I get asked all of the time about my handmade Antiques sign that looks like a real antique piece.  It was SO EASY.  I have never actually shown how to do it because I made it years ago, before I had this little space.  And, before I had my social media accounts.  It all started when we were remodeling our old house.  We were having our original wooden garage doors replaced with new ones.  Garage Door Boy removed the doors, and then had to remove the panels that were above the doors.  The inside of those panels were nice chippy white paint.  He threw them in the pile to go to the dump and I politely pulled them back out of said pile.  Because I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for.

I made my original ANTIQUES sign the same way I made the sign I am sharing today.  I recently got together with a group of DIY-ers over on Instagram and had to come up with a fun project.  And since Fall is right around the corner, I wanted to do something related to that.  This sign was inspired by one of the many screenshots I have on my phone of antique signs that I come across.

So here is the easiest way I have found to  make a handmade sign.

Easy Way to Make a Handmade Sign

Deb ended up making this sign for me because I was in the midst of LOTS of deadlines and computer work.  So, when I say “WE”… it is normally both of us making a sign.  This time… it wasn’t ME at all.  But I know I will still slip up and say “WE.”   ????

WE (see…???? ) used scrap items we already had from previous projects for this handmade sign, just as we did for the ANTIQUES sign.  For this handmade sign, we had a leftover piece of 1/4′ plywood that we used on the camper remodel.  And a few trim boards to trim out our sign around the outside edges.  So, you can basically use ANYTHING your little heart desires.

Hobby Lobby has all shapes and sizes of wooden letters.  They are perfect for hand made signs.  If you aren’t a fan of stenciling, this is an easy way to achieve the same look, and add some texture, too.  I used the 9″ letters for my ANTIQUES sign and I believe the 5″ and 3″ letters for this one.  Obviously, if you wait for them to go half off, you can save lots of money, which is what we normally do.

Paint

Obviously, start by painting all of your items.  We age new wood with paint and stain.  I wrote a few posts about that process here and here if you want to check it out.  We used white paint for those pieces.  However, I wanted the background of this sign to be black with white letters.  So we did the same technique with stain and black paint.  We have found it is so easy to age new wood this way.  And then, we spray painted all of the wooden letters white as spray paint is the easiest to use when painting these letters.

Trim

Deb added the trim around the edge just to dress it up a bit, but you don’t even need trim.  My friend made an ANTIQUES sign without it and it looks really good.  So do what you want.

Lettering

Again… figure out what you want your sign to say and head on over to Hobby Lobby and buy the dang letters.  It is SO MUCH easier than stenciling in my book.  If you watched stories, I thought I would do some of Deb’s part and add the letters.  The nail gun was sitting beside the sign so I figured she had it ready for me.  I attached the first row of letters checking to make sure the nails didn’t go all the way through and it seemed fine. I didn’t realize Deb had a makeshift work bench set up.   So I ended up attaching the sign to the workbench.  ????   Anyways…  She suggested using wood glue on the rest and it worked perfectly.

After the white letters were all glued on, she ran some stain and black paint over the top to make them look older and worn.

I love how our handmade antique sign turned out.  Like I said above, it’s the easiest way we have found to make them.  What do you think?

HANDMADE ANTIQUE SIGN