I like to change up the decorations in my home. My husband doesn’t fully understand why I would change out one decoration for another, but he usually just goes with it. 😉 The most recent area to get a make over is a wall in my kitchen around the french doors that go to our back yard. This was what was there before.
Styles change, and even though I still like the wall decorations that were up, I wanted to change things. I’ve always really liked those pictures so I kept them and hung them on a different wall. I may paint the frames, but still thinking about that.
If you know me you know I LOVE Decor Steals! If you haven’t heard of decorsteals.com go check them out. They sell loads of cute farmhouse style home decor. I purchased a huge fork and spoon and a mug holder from them and they went up in place of the plate hanger and pictures. But I needed something to go above the door so I started brainstorming ideas.
I recently started selling Chalk Couture and wanted to use one of their transfers to make a sign. I’ll fill you in on how to use Chalk Couture in another post but they sell silk screen transfers and chalk paste. The one I purchased to use for the sign I wanted to make is the “Its so good to be home” transfer. I’ll show you that in a moment but I needed to decide what kind of a sign to make first.
I decided on a reclaimed wood sign. I saw a tutorial on YouTube and followed it. You can see that here
I went to Home Depot to find wood. I wanted to compare prices and see what was cut in 1 x 4. I needed the sign to be about 12 inches tall so 3 boards in that size would be perfect. I found raw wood that I would need to stain and paint and some that was rougher and already stained. It was more expensive, but was going to require less work on my part, so I went with the already stained wood.
Home Depot will cut the wood for you so I measured my area before heading over there and asked them to cut that for me. I cut 3 pieces 54 inches long and then they measured those pieces side by side to get the length of the smaller pieces for me. Even though the boards were marked as 1 x 4 they were actually about 3 1/2 inches wide so I’m glad I had them measure for me to get the smaller pieces cut just right. Once I got them home I laid the longer pieces out side by side and upside down. I measured the transfer I would be using to see how much area I would need for the words I would be putting on the sign. And then made sure the small wood pieces that would be holding the larger pieces in place were spaced right. I set the smaller pieces under the longer pieces and carefully measured to make sure they were all even and the same length apart on each end.
I used the power drill to make pilot holes before screwing the boards together. As you can see from the pictures I put the screws in from the back side so you can’t see them from the front. This was easy and the wood was ready to be painted.
I used Annie Sloan Old White and I only applied 1 coat. I thinned it out with a little water so it didn’t go on thick. I sanded it with a power sander and then it was time for the words.
After I used the silk screen transfer to put the words on I wet distressed the whole thing to show more of the grey stain. I used Rustoleum Clear Topcoat to seal the paint and the Chalk Couture Chalkology Paste. It was ready to be hung on the wall. I had my husband help me with this and we used long screws to screw it right into the wall.
I’m really happy with the way it all came together!
I don’t often build things but it was fun to make this easy, simple sign. Maybe I’ll try building something else. 😉 Also watch for a post on how to use the Chalk Couture products! I’ll post one in a few days and link it here to you can see how I did that.
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of my sign or if you have any questions. Hope you found this helpful!
Thanks for taking a few minutes to read my post.
Cindy
