I’ve kinda been in a project lull the last month or so. There’s not a whole lot on my to-do list, and all of the events with the holidays and the end of the year are keeping me busy. The one last thing that I’m working on is my garage. I’m busy finishing the drywall, painting, and adding some storage to the garage. But, drywall is the worst. The garage project is a necessity; it’s not a fun project. So in between all of the dust and sanding mess, I worked on a wood staining project with paint. It was a nice change of pace to work on something fun. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and if I had any ties to this design, I probably would have kept this one…..

I was first introduced to staining wood with paint a couple years ago at a Chalk Paint class. Staining with paint works just like any other stain solution. You cover the surface with the stain and then wipe away the excess and repeat until the desired color/darkness is achieved. Staining with paint works best with rich, bold, and vibrant colors.

I did a lot of research on the Filipino flag before beginning this project. I wanted to make sure everything was to scale and in the right place. The flag has a ratio of 1:2 for width to length. The blue stripe is on the upper half and the red on the lower half. The white triangle is an equilateral. For this flag, I used 1″X 8″ boards cut to about 28″ in length. I taped-off the triangle section with tape and used some left over blue and red paint from previous projects. I decided to leave the white triangle as naked wood.

For the star and sun detail in the triangle, I utilized a mason jar lid and some stars from photo shop. I’m not that great at free handing details like this, so it was nice to have a template to work with.

I stained the back with white vinegar and steel wool solution and finished everything off with Annie Sloan’s Clear Wax. The 2 boards were secured with 3 – 2″ X 1/2″ pieces on the back. Overall it wasn’t too difficult. Getting the colors right was a little tricky, but everything turned out pretty good! I think it would be awesome to make one of these for the North Carolina Flag or the American Flag.