Makeover Monday: Ferrell Farm Sign

I'm back working on my breakfast nook makeover after taking a little break from it last week.  :) 

After Zach's spend-the-night birthday party, I was too pooped to do anything except try to get my house back in order.

One of the decorative touches I have planned for the breakfast nook is a "FARM" sign.  It all started last year when Dave began tearing apart our old piano.  We had gotten two opinions from piano experts about the piano, and both opinions were the same:  the piano couldn't be salvaged so get rid of it! 

Remember this . . .  that lovely piano which sat on my front porch for months . . .

Until finally sweet Dave decided to break it apart . . .

Which decision took many months to complete . . .

Until finally with the help of the Ferrell boys, my front porch was finally free of the sad, sad piano . . .

When Dave started tearing apart the piano, I set aside several solid pieces of wood from it to use in my crafting. 

I saved the bottom left and right sides of the piano . . .

I thought it would be cool to put the two ends together and make a long sign.

So I got my sweet Daddy to put the two pieces together to make a large wooden sign.

Here's how Daddy attached the two separate pieces together on the back side:

I taped off the outside edges with blue painter's tape . . . all around the sign . . . to create a border . . .

And "whitewashed" the wood with some leftover white paint.  Sorry, I can't find any pictures of that step.  :)

This weekend, I decided to finish or at least make a significant start on finishing my farm sign.  I selected a couple of fonts from my computer and printed out the letters for my sign.  It took a couple of trys to get the exact size and font I wanted.

I taped the printed out words onto the sign . . . centering it and laying it out just the way I wanted it . . .  Taping only at the top of the paper -- not on the bottom.

Working from the bottom of the words, I placed some carbon paper under the letters with the carbon side face down on the wood being careful not to dislodge the tape or move the words . . .

I carefully traced over the letters with a pencil . . . pressing firmly but not too hard.



When you are through tracing the letters, you can flip the paper up and see if you missed anything.  Be careful not to untape the papers so if you have missed a line or two, you can just lay the sheet back down and it will be placed over the traced words exactly.

Using carbon paper to trace letters on signs is a technique I learned from some of the prison work center guys that used to work at the courthouse.  They would make cute little key chains out of scrap wood for people working at the courthouse, and they shared this handy little transfer technique with me.  This was years ago . . . I can't believe I still remembered it today!  Ha!  Even at my age!

I used a black Sharpie to trace the outline of the letters on the wood before painting it with black acrylic paint.

Here's my sign after painting it with the black paint:

And that's where I've stopped with my sign.  However . . . I'm not through with it.  I plan to distress it and antique it and even add some decorative swirls to it . . . before hanging it in the breakfast nook. 

Hopefully, I will be finished with the sign before next week's Makeover Monday with . . .

                               the Ferrell boys and me! 

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