Rustic Farmhouse Sign
My house seems so plain after the holiday decorations are all put away and my husband always starts commenting about how it looks like we just moved in. 🙂 I don’t have many winter decorations and since spring is quite a ways off, I decided to spruce things up a little and create this DIY Rustic Farmhouse Sign.
I wanted to make some home decor that reminded us that love is an action and commitment as well as a feeling. It stands the test of time. So I gave this verse a rustic vintage finish to show longevity.
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I’ve made several farmhouse signs over the years and learned a few things along the way. I’m going to show you the easiest way to make a farmhouse sign. Then I’ll show you how I accomplished the distressed finish on the text.
Materials To Build Your Sign
You will need to determine the size of your sign and then the amount of material you will need accordingly.
Tools
Measure and Cut Your Wood Boards
Start by deciding what size you would like to make your sign. My sign was approximately 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall. Cut your 1X6 into 3 foot lengths. Then attach them together with your Kreg Jig. See the picture below. This is the back of my laundry sign.
Once your boards are attached, sand the face side of them until smooth. Next, measure the length of the top and bottom of your sign and add 1 1/2″ for the thickness of your side boards. Then cut your side boards to the height of your sign. Sand them smooth and wipe everything down to prepare for the finish.
I usually paint and stain before I brad nail the sides on. When you nail them, be sure to clamp the corners, so they don’t move. If you don’t have the tools for this project, you can always just purchase a project board like the one below.
Choose Your Finish
I always stain my frames with a gel stain and then immediately wipe them down. This prevents the stain from being to dark. Next, I create a grey glaze from grey paint mixed with clear glaze. Again, I brush it on and wipe it off. You can see picture of the process in this post.
Design and Cut The Vinyl For Your Words
I designed my sign in the Silhouette Design Studio and then cut the vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo. I really enjoy working with their design software. To access my library of free cut files, subscribe at the bottom of this page for the password and then click here.
Distressed Finish
When I planned this project I was going to paint the boards and let them dry. Then apply my vinyl letters and paint the same color (to seal the edges of the letters). Lastly, I painted the final color I wanted the sign to be. Here are some pictures.
Update: There are different methods for painting a sign using vinyl as a resist. For a more up to date article, check out this Farmhouse Coffee Bar sign tutorial or view any of the other articles at the bottom of this post. If you don’t want your paint to peel up with the vinyl, make sure you prime your board and let it dry first and seal in the vinyl with the same paint color after your base coat. The Coffee Bar Sign tutorial will explain these steps.
After the picture above, I added two coats of Behr Snowy Pine to make the sign white. When it was dry, I began to peel the vinyl and it wouldn’t come off nicely. It was taking the paint off down to the bare wood.
At this point, I figured it was time to start over. So I broke out my sander with medium grit paper to make the sign smooth again. This is when that beautiful finish began to happen. The sander took the vinyl off and left the letters distressed. I loved the way it looked!
I don’t want to mislead you. This was more of an art than a science and took quite a bit of patience. I also went back with my Micro Line Pens and touched up the letters a bit. The paint colors were Annie Sloan Graphite and Gliddon Peach Crayon (sample size). The topcoat was Behr Snowy Pine. Chalk paint was not a good choice for this project, because it comes off easily if it is not waxed. Graphite is such a pretty charcoal color, but I would choose a latex paint for vinyl next time.
I love the way this turned out! This project even helped me work on my patience. 🙂
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There are several tutorials for creating signs down below, each with a different technique. I like the the way the distressed finish turned out for this rustic farmhouse sign. Do you like the distressed look or are you more of a neat and tidy person? Let me know if you have questions in the comments below.
Wow I love it. It looks just perfect for a touch of Valentine but not too sickening sweet for a modern rustic girl like me. You did a great job!
Thank you! That’s the tricky part about Valentine’s Day decor. Most of it is just tacky and overdone. I like seasonal decor that blends in with the rest of the home.
This is so beautiful. I want this in my bedroom to remind daily that Gods love never fails! Thank you for this
That’s so true! Even on our best day, we could never love this way fully. But God’s love for us never fails and He gives us the grace to love others.
I’m new to the silhouette cameo. I have not even turned it on yet.
I have a question about the Love (peach) sign with the verse.
Are you applying the letters only even on the verse or are you using the vinyl as a stencil?
Hi Loretta. I used the vinyl letters as a resist. Meaning I painted the sign the color I wanted the letters (peach). Then applied the vinyl letters and painted the sign the background color (white). Lastly, I peeled up the vinyl letters. This is a good method if you want to distress the paint.