DIY Initial Sign

 I've been looking around for some  metal wall art or a sign...or something...to spice up my front porch for quite a while. I wasn't having any luck finding anything I liked...that was in my price range....well my husband's price range. Then my dogs broke a board on the back fence and it gave me a fantastic idea. When life gives you destructive animals, use deconstruction. (We'll pretend my sign qualifies as deconstructed art.)

1. First my husband stained the board for me. Very nice of him. After the stain dried, I measured it and cut it roughly in half so the boards were the same length.

2. I bought a 2 and 1/4" in. x 36 in. baltic birch strip and a 9 1/2" wood letter at Hobby Lobby.

3. I cut the two pieces of the strip thing to the width of the boards and then tacked one strip onto the boards with finish nails, about 3 inches from the top, to hold the boards together. I did the same about 3 inches from the bottom ( put 2 nails at the top and bottom of the strip on both edges and then tacked it to the boards towards the middle as well).

4. I painted the wood letter with a coat of brown acrylic craft paint and let it dry. Then I spray painted the wood letter "almond". I let the spray paint dry and then distressed the letter with sand paper. If you don't know what distressing is there are lost of great tutorials out there that tell you more than you ever need to know about it. I looked at this blog post on Serendipity Chic Design, this tutorial on the HGTV website and this tutorial from Motiva Beaucoup (fair warning: this one has some language so don't look if you don't like). I didn't wait long enough for the paint to dry so the paint was kind of tacky while I was sanding. I'd let it dry for 4 or 5 hours at least before sanding. I think I waited 1 hour.

5. After completing the distressing of the initial letter, I tacked it approximately on the middle front of the sign with finish nails.

6. The final step was to get a piece of  thin wire that was easy to twist and tack the wire on the back of the sign, about an inch from the top on either side, with finish nails. Before I hammered the nails all the way in, I twisted the wire in a loop around the head several times and then hammered the nail in to hold the wire in place.

I'd say it came out pretty good. It gave my front porch the finishing touch it needed for next to nothing in cost. The whole project took maybe 3 or 4 hours with drying time for the paint. And yes, my yard does need to be mowed. Thanks for noticing.