A Hand-Painted Welcome Sign

Welcome to our Blog Hop!

This time we are focusing on all things Thanksgiving! Get ready for some great ideas, inspiration, tips, resources and how-to as you move along through the blog hop.

You may just be starting the blog hop or may have come from Natalie Bradley on our Living with Style Blog Hop. If you get off track at any time, the full lineup below will help you move along from blog to blog so you make sure to see and learn from all of the articles featured here today.

Thanksgiving at our house means lots of good food and that the kids will all be home! Lenny and I love having the kids home. Our home gets a little more crowded each year, but we wouldn't have it any other way. I really like to make our children feel welcome when they come home for the holidays. The first problem is that our front door isn't very welcoming. We have an enclosed porch on the front of the house and our front door actually faces the driveway. So, I decided to use some of our fence pickets to make a Hand-Painted Welcome Sign.

If you follow along on The Birch Cottage blog, you know that I scored a nice little stash of fence pickets. I've had fun with my picket fence repurposing projects, creating a Shabby Chic Tray and a Bathroom Caddy. I must say, my favorite so far has been my Shabby Chic Tray. But, back to today's hand-painted Welcome sign. 
I simply took four fence pickets and had Lenny sand them down. Then I had him take one of the pickets and cut it down to two pieces that were about 4" longer each than my three pickets were wide. It'll make sense to you when you look at the picture. These two shorter pieces were glued and screwed on to my three long pickets. I used my favorite chalk paint recipe and painted the picket white, sanding between each layer of chalk paint. In all, I applied three coats of paint.

Once the paint was dry, I printed out my letters, "W E L C O M E" using my printer and taped them into place on the front of my painted boards. I then traced each letter with a pen, applying pressure so that an impression is left behind on the wood. I then took some leftover paint from my front door project and filled in the letters. I applied about three coats of blue paint to the letters. Once everything was dry, I applied a couple of coats of polycrylic, lightly sanding between coats.

The signed turned out very "bright white" - maybe a little too bright. I guess time will tell. I picked up a few cornstalks from my local farmers market and a couple of pumpkins. So, our front door is starting to appear more welcoming.

So, there you have it, A Hand-Painted Welcome Sign. This really was a pretty easy project. I hope you've enjoyed my hand-painted welcome sign from repurposed picket fence. And, no "welcome home" would be complete at our home with our German Shepard, Remo.

The next stop is  Nicole from Pixel Maven's Retreat on Living with Style Blog Hop! Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again next time around!

Blog Hop Lineup:

1. Natalie Bradley at NatalieBradley.com
2. Pam Bennett at The Birch Cottage
3. Nicole Watt at Pixel Maven's Retreat
4. Cristi Wuenschel at The Keeper of the Memories
5. Beth McCullough at Stamping Mom
6. Lory Robinson at The Robin's Nest Designs
7. Robin L at A Home to Grow Old In
8. Brandy VanDeKop at The Dutchman's Wife
9. Lisa at Harmony and Happiness

Til next time...