Farmhouse Style Signs

Farmhouse Style Signs - finished sign over the kitchen cabinets I have been wanting a big farmhouse style sign to put in my kitchen over my cabinets. Online there are many choices, but the ones that really catch my eye are 85 to 100 dollars or more. I just knew I could do it myself, and I did! Wait til you see the results.

First, the easy part. Decide on a word or short phrase. Since I am of French descent, and I bake my own bread, I thought the French word for a bread baker would be fun. BOULANGERIE it was!

I wanted my finished product to be lightweight, not a thick piece of wood that would need to somehow be affixed to my wall, many feet up. So I turned to my old friend, foam board (also called foam core board). It comes in black or white. I purchased 5 inch stencils and used paint and good quality colored pencils that I had.

Total Time: 3 hours, including dry time

Yield: 1

Supplies:

1 foamcore board, 20 x 30 in.
1 bottle craft paint of choice
1 pouncer for painting stencil, or a small sponge or makeup sponge
1 set letter stencils (or you can free hand or download)
1 set colored pencils of choice
Optional: one .25 in diameter dowel, cut to size, and 2 small scrap wood pieces, about 4 x 6 x .25 inches, if not hanging on a wall directly
1 utility knife
1 lead pencil
several sheets of blank paper
painter's tape - optional

Steps:

Layout your stencils on plain paper adjusting the spacing until it is pleasing to the eye. See my penciled version, which I adjusted often.

Farmhouse Style Signs - stenciled version of the sign on paper

Cut your foam board, using a utility knife, to the size of your layout. I painted a little light border around my edges. I have a long word, so I had to piece a couple pieces together. I just used glue and a scrap piece of foam board on the back to hold them together. You might have a shorter word and not need to do that.

Farmhouse Style Signs - making foam board to size, also blue tape placed around the edge of the board to allow for painting an edge

Stencil in the letters, using craft paint and a pouncer. I actually put registration marks on my stencils so my final product would be spaced like my penciled version.

Farmhouse Style Signs - stencil lying on foam board

I put a shadow line of bright blue on one side of each letter, using a colored pencil.

Farmhouse Style Signs - adding a blue shadow line

As you can see from the finished product, I glued painted dowels set into a small piece of scrap wood to act as supports. This makes moving it around so much easier up over the cabinets.