I did not sand the boards first, I wanted everything rustic. I primed the lath boards.
First I laid out the 13 lath boards that would be my flag. Then I placed the gray boards over the top to figure out the size of my frame. I didn’t want the frame to poke out from the sides or bottom, so doing this ahead of time was important.
I needed the center lath board because the center of my flag did not feel like it would get the support it needed due to its size. I used wood glue to attach it all together.
First I taped off the area where I wanted my stars.
Then I picked my paint colors.
Then I painted the canton with light mocha. I did this so that when I add the star stickers later, they will leave this color in their place.
I found some star shaped foam stickers in my supply stash and created the 13 colony star circle for the colonial flag. When I had them set, I removed the backings one by one and stuck them in place.
Next I painted the stripes with the Light Mocha and Dark Chocolate, starting and ending with the Dark Chocolate.
Then I painted Uniform Blue over the canton area, carefully covering the stars. I waited about 6 or 7 minutes and got nervous. I was afraid of the stickers getting stuck to the paint, so I carefully removed them. I did have to do a little touch up with a thin paintbrush.
I let the boards dry and then took my sander to them to distress them a bit.
Now it was time to put the flag together and attach it to the frame. I used Gorilla Glue’s wood glue, and touched up a couple stubborn areas with the super glue.
I put wood glue down all three vertical boards and placed the flag boards on top, gently pressing them into the glue.
I did use a small nail to poke the holes first. Then I hammered in a copper tack on each board.
After I had all the tacks in, I reinforced the corners of the frame with some nails.
There were two boards where the tacks weren’t quite long enough, so I added a little super glue and stuck them in place.
I went ahead and attached the hanger.
To give it that rustic, antiqued look, I mixed together some staining / antiquing medium with an equal amount of dark brown paint, I used Americana Bittersweet Chocolate.
Work in small sections. Brush on..
wipe off with a dry cloth.
You can add more stain in some spots, or wipe off in different degrees of pressure to achieve the affect that you want.
I let the stain dry for about an hour then added 2 coats of matte sealer.