Distressed Wood Sign DIY Tutorial

$10
2 Hours
Medium
I made a distressed wood sign with my blog name, Welcome to the Woods. It will work nicely in my house’s décor because “welcome to the woods” makes sense to welcome guests to our home; our last name is Woods. Here is the step-by-step tutorial for how I made it!

I started with a scrap piece of plywood. This one even had a splotch of bird poop, lucky me!
The first step was to sand this piece of wood all over with a rough sandpaper; I used 60 grit.
After that, I wiped it down with water and a rag. Then I let it dry and applied white paint.
Since this wood sign will get light use and I am going for a distressed look anyway, I did not feel the need to use a primer. I just slapped some white paint on in streaks. Also, I did not cover the whole piece of wood; I left edges splotchy for a more weathered look.
The next step was the measure out my letters to be sure everything was centered and spaced evenly. Then I used a pencil to sketch an outline of what I wanted to write.
Instead of paint, I had more control with hand lettering using just a pack of sharpies. You need multiple markers because for some reason they stop writing after a while if you are not on paper.


After the lettering was done, the final step was to distress further. I used the 60 grit sandpaper again to distress areas of the sign between the letters, even over the letters in some circumstances.
I also dipped a rag in espresso stain and colored the areas of exposed wood, wiping off the excess.
Lastly, I installed eye hooks and wire on the sides of the sign so I can hang it on the wall.
This sign matches very well with the other white, weathered sign I have in our living room: my sign displaying our 13 family values made from pallet wood.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to stop by my blog to see more!
Welcome to the Woods
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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