DIY Barnwood Betsey Ross Flag

We love flags in this house, and making this DIY Barnwood Betsey Ross Flag was so much fun. I love making my own home decor. It’s just satisfying when people come over and admire what you make.

Patriotic and ex-Military

My hubby spent 12 years in the Army and then another 6 in the Air Force. We have a little bit of patriotic pride going on over here. I have both branches on the back window of my truck (bumper stickers) and I even bought and put a “Proud Army Wife” decal on it too, even though he isn’t active anymore.

I love that he is so proud of his service to our country. Heck, I’m proud of him too. It’s amazing that anyone can dedicate to something and get such a feeling of pride from it. So, kudos to all military and their families! Thank you all for your service!

Barn Wood Flag

I am lucky enough to have some old barn wood laying around. I love making signs for our home with them. Actually, I just love to upcycle everything I can get my hands on. From old wood, to used jars, I think everything can live it’s life out with more than one purpose.

I started out just making a flag. I had no inspiration yet as to where to put it or any specific pattern. I just got my red, white and blue paint, some painters tape and got to work.

There isn’t really any method to how big to make the field of stars. I just eyeball what is going to look “right”. The stripes, however, I measured out to keep them as even as possible.

Measure and Tape the Barn Wood Flag

I measured the width of the board, and then how many stripes I thought would look good on it. (On this particular board, it ended up being 9.) I divided the width by that number and got the measurement on how thick each stripe would be. Then I measured out each stripe, used a yardstick to draw on the lines in pencil and taped off the stripes.

You could also paint the entire board white first and then just add in the red stripes afterwards. In hindsight, that might have been easier than going through so much tape. Live and learn, right?

Adding the Betsey Ross Stars to the Barnwood Flag

I had to get a little creative with this once I decided to do it. I’m handy in Photoshop, thank goodness, and came up with a stencil. I just measured my field of blue and then resized the stars in PS to make sure the fit was correct.

Here is my stencil…

I printed it out onto cardstock. Then, using my Exacto knife and cutting mat, I cut out each of the stars to create my stencil. It may have been a little time consuming, but with a sharp blade, they cut very nicely.

It was actually a little therapuetic.

Once all of my stars were cut out, I got out my white paint and a stamping sponge and dotted on my stars. I used a light coating of spray adhesive to hold it in place as I painted. Be careful not to over-do it. Removal can be tricky if it’s too tightly bonded onto the barn wood. It took 3 coats of paint to get the Betsey Ross stars to show up properly. They are small though, so it didn’t take a lot of paint.

I just got impatient waiting on it to dry.

Hanging the Betsey Ross Barnwood Flag

Because barn wood is so heavy, I wanted a good study hanger on my flag. We happened to have a couple of eye hooks out in the garage from a previous project, so I enlisted my hubby to help.

He drilled pilot holes for the eye hooks so that the old barn wood wouldn’t split. Then he screwed in the eye hooks and used twine rope to string between the eye hooks to create a hanger for on the wall.

Remember, we have an old brick farmhouse. Where I wanted to hang this was on a brick wall, topped with plaster and lathe. So once again, he had to drill a pilot hole in order to put an anchor in.

Hang and Enjoy

Now I have my gorgeous DIY Barnwood Betsey Ross Flag hanging on my laundry room wall. With 12′ ceilings, it’s perfect in the space. And I adore how it looks with my DIY Faux Brick paint as a backdrop.