Paris Hotel Sign ~ Pinterest Project #3

In my continuing quest to actually make some of the things I’m pinning on Pinterest, this next project is something I thought I’d try.   This Hotel de Paris sign.

Source: Pinterest : Houzz.com originally from Kasey Buick

I picked up a smooth pine “craft” board from Lowe’s.  I believe the board I got is 4 foot long.  I painted it first with black paint using CeCe Caldwell’s Beckley Coal.  Then I added in some Annie Sloan Duck Egg chalk paint in certain spots that I knew I would be sanding. 

On top of that, I used CeCe Caldwell’s Vintage White.  Once that dried I began sanding to give the board a more aged and distressed look.

Although I don’t have the talent to hand paint lettering like this, I decided to give a new-to-me technique a try.  I rubbed a pencil on the back of each letter, taped it to the board with blue painter’s tape at the top and then used a ball point pen to trace over the right side of the letters.  

Taping it at the top allowed me to lift the letter up to make sure it was transferring clearly.  This is how it looks after you’ve done that.

So that I didn’t smudge the pencil image, I went over the outline of the letters.  I started out using a fine black paint pen but it seemed to work in spurts and stops so I switched to a fine line black Sharpie.   You can see the difference ~ “Hotel” is using the paint pen, “de Paris” is using the Sharpie.  I also figured this would make it easier to paint within the outline of the letters.

Other options for the lettering could be vinyl lettering, stencils, or, if you are artistic and steady enough, free-hand lettering.  The fonts I used were Baskerville Old at a size of 500 for the “Hotel” and “Paris”; for the “de” I used Precious at 350.  I was feeling excited about it once I got “Hotel” all painted in.

Here it is all painted.

I painted the letters in using two different small artist’s brushes and black craft paint.  I’m just going to give it a quick sand over the whole thing and apply some Johnson’s Paste Wax.

I love how it turned out!  I’m looking forward to showing you where I’m going to be hanging this new sign!

Linking up with

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Fall Into Fall at DIY by Design

Blissful Whites Wednesday at Timewashed