DIY Weathered Sign

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I love the look of old weathered wood. There are times when I just want to snatch an old weathered sign from the side of the road. But since stealing really isn’t my thing, I make my own. My latest is one that I made for my gallery wall.

Create this easy DIY Weathered Sign for your home decor!

I debated for a while on what to put on my sign. First I was going to choose the name of our favorite beach, Wrightsville Beach in NC, but finally decided to go with the coordinates instead.

I used scrap wood for this project. Any scrap piece 1 foot long or more would work. Mine was about 14″ long and 6″ wide.  To make the arrow shape, I used a chop saw and set the angle to 45 degrees. I impressed myself by doing this without any help what-so-ever. Yes, it can be done. Next, I gave it a good sanding with a palm sander and 120 grit sandpaper. Although I like the weathered look, I like to sand my wood before adding paint or stain and then distress later.

I stained the wood with Martha Stewart Wood Stain in “Wedding Cake”. This gave it a nice white-washed look.

weathered sign paint

I applied the stain going with the grain of the wood and then wiped it off. I let that coat dry and then gave it a second coat.

weathered sign 5

For the lettering, I used my Silhouette Portrait. This is my go-to machine for making stencils. It is so easy and  I use it all the time to get nice crisp fonts.

weathered sign 3

After applying the vinyl to the wood, I used Chalky finish paint from DecoArt to fill in the stencil.  I also used this type of paint on my DIY Wooden Sign that I shared a few weeks ago.

weathered sign paint 2

 

weathered sign 4

After removing the vinyl stencil, I thought it looked a bit too “new” so I added another very light coat of stain over top and wiped it off to give it more of an aged/weathered look.

Create this easy DIY Weathered Sign for your home decor!

This was the first project I did with white stain. I would love to try this stain on some darker wood too. With darker wood, you can sand it on the edges to give it an even more weathered look. This sign is going to be added to my gallery wall. I can’t wait to make more!

Create this easy DIY Weathered Sign for your home decor!

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