How to Paint a Vintage Sign

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  

If that's the case, I hope that Cassie {Primitive and Proper} is flattered.  I have had my eye on her painted wood antiques sign for quite some time.  Something about it spoke to me.  I really wanted it for my dining room.  

My options were:

• Borrow it from Cassie during the Winter while she is using her fireplace (she offered). 
• Steal it (illegal).
• Make my own (good choice).

I had Nate cut some 1x6's to size.  (Our sign is 34" long x 40" wide.)  We then beat up the boards with a hammer and screw driver to give the painted sign a "vintage" look.

Nate then placed the boards on a flat surface using a nail to space them evenly. 

He then cut two 1 x2's a little shorter (1/2 inch) than the length of the sign.   (33.5" in our case.)

Place the 1x2's about 6" from each edge and put a screw in each board.

After the sign was assembled I gave it two quick coats of white paint.  I applied the paint thinly and didn't worry about even coverage or painting into grooves or holes.  Again, I wanted this to look old.

It was then time to add the lettering.  I started by designing my sign in Photoshop.  I wanted my sign to resemble something that would have been quickly hand painted and stuck outside a store back in the day.  A fancy font wouldn't have looked right.

I placed my printed design on top of the wood.  I placed tracing paper under the sign.  I used a ball point pen to trace over my design.

I then used some black paint and small paint brush to carefully fill in my tracings.  

I was going to do two coats but I thought it would look more vintage if I did one coat and then a light sanding.

After the painting and sanding, we hung it on the wall.

I like how the vintage painted sign looks above our dining cart (tutorial coming soon).

It's always good when you can use your DIY skills to keep you from jail time, right?  

DIY Dining Cart Reveal

Find the complete tutorial here!

The following is the birth story of our dining cart.  The world loves birth stories.  Luckily this one doesn't contain the words uterus or vagina.  Wait.  It does now.  Crap.

Me:  "Hey, Nate.  Want to build some open shelves for the dining room?"

Nate:  "Whatever."

One week later.

Nate:  "How big do you want these open shelves?"

Me: "Well, it kind of depends on the size of the cabinet that will go below them.  Want to build one?  Or how about something like this one from Restoration Hardware but smaller?  I saw it the other day and I kind of fell in love."

Nate: "Whatever."  Heads to office to whip up a dining cart in Sketch-Up.

A trip to Lowe's and a few hours later, our precious dining cart arrived into the world.

She's beautiful, isn't she?  

We were hoping our bundle of joy would be just the right amount of rustic and industrial.  Modern enough to keep Nate happy.  Vintage enough to keep me happy.  She didn't disappoint.

We didn't photograph the shelves without my beautiful Pyrex but you can sort of see the fancy breadbox work Nate did on the ends.  He far exceeded my expectations on this project.  He's a keeper.  (I have to say that since he's the father of my newest addition.)

This cart has some unique touches.  We used a metal bracket on the end.  (The cheap ones from any home improvement store.)  We used upholstery tacks to fill in the holes.  We used black spray paint and beat it up a little to give it an aged look.

The wheels were $4.99 a piece on Amazon.  They got the same spray paint and a beating treatment.

Please don't mind the dirty floor.  We were busy creating.

Threaded black iron caps were used on the ends of the pipes running along the back.

The whole thing was finished like our farmhouse table.  We used the same stain (Rustoleum's Wood Stain in Weathered Grey).  

It coordinates lovely with our farmhouse table.

So, the whole open shelf idea turned into something different.  Now I'm working on a big ol' piece of art to hang above the dining cart.  And probably one hundred million other things because that's my thing.

We'll have a tutorial in the next week or so (Update: Find the tutorial here.).  If the blog doesn't get eaten by holiday posts.