Stained-In Deck Design

I love maps. I love compasses.  When we moved to San Marcos, it bothered me that my house was not set at any true angle--it is sort of catty-cornered to the world, so I wanted a compass on my deck. I started by researching images of compasses on the net, and found 2 or 3 I liked that were similar.  I combined those to come up with the final image.

 

After I determined location and size, I placed a nail in the center, I went high-tech and drew my two circles with a pencil on a string. Then I got my old school compass out and determined true North and South, and marked the center line with pencil.  I used a right angle to get my East/West line, and marked it with pencil as well. I then found the halfway point of the edge of the outside circle, and that was the mark for the sides of the long pointed lines, and found halfway between the N/S and  E/W lines for the shorter points. After I had the pencil outline in place, I used my metal right angle as a guide and drew the outline in a medium-tip oil-based paint pen from Hobby Lobby. This not only edged it in black, but it would keep the waterproofing stain I was going to apply from running and blurring the design.

My next step was to use a dark chocolate waterproofing stain on one side of each point.  I chose the left side of each one (looking out from the center), and repeated all around.

On the inner circle, divided it up in line with the points, and so I dark stained every other one of those, too.

 

I allowed the dark chocolate waterproofer to dry 2 days. I freehanded the letters marking the directions, and painted them with the black oil paint pen.  I then stained the entire deck with honey gold waterproofer.

I love it!  I placed it where there should never really be a table when we entertain so it can always be seen!!