DIY - Wooden Plank Welcome Mat

Spending time outside is one of my absolute favorite things. I love nature and I'm lucky to be married to someone who is as equally enamored as I. Since we live in a townhouse surrounded by "communal" property, I wanted to make something to dress up our front porch for the Outdoor/Yard challenge at SYTYC. I've been drooling over wooden door mats for awhile now but had yet to find one in my price range that could stand up to the elements and look good doing it. That's when the glorious idea came to me -- make your own - and that is how this glorious Wooden Plank Welcome Mat came to be. {Unfortunately, I was a couple of votes short last week and got eliminated from SYTYC but I wanted share this wooden goodness with all of you!}

I got to pull out a few fun tools for this that I rarely use which was pretty exciting. I sort of felt like Superwoman... until I chickened out and asked the Mr. to help with the saw because I like all of my fingers and toes just the way they are.

The Mr. grabbed me a pack of Platta acacia decking tiles from Ikea. I used eight of the nine tiles in the pack to make the mat (4x2). The best part of these tiles is that they have a fairly invisible linking structure underneath. This keeps the wooden planks raised and allows for drainage and airflow to prevent mold growth.

The only downfall is that when you piece them together, there are little nubs hanging out (as shown below). Once the whole mat was assembled, I used some blue painters tape to mark off the sides that needed to be cut because it's really important not to cut off the wrong ones.

That's where my darling Dremel Saw Max came in handy. We just sliced right through like butter. I say we, because I chickened out and had the Mr. do it all for me. Gotta love that man!

Once all of the pieces were cut, I reassembled the mat properly. I used a printout that I designed which read "come on in" and picked the placement (I did the bottom left).

I cut it out to fit neatly over each plank, pieced it together, and taped it down. Why you ask? This is my absolute favorite transfer method -- just draw really hard over top of it with a ballpoint pen and you'll create a small indent in the wood.

See? You may remember me using this method before on one of my fave projects. 

Since this was going outside, I didn't want to paint the words on as it could easily age and chip as time passes. I decided to pull out my wood burning tool and went over the indents to practically brand the wood.

Once that was done, I once again, reassembled the mat. While it was pretty, it was missing something special... but what?

I ended up white-washing a few areas to give the illusion of a border and sealed it with a coat of polyurethane. I let it dry overnight and the next day I was able to put it outside for immediate use. 

Don't you just love it? It's so flipping awesome out there.

While I used come on in you could do "welcome," or your address, or your last name, or anything else you think  is just right for you and your family.

And since we all like a good before and after...

BEFORE - Don't judge us for it being so ugly and bland out there.... at least we have the cutest pup ever!

AFTER - Ahhhhh, so much better! Don't you agree?

This welcome mat was exactly the added bit of character our house needed. It's so nice to know that no one else in our cookie-cutter neighborhood will have the same thing outside their door. I hope you like it!

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Tatertots & Jello | S3 | Classy Clutter | I Heart Nap Time | Mine for the Making | Flamingo Toes | Craftomaniac | Shabby Creek Cottage | My Girlish Whims | Stone Gable | Young and Crafty | Nifty Thrifty Things