My First Barnwood Sign

I'm so excited to share my first barnwood sign project. I've been amassing a pile of "good" pieces of barnwood ever since we moved out here, just waiting for the right amount of inspiration to finally get me to do something with them.

Today was the day!

 This beautiful specimen of rock-hard barnwood had multiple nails that I removed. I didn't bother filling any holes, as I believe they add to the personality of the piece.

I printed out my letters using a photo editing program, and then cut them out using a razor blade box-cutter. Note, these stencils (above) are just sitting on the wood, and are not spaced properly. I did eventually measure and level everything to get them as close to perfect as I could.

After the stencils were taped into place (scotch tape) I dabbed the paint on with a dry-brush, being careful to not get any under the stencils.

As soon as I finished with the last letter I pulled the stencil off. As you'll notice in the above picture, I used Bulls-Eye Water Based Primer as my paint color, simply because it was available and was plain white, and had the added benefit of being fast-drying and sandable.

After about an hour I lightly sanded my lettering with 80-grit sandpaper just to expose the texture and give it an old, worn look. I think it turned out great!