The Idea
Recently Rory and I had breakfast with my 86 year old mother-in-law in her cozy breakfast nook. This space is filled with light, plants and pictures of our large extended family and is one of her favorite places in her house. She shared with us that several prayer groups she belongs to use this space as a prayer room (or War Room if you’ve seen the movie). This so obviously delighted her that I had the idea for this sign for her special place–a simple yet meaningful piece to add to her room.
The Process
Here are the items I used for this project–all readily available at Michael’s or Joanne’s. I found the board in our garage wood pile! I’m lucky to have a husband who also likes to save random things in case we need them….
There are two ways to make this board look older than it is–either stain it and wipe most of the stain off; or mix brown paint with water, wipe it on and off almost immediately. Since I was out of stain, I used brown acrylic paint with a little bit of water and wiped most of it off:
Here’s a little trick I learned for aging–before applying the paint coat, use a Q-tip with Vaseline on it and go over the corners, random places where the board might be aged/damaged naturally. Leave this Vaseline on while you paint your main coat.
Paint your base coat–I chose to use a paint sample I had on hand that is a creamy white-gray. You don’t have to be perfect for this–we are going for an aged look, remember. Streaks are fine and brown showing through works as well.
When this is dry, rub off the places where you smeared Vaseline–the paint should come right off, giving it a battered, old look
All that is left is to decide on stencils and placement and paint away!
The Finished Sign
Wasn’t this simple? I love the green letters with the cream background, and I had to add the pink flowers for Joyce–her favorite color. Add hangers on the back and wrap it up–Joyce is going to love this. Let me know what YOU think!