From Dresser Drawer To Painted Sign

I LOVE painted wooden signs! They easily add character and charm to anyone’s home. However on many occasions have I walked up to a vendors booth at a craft show or fair only to have my eyes bulge out of my head when I see the price of the sign. Yes I understand that you are paying for craftsmanship, but my wallet can only afford craft cheese not craftsmanship. So I decided that I was going to paint my own wood sign.  I thought I would by a piece of lumber from the big orange box, and have my husband route the edges when I noticed a dresser we were getting ready to get rid of. The drawers were off track and broken inside, but the fronts of the drawers were perfect! Perfect that is for my wood sign I wanted to paint. The drawer front even had a routed (I don't know if that is the correct term) square design in the middle. Unfortunately I was so excited I began painting and didn't take pictures of the process, but I can walk you through what I did. 

I painted the entire sign with black latex paint. I bought a small sample size can from the store.  I didn't bother priming the sign because, well... that costs more money and I wanted an old banged up appearance to my sign.  

I decided to paint a checkered board pattern inside the square design routed into the front of the drawer. I used large masking tape to tape off my checkered pattern. I painted every other square yellow leaving the other checks to be the black paint showing through. 

Time to put words on this sign! I wanted my sign to say "Welcome Home" because I planned on putting it in my entry/mudroom.  I played around with different fonts and spacing on Word until I came up with something I liked.  I printed it out on legal sized paper and taped the words onto the sign where I wanted them. I then traced the outline of each word using a dull pencil and pushed really really hard (warning you will get hand cramps if you’re doing this step properly).  The idea is to get the letter outline to indent into the wood so that you can paint inside the lines. I used the font pictured below called Poor Richard. 

                            Welcome Home  

Paint your letters. I used acrylic paint and a small tipped paint brush to apply the paint within the lines I indented earlier.

Scuff up the edges with sandpaper if you want an aged look. Attach hanging hardware to the back if desired (I just leaned mine against the wall).  There you go… From Dresser Drawer to Painted Sign. Happy Crafting!