Picket Fence CrissCross

Warm it up Gaines.
I'm about to.
Warm it up Gaines.
That's what I was born to do.

I realize there will be people reading this from a generation that will be completely lost on a Kris Kross reference. So, for your viewing pleasure and before I get to my latest curbside revival project, allow me to (re)introduce you to the ultimate one-hit wonder: "Jump."


You might be asking yourself (and you're completely justified in doing so) what this 1992 music video of two pint-sized rappers wearing their clothes backwards has to do with my latest creation. Well, I was trying to come up with a catchy headline involving "cross" and Google, in its infinite wisdom, gave me a YouTube hit for Kris Kross' hit, "Jump." So, in summation, it really has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this blog other than taking me back to the era of tight-rolled jeans, hypercolor shirts, jam shorts and Saved By The Bell. Thanks for the memories, early 90's. Let's not talk again for a long time. Onto the project...

To the detriment of my car's interior, and the annoyance of the Mrs., I occasionally do a little curbside digging. If I am driving somewhere and see something piled on the curb for trash pickup that I think I might be able to use to revive on its own or as part of something bigger, I stop and give it a once-over. I think it is safe to say I went a little overboard with this particular antique archaeology dig. Needless to say, it took a few trips. And approximately 150 splinters.

Let's back up a step here, because I knew as soon as I saw these on the curb what I would use them for, and that is not always (OK, usually never) the case. The idea came whilst vacationing with friends in the booming metropolis of Muscle Shoals, AL, where Denny's is a nice Valentine's Day dinner and directions include "turn left at the third buckshot-rittled stop sign" (if you're from there, I apologize. what I meant to say "where the streets are paved with gold"). While I was getting my third straight bogey on the Robert Trent Jones, I got the following picture text from the girls, who were shopping the main drag (all 2 stores).

The price tag on that bad boy in the antique shop? $150. For some old bead board cut into three crosses and glued together. Challenge excepted! So I gave it a shot, and came out with this.

On it's own, it had a nice weathered, naturally distressed look. But, I wanted to try out a dry brush paint technique over it, and after an intentionally shoddy coat of paint, some distressing and a stain wipe, it came out like below. Knowledge bomb #122: If you want to try out an easy and cool distressing technique, after the paint is mostly dry to the touch, but still not completely dry, take a piece (or several) of painter's or masking tape and press it down randomly across the surface of the piece then rip it up. It will pull chunks of paint (but not all) randomly and create a weathered and worn look. You're welcome.

Because this didn't take long at all start-to-finish, and because I wanted to try some other paint combos, I made a few more and gave them away as Easter presents to family. Here are the other two, but keep in mind that the lighting was terrible and the iPhone, in all its glory doesn't exactly provide a production quality photo in any setting. They look much better in person, I promise!

This one, while hard to see, includes a layered paint effect, with a lighter green color under a darker one.