DIY Vintage Inspired Pallet Wood Sign

by Mish Volonino

Medium

It seems everyone and their sister is making wood signs these days. Who doesn't love a great wood sign placed in the perfect location of a home? I know I do.
But I really love old time, vintage inspired advertising signage.
Now unfortunately I didn't take step by step photos but I'm going to try my best to share how you can create a custom vintage inspired pallet wood sign. People won't even know you made it.

diy vintage inspired pallet wood sign, crafts, pallet, repurposing upcycling, wall decor

So I'm not even going to pretend I'm an expert at dismantling pallets. I actually don't like the process. I've googled videos and tried so many techniques. They are all work and there wasn't one technique that i could avoid split, cracked, or broken slats during the process. With that being said, you should always have a couple of pallets on hand.

Im lucky because there is so much building going on around the suburbs of Nashville (if yea didn't know, we are in a population boom here) that i can easily jump in my car, drive locally and score some pallets

So as you can see in the above photo, I've already started the process. to get to this point i sanded down the pallet slats nice and smooth. I secured them together in the back with skinny wood brackets and screws.

Now to get the design, i measured and taped white paper the exact size of the sign. I measure my lines to keep lettering centered. Once I did the drawing on the paper, i taped it to the wood and used a black sharpie pen to trace the design. the sharpie pen bleeds through and leaves a faint trace of the design. At that point i started to paint with acrylic paints the lettering.

Here is the first round of paint. The "R" and "M" are mine and my husband"s initials (funny but not one person has noticed this but at least we appreciate it).

The next step was to take white paint and add a shadow to all the lettering.

In the photo above, you can see the faint white shadow on the letters.

I decided since it was a Bakery sign that I would paint a fun cupcake.

After all was dry, i sanded lightly to distress the whole design.

Once this was completed, i used dark wax to give a darker, weathered appearance.

If you can see in the photo, i also made sure the boards were slightly off, not lined up. That was on purpose, so it would have a rustic look.

So here you can see how the Dark Wax darkened and aged the sign just a little. I use Annie Sloan Dark Wax. I love Annie Sloan and Amy Howard products.

Here is the sign hanging in my Livingroom.

Don't be scared. Just try making your own sign. Imperfection is a beautiful and seen often in antique and vintage signage.

Thanks for looking at my feed. I hope you enjoy my DIY projects. Promise, from now on I will be documenting each step of all my future projects for you all to enjoy and try out yourself.