rods to size and sent me on my way to finish the project.  My next step was to paint all the pieces.  Boring!  The two coats of paint I added meant that the rods were now a little too short.  But my dad had considered that and had a solution.  So back to Iowa to finish the project.  The solution - sink the nuts into the ends.  {I'm not sure if that is the right term but what he did was make the holes a little bit bigger so the nuts sat into the piece a little.}

After admiring our work, my dad suggested putting some sort of sealer on it so I'm not quite done yet.  I just have to figure out what that sealer should be.

I am sharing this project at my favorite link parties.