Tuesday Tutorial: Room Signs

We have a Billiard room in our house. Its right off of our great room and I love our pool table and our pool lamp that came from my home growing up. But with all of the windows in that room there isn't any wall space to decorate and I feel like its really boring:

At the same time I don't want to do anything that's going to take away from the Pool Table and lamp being the focal point of the room. I saw an idea by Destiny over at A place for Us 5 about bringing the outside - inside. I thought the idea of a hanging room sign would be perfect for the space I have and the feel of the room.

I think it looks amazing! Here is a up close of the sign:

It was so easy to make too. I bought the wood premade from Roberts. The hanging bracket I found at Home Depot in the garden section. I had a couple of little screw hooks at home that I used to hang the sign and the chain came from an old broken toy.

First I painted the sign the color I wanted to show through. I used a dark bronze and I painted my chain and my hooks so that they would all match in color. I let it dry completely. I wanted it to look old and like the paint was peeling and decided to try using a cracking medium but I only used it in a few places on the board. I let that dry for an hour. I also took some Dove soap and rubbed that on a few places that I wanted the paint to come off and let the color underneath show through. The soap makes the paint come off easier so you don't have to sand as much.

I got my top coat color ready. Its important with a cracking medium that you don't over brush. So I loaded my sponge brush up with paint and did a nice even coat over the whole thing, making sure that it was thick enough to cover and not be touched up to much. I touched up the parts of the paint where there wasn't crackle showing through. I let it dry for an hour or so and then painted the other side. I let the whole sign dry overnight so that the paint was really set before I sanded. The next morning I sanded it like crazy to get the really distressed look. I cleaned it with a damp cloth and let it dry completely before I applied the vinyl.

Then I measured and attached the hooks and cut my chain to the right length and hung it up!


I think it makes such a big difference.
Now I just need some great bar stools and a little crown molding to finish it off!