Last year I made a barnwood Christmas sign to hang over my front door. It’s a simple DIY project that just requires wood, paint and a stencil (the gold leaf letters are optional). I will give you my quick instructions below!
This post may contain affiliate links which I provide to make your project easier and it helps provide you with even more projects on this blog!
The first thing you need is a piece of barnwood. Barnwood is a hot commodity so if you already have some, consider yourself blessed. But if you need some, scour Craigslist, check on swap and shops and ask around. Every once in a blue moon someone will know someone who is tearing down a barn and if you find that situation, BUY A LOTTO TICKET THAT NIGHT my friend because YOU have hit the jackpot.
So get the barnwood and paint it in this Daredevil red.
I “dry brush” the paint on which basically just means I use a little amount of paint and try to skim it over the top of the wood covering about 75%-85% of it. My favorite chalk type paint brush to use are these tapered fiber brushes from Heirloom Traditions.
After the red dried, I rubbed over the black with this Jet Black Wax . It does 2 things…. it tones down the red and when put heavily on the edges it just adds more character to the wood:
See? Pretty.
Then, you are ready to stencil your Christmas sign.
Now listen, I have had this stencil designed by my favorite word stencil resource. The stencil is what makes this a 20 minute project instead of a 2 hour one. Just get the stencil! 😉
(you can see some of my other famous stencil projects for Christmas HERE and HERE )
I spray 3 M’s 77 adhesive spray on all of my stencil backs. This will help the paint to bleed under less.
For this project I used 2 colors of paint, but you would be totally fine with just one color. I used French Vanilla chalk-type paint and Thunderous. Keep in mind this paint goes a longggggggggggggggggggggg way so you will be able to do a bunch more painting projects with it too!
You can sponge or brush the colors on. The key is doing it in several thin layers as to alleviate bleeding. And if you get a little bleed, touch it up with some of the red base color on a small artist brush. SIMPLE!
Because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I decided I needed to add gold leaf to a few of the words to highlight them.
If you look close, this isn’t perfect, but from a little distance, it just looks gold and sparkly.
You can see how I did the gold leaf on my Facebook video here:
Mr Magic put hanging wire on the back of the wood for me and hung it over the front door for me. God bless his ladder skills.
And it’s my new favorite Christmastime wall hanging.
And when it’s not the holiday season we have this sign over our front door:
Another piece of rugged barnwood. Stenciled with one of my favorite stencil designs from this site and use the same French Vanilla chalk-type paint . Again, use my coupon MAGICBRUSH for the paint!
Send me a picture if you make a Christmas sign and feel free to pin this Christmas sign project with the graphic below!
Happy Painting,
Jen
What a beautiful sign Jennifer! I love how easy you make it look!! I will have to make one for our home!