DIY Weathered Wood Signs

Here's another plan derived from the clearance section at Michaels. Very near the "R" which also came home, I found a peg full of little wooden signs that have vintage seed packages printed on them. They all have little wire hangers already on them and at a mere 49 cents a pop, I couldn't turn them down. In total, I came home with nine (three flowers, three herbs, and three fruits) for a total of $4.41 + tax. Not too shabby.

I wanted these to look very weathered, like they had been hanging outside a nursery for 50 years. So once again, out comes the hammer to beat the babies down.

Might not seem like a lot, so here's a comparison shot:

These were very soft bass wood, so I didn't get too heavy handed with them. I did notice that the back picked up a very cool pattern from the concrete balcony, so I flipped them over, hoping to recreate that effect on the front.

It worked like a charm:

Once I repeated the process nine times, I was ready to stain.

I started with Rust-oleum's Weathered Gray stain and a sponge brush. I was originally planning on only using this one stain, but I very quickly realized it wasn't going to give me the reclaimed wood look I wanted and more of a straight grey, like driftwood.

It could have been very pretty, but it is also very similar to the colors I  plan on using for the walls in the new house. After giving them all one coat of grey, I decided to try adding a coat of Rust-oleum's Dark Walnut on top of the gray. Afraid at how it would turn out, I cautiously tested it out on the back of one of the signs.

The combination of the two stains was the exact look I was going for, so full steam ahead.

Three coats of poly and a little dry time before the finishing touches.

I assume that some of them must have been in the spray radius of the DIY Milk Glass because I kept finding these little speckled spots:

This gave me the cool idea to lightly mist some spray paint nearby on select areas (not all over, because I like how it looks unintentional). I misted with spray paint both before and after the poly. The spray before bled and gave some interesting bleached spots. The spray after was more precise, similar to the above spot. The combination of the two is fantastic.

Now it's time to hang:

I didn't put too much time or effort into the installation because the only place we have for them right now is behind a door. I can't wait to put this in a much more visible spot in the new house.

Pat, Boone, and I are off to Washington, D.C. to celebrate our country's independence, so the last project for DIY week won't be posted until Sunday at the earliest. This trip wasn't planned when I gave myself a timeline to complete all my projects, so it might be a little late. We'll see.