Distressed State Decor

After recently moving back to Kansas, Brian and I were excited to finally purchase our own home! After searching and searching . . . (more on that later) we finally found “Our Home!”

We were so fortunate to find a house that wasn’t actually on the market yet and take our time praying about it. We owe that to the sweet sweet owners who were relocating back to their home state. Because of our unique experience we were able to get to know the current home owners and hear their story (we all have one!). I immediately fell in love with their hearts for the home and this small town we live in and knew I wanted to do something special for them because I know how hard moving can be (I recently just went through the same thing). I wanted it to be personal and relatable. After searching the internet for ideas I finally came up with my own and put it into action.

I wanted something that would remind them where a piece of their hearts would forever be.

With the help of my father, I picked out a 1″ x 6″ pine wood at a local lumber yard and we cut it down to the dimensions equivalent to the size of the state of Kansas. Can you tell we are perfectionists :)? My father shaped the upper right corner to match that of Kansas and lastly we used a biscuit joiner and wood glue to get the three pieces of wood together.

After letting it set over night, I quickly spent the next afternoon painting and sanding it to make it specific to the idea I had in my head.

I first painted it with one coat of Waverly Chalk Paint (from Walmart) in the color Mineral – a perfect slate grey. The wonderful feature of chalk paint is how quickly it drys! Totally recommend!

Once dried, I painted it in patches with the color Agape, a perfect teal. I knew I would be sanding the final color and wanted this matte teal to show through.

Lastly, I painted two coats of the color Plaster, an off white, and let that dry before sanding down the entire wood decor to make that perfect “antique” look.

If I were to redo this project I would have only done one coat of the white Plaster chalk paint because it took so much time to sand down to the base colors! PS – totally invest in this palm sander featured. It’s so worth it!

Lastly, I wanted the Kansas decor to be specific to this couple so I painted a large heart (in the same teal color, Agape) in the general area of the town we live in.

The finished project was exactly as I had hoped for!

Delivering this gift was hard.

#1 because I knew their move was bitter sweet

#2 because I wanted to keep this for myself 🙂

But the look on the wife’s face was worth every minute put into this gift/craft! I hope they find it to be that perfect detail in their new home in their new state!

If you don’t hear from me after a while you might find me dreaming up a new project! Let me just pick up my mess now hehehe.

Hope you enjoyed!

Love always, Kylie

*Not pictured: After taking these pictures I hand painted the exact address of their home (now our home) inside the heart for an extra personal detail!