Recycled Vintage Lake Sign
Hi everyone! It’s Friday–yay!! Today I have a real quickie for you–a project I completed not too long ago that has already sold via my booth at the Gristmill Antique Center in Troy (NY): a chippy vintage “The Lake” sign that I made out of an old screen window.
What makes this sign so fascinating is not what it says, or even what it looks like, but what I made it out of.
I found this old screen with the chippy aqua paint for two bucks at a cute antique/gift shop up in Saratoga (NY) about a year and a half ago. My plan was to rip out the screen and use the frame for something; however, it proved just too rickety. No amount of nails tacked into each corner would hold it together, so I took it apart and used the bigger pieces (on the right and left) to create a surface to stencil on.
I glued them together as you see here with wood glue and in addition, glued some small, flat pieces of wood on the back for reinforcement.
I used a stencil letter set with a rather plain, san serif font and applied basic, craft store acrylic paint with a make-up sponge.
Pounce a small amount of paint on the larger flat end, pounce the excess paint off, apply a fairly dry sponge onto your project, in this case, the sign.
In order to make the white letters stand out a little more from the aqua background, I outlined them in part with a fine permanent marker. Once everything was dry, I gave it a couple of coats of polyurethane to protect it and help prevent further chipping of that beautiful aqua paint. I also attached a couple of eye screws to the top and threaded some jute through them for hanging. It sold not too long ago for $35.00. I’d love to get my hands on some more gorgeous wood like this, but it may have been a once in a lifetime find. But that won’t stop me from looking…
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Nicely done!
Love it!
Love the beautiful chippy aqua paint! The sign turned out beautifully and what a great idea to use the window pieces…gives the sign such a great primitive look! Pinning!
I’m not surprised it sold so quickly. Love it!
I love how the two sides fit so great together as a sign. Love the stencil and black highlights.
This is simply beautiful. Great work, Diana!
Love your sign Diana … wish you were close by … I have lots of old wood that I would share with you. We replaced fourteen window screens in our vintage 1930’s rental house and I saved all the wood. Thanks for the idea of putting two pieces together for a sign.
That chippy wood really was quite a find! I would have been all over it! At one time I thought we might be getting a lake house on Lake Michigan and I dreamed of decorating with signs like this! Love it. Pinned! xo Kathleen
I love this sign. I am not surprised it sold quickly with all the houses on the beautiful lakes in your area.
Wow, it looks fantastic now! Liz
Love the sign, the turquoise background is simply perfect!
Love it!! Great vision, Diana! Way to use something that seemed useless! Thank you for sharing with Let’s Talk Vintage.
It’s so cute. I love the color and it has the perfect amount of chippiness! 🙂 Easy to see why it sold quickly. Thanks for sharing it with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
What a great way to save and use that beautifully chippy wood, Diana! Thanks for sharing it at Talk of the Town – we were glad to feature you at the party this week!