Bring a little of that beach feeling into your home by making some rustic looking beach signs. Ideal for bathroom decor or any part of your home that boasts that beautiful coastal decor look!
Weathered Beach Signs
Spring break has come and gone and many people hit the beach during this time of year. We come back home with a bag of seashells, a collection of sea glass, the sound of the ocean waves crashing in our ears, and the smell of warm, summery air in our nostrils.
RELATED: See how you can use your collection of sea glass to make this beautiful sea glass planter for your summer flowers or potted plants!
These beach signs are just simple slats of wood you can buy at the craft store. Mine actually started out with the distressed primitive look, I made them when I still had my craft store back in 2003. They definitely needed updating, so I sanded them down as much as I could before getting started.
What You’ll Need to Make Weathered Beach Signs
I originally made this beach signs project for JoAnn Fabrics via DecoArt. I used the following supplies:
Supplies:
Americana acrylic paints
Americana actually has quite a few new colors that are very beach-worthy as well, so I’ll be using some of those in the future.
First I gave them all a coat of Cool White and let them dry.
Then I painted each one with the different colors noted above.
I used Word to create the words surf, relax, beach and sand. If you don’t like the fonts that I chose, you can certainly make your own! If you like them, the Word pattern file is in the printable instructions below. Trim the words and place them on the slats.
Use a ballpoint pen, or a stylus if you have one, to trace around the words, pressing firmly to create indentations in the wood below.
This makes it a lot easier to paint your letters!
Use a liner brush to fill in the letters with Cool White. Note: You could probably use a white painter’s pen to do this too!
Dry brush some streaks across the surface with a wash brush.
Then do some sanding to create that weathered look. Sand lightly in some areas and harder in others.
You can see that I have sanded through some of the lettering as well as exposing the wood in the corners and on the edges.
It’s totally up to you how much you expose.
When you’re done sanding, brush them off really well so there’s no sanding dust left on them. Spray them with acrylic sealer in a matte finish.
I used wall putty to hang mine, but you could certainly attach a picture hanger to the back.
Here are some close-ups at different angles:
These would also be fun attached to a spike and placed in the yard or on the porch!
If you like these signs, you will love this coastal themed Clay Pot Lighthouse project , this Twig Coastal Wreath or this fun Coastal Striped Fish Decor.
- 4 – 7” x 3” wood slats
- Flat paintbrush
- liner paintbrush
- Toothpick
- Pattern for fonts
- Sandpaper, preferably a handheld power sander
- Buttermilk
- Flesh Tone
- Spa Blue
- Mint Julep Green
- Cool White
- font pattern
- Paint wooden slats with Cool White paint.
- Paint each slat with a different color (Flesh Ton, Spa Blue, Mint Julep Green and Buttermilk).
- Use Word to create the words beach, surf, relax and sand or print out the pattern.
- Place each word onto a slat and trace the words using a ball point pen or a stylus, pressing firmly so as to create indents in the wood slat underneath.
- Use Cool White to paint the words.
- Dip flat paintbrush into Cool White and wipe off all of the excess paint onto a paper towel. You want to create a dry brushed looked, so lightly paint streaks across the surface of the slat.
- Sand the edges and lightly across the top of the slats to create a weathered look.
- Spray with an acrylic matte sealer.
This post was originally published on this blog on May 5, 2012.
Amanda Formaro
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Love these! I would never have thought to print out the lettering and trace around them onto the wood for the pattern; I would just have free-handed it–great idea!
So much easier!
Hi! I love these but was just wondering what you mean by “do some streaks with a dry brush…”
Thanks!
Hi Julie ) Dry brushing is a technique that allows you to add a weathered look to something. Dip your paint brush in the paint, wipe off excess on rim of paint jar. The idea is to pounce the brush on a dry cloth to remove most of the excess paint so that when you brush across your surface you get streaks and lines instead of solid wet paint. Hope that helps!
I was wondering where you purchased your wood planks. The signs look great !
Oh my goodness, those are from soooo many years ago. I believe I got them from Michaels, but it was well over ten years ago. All craft supply stores have a section with wood and I believe they all have similar slats to these :)
Love this!!
Thank you Nan!
These are great! I love the idea but might change the words
to create a sign in my yard for:
welcome
cookies made by Grandma
garden
patio
Those would be fun Marcia!
This is so awesome! I live in the USVI right now so these are perfect for my decor!!!! Thank you for sharing these with us!
Thanks Amanda! I hope you have fun making them :)