If You Can't Find It....Make It!

I wanted to show you more photos of the kitchen remodel, but not much has changed since last week. Granite is suppose to be installed this week...so I'll show you then. However, I did want to show you a special something that I have in my kitchen (I actually posted it back in Sept of 2008, but I have alot more readers now then I did back then) so I figured a re-post would be fine!

The summer of 2007 when I shopped at the antique shops in Destin, Florida I located a very large old fruit stand sign with several layers of chippy faded paint. I thought "Wow, that would look so cool in a kitchen on a big wall." It would be a great statement piece. Unfortunately it was out of the budget so I had to pass on it. I kept thinking about the sign though and decided to start looking for an old "Farmer's Market" sign to hang in my kitchen. Why, did I want the sign to say "Farmer's Market"...well that's our last name. I couldn't find the large size that I wanted & if I did, it would probably be cost prohibitive!

Hmmm, wasn't ready to give up yet. So guess what I did?? Yeah, you guessed it...I made it! Hubby had the perfect size of wood out in the garage so I nicked it up with a variety of tools, such as hammers, ice picks, screwdrivers, and chains. Then I painted the wood black, added a crackle medium, then added a creamy gold color. Sanding came next, then on to painting the letters (I made the stencil). After the letters were painted and dry, I sanded again, banged it up a little more (great way to take out some agression), and drybrushed a brown on the sign so that it looked a bit dirty & weathered. Oh and I added some rusty iron medallions to each side that I got from Hobby Lobby.

It turned out very old & authentic looking! Just the look I wanted & fairly easy to achieve. Hubby was so proud of what I made that he showed a couple neighbors and they agreed it looked very old. Great, that's what I was after! What do ya think?

(you can click on photos to enlarge them)

So the moral of the story....if you can't find something or can't afford it..MAKE IT YOURSELF!!! You Can Do It!


Darlene