There’s No Place Like Home- How To

I’ve had a major crush on homemade signs and have wanted to make my own forever. I love how customizable they are to whatever space you want to add them to, plus you can get totally creative!

Honestly, this project would have been done sooner, but I had major indecisiveness when picking the wording… It was a problem and one that ate at me day and night. I had a list a mile long of potential wording, but nothing seemed right, or “fitting”. Then, one day randomly, it struck me!

There’s No Place Like Home.

How completely fitting for us. Especially since we are homebodies who think an awesome night is one spent at home. 🙂

Really, this sign was a labor of love! To say that it was extremely tedious is an overwhelming understatement…. BUT, it was totally worth the 10 hours it took to paint! (I wish I were kidding….)

Here’s what we did:

First off, we headed to Home Depot to get our lumber and frame supplies. I showed my drawing to the hubby and he basically figured out how he would build it. We ended up with cedar tongue and groove planks that slid together. I was a bit hesitant about having grooves for the painting process, but honestly, they didn’t effect it.

$24.00 later we were on our way home!

Once we got home, my hubs got busy building the frame. The size ended up being a large and in charge 32″ x 42″.

Once it was all nailed together we started the staining process.

While Anthony wiped on the stain (Minwax Early American), I took pictures, waited, and then wiped it off.

Once we had the color we wanted, which was one heavy coat, we let the stain dry completely. In reality, a day or two would be fine, but since I was in the indecisive mode and couldn’t pick a font or saying to save my life, ours sat for almost a week. Needless to say, that baby was dry!

After I finally decided on the saying, the next hardest step was picking a font… I must have tried at least ten, but nothing felt right. Finally, I ran into a font called Aubrey and instantly fell in love. It’s like the stars were finally aligning!

I typed up my saying in a word document and kept adjusting the size of the letters to fit on the boards. After several trial and errors, the letters ended up being the size 500.

I printed the letters on thick card stock and them cut them out, which was… time consuming… and placed them on the boards.

After playing around with the wording arrangement, I decided to align them on the right side. I used the yard stick to make sure the letters were evenly spaced throughout.

With the letters in their place, I used small pieces of two sided scrapbook tape to hold them in place. Once all the letters were stuck down, I took a pencil and traced them.

I ended up with a faint outline.

Next up was painting!

I must admit that I had to give myself a pep talk to start this step. I was so scared that it wouldn’t turn out the way I envisioned it. Fear struck me and I just knew I was going to ruin our lovely stained wood and all our hard work up to this point.

After telling myself repeatedly to “keep breathing” I dipped the paint brush into the paint and… sat there! Seriously, scared. I put the paint brush down, got a drink of water and told myself that there was no way I was stopping now. So, without giving it one more thought, I started painting.

As a side note, I ended up painting the entire thing by hand…. hence the 10 hours. I would have loved to use painter tape, but it didn’t work. I tested one small area and when I removed the tape it pulled off some of the stain. I quickly decided there was no way I was going to use it. I sucked it up and painted every single letter and curve with one small paint brush.

Sure, some of my letters don’t have the straightest lines ever, but you honestly can’t tell when it’s on the wall. Plus, I really like the handmade look of the sign.

I love the rustic vibe to the sign! And I totally didn’t mess it up! Sure, painting it was tedious, but I didn’t ruin it! Quite the opposite actually! And to continue the rustic feel, I didn’t give the white a solid coat of paint. I left spots of the wood peeking through and that’s probably one of my favorite things about the sign.

It’s like the sign was meant for that little corner. Plus, the saying is just perfect for us!

So, after 10 hours of tedious work I’m calling this project a BIG success!

Big Smiles!

I’m linking up to:

DIY ShowOff

Home Stories A to Z

A Bowl Full Of Lemons

Thrifty Decor Chick