Using a small detail paint brush and her chosen Valspar paint color, she paints in her letters. She went quickly and you could see lots of brush strokes in the letters. It didn’t matter because of sanding you will see in a later step. She recommends using brighter paint for your letters than you want in the final sign since you will be staining to distress later.
I was floored by how quickly Pam works! She can bust out 7 of these signs over 2 days, while doing all the things that come with being a mom and active member of her community. Wow.
TIME TO FRAME THE SIGN
Like I mentioned before, you can use an old window frame or other empty frame for your sign if you have that on hand. We are going to see how Pam used salvaged wood to frame her pieces. I want to live in her wood shop!
Once the lettering on the sign is dry, Pam heads to the shop. She will letter several signs and bring a pile down to frame all at once. She rips reclaimed lumber into strips a couple of inches wide. If you don’t have a table saw to rip your wood, grab the 1×2 furring strips I told you about in my Barnwood Frame Tutorial. You can get 8ft for $0.75!
Now Pam is my kind of gal. No measuring. She just put the wood strip up alongt the sign’s top, made her cut mark and cut 2 pieces that length (one for the top and bottom of the sign). She did the same thing for the sides, subtracting the width of the top and bottom strips so the side pieces fit inside of them as you can see in the photo.
