Ballard Inspired DIY Family Sign

If you receive the Ballard Designs catalog I am sure you have seen their Pruvost Plaque. It is quite the statement piece. I had been pondering on creating something similar for awhile now.

Out in the garage I had a good sized piece of plywood left over from when we planked our fireplace. 

I taped together a few pieces of printer paper and started free handing a design.

After I was done drawing the design I cut the design out and taped it to the plywood so it would not move when I traced it onto the plywood.

To do the opposite side I just flipped the homemade stencil.

Next up Mr. Front Porch and The Papa cut it out with a jigsaw.

It turned out to be a great size.

I decided I wanted to give the sign a wash effect so I used my chalk paint and watered it down.

I ended up using several colors and came up with this  but...

I decided it was not the look I was going for so I applied a light layer of Minwax Dark Walnut stain. I wiped it immediately off to make sure the paint would not soak too much of it in.

After the stain was applied and the sign dried I created the saying I wanted with just a program that is on our PC. Though I love the Pruvost Plaque I wanted to make ours personal and came up with "The Finch Family House- The house that love built" in french. I printed it out in the sizes I needed. This took a few tries to get it just right.

Once the saying was printed out I decided that the stained sign was too dark for the words to show up so I gave the sign a thin coat of Vintage White. To transfer the saying onto the sign I just rubbed a pencil on the back of all the words and then traced them on to the sign.

I used black paint and hand painted the words. I am somebody who starts projects at midnight so I had to use what I had on hand. If I could have waited I would have gone out and purchased a black paint pen. It probably would have gone much quicker. I then lightly sanded the Vintage White away careful to not sand too much of the wording away. After that I applied a light coat of stain again.

This is what I ended up with.

It took me awhile to figure out how I could hang it because the plywood is so thin. I ended up trying Gorilla Super Glue Gel I had on hand it it worked like charm since the sign was so light.

I want to hang it above our office french doors but need to paint the foyer so until then it is hanging here in our dining room.

Visiting these fabulous blogs:
Between Naps On The Porch
A Stroll Thru Life
Coastal Charm
Savvy Southern Style