CreativeSteph13: You Can Make Your Own Vintage Sign

I love the look of Vintage Signs, so I thought I'd create something of my own,
customized for me, at just a fraction of the cost.

All I needed was a few pieces of scrap wood, some paint and contact paper.

I wanted a sign for my art studio door of the Number 13. It's part of my company
name and I've always loved it. (no superstition for me :)

I dug through my scrap wood pile and found 4 boards (3 1/2 inches wide) and cut them to a 17 inch length. Any size wood will do - just depends on how big you want your sign to be. Pick something relatively thin so it's not too heavy - probably around 1 inch works best.

Lined up the wood and on the back I used some smaller pieces to nail
everything together and stabilize it a bit more.

Assembled the wood. A little glue, a few nails.

Sanded it just a little bit because I wanted it to look very vintage.

A talented friend told me about printing letters/numbers on contact paper so I thought I'd give it a try. I discovered the ink from my printer didn't want to stick to the contact paper,
so I just printed the numbers out on legal size paper, taped them to the contact
paper and cut it out with scissors (worked great).

I chose flat black paint for my base coat. You could also use a stain.
Just remember the base coat will be the color you want your letters/numbers/words to be.

Once the base coat was dry, I wanted to line up the numbers evenly so I drew a very light line with my t-square. (It was painted over with the top coat)

Peeled the contact paper off the number and lined them up on the wood. Because the wood was so rough, they wouldn't stick very securely. I just pressed them down and they stayed in place (sort of).

For my top coat, I chose ivory flat paint. I painted it very gently with the foam brush. I held down the numbers with my fingers and brushed from the inside out of the contact paper in order to get a crisper edge. Used a light coat of paint as I wanted it to look distressed.