I first decorated some clothes pegs with pyrography a couple of years ago when my pyrography wood burning tool was brand new. I needed something to practice on and my peg bag full of wooden pegs seemed ideal. I also added hearts to the handle of all our wooden spoons!

Every time I hang washing out on the line it makes me a little bit happy to use pretty pegs!

With lockdown making shopping for birthday gifts more difficult I returned to this idea when it was my aunt’s birthday a few weeks ago. I had a packet of pegs in the cupboard so I fired up the old pyrography tool (not literally, I just plugged it in!) and got to work.

To make your own decorated wooden clothes pegs you will need:

• Wooden clothes pegs

• A pyrography tool

Pyrography tools come in a whole variety of price ranges. Mine is a basic one which I had as a gift and it’s perfect for making fun projects as a beginner. If you really love woodburning then I think, like everything else, you get what you pay for so you might want to go for something a little more controllable with more attachments.

My pyrography tool has a few different tips and so I took this chance to have a play with them. The chisel style tip is ideal for geometric designs like these. They are super simple, just press the flat edge onto the peg for a fraction of a second. Play around with different directions, criss crosses etc.

A small round tip is ideal for dotty designs. I found these the easiest of all, swirls and wiggly lines of dots, dotty flowers etc.

I used the same round tip to try writing a few fun laundry related phrases and some hearts. The writing was a little bit tricky on the small pegs, I preferred the writing I’d done before on wooden spatulas where there is a bit more space.

Just have fun with patterns , I did both sides of these pegs but you could just do one side if you are short of time. They didn’t take long though so I thought it was worth doing both sides. Most are the same of both sides but on some I mixed it up!

One word of warning, the metal bits of the pegs can get quite hot. I guess it’s the close proximity to the really hot pyrography tool. I have a heat resistant glove that a friend gave me which I was really glad of, but just be aware that the metal conducts and retains the heat much more than the wood of the pegs. Take care!

A fun gift that just makes hanging out the washing a tiny bit nicer and that can never be a bad thing!

I’ll be sharing this idea at these link ups