DIY Vintage Kitchen Sign

Summer is here and with that comes the beautiful sunny days, blue skies and warm ocean breezes you find at the beach but it also brings the hot temps which I am not so fond of.  When the heat indices start climbing toward 110 I hibernate inside with the air conditioning, a nice glass of ice tea and a fun project.  Today is one of those days so grab your glass of sweet tea and come join me as I share how I made this cute DIY vintage kitchen sign with you. 

If you have followed me for long you know I love to take something old and outdated and make it into something new and useful again.  I just enjoy seeing what I can come up with.  This little sign was once a very dated picture I found at the Salvation Army one day when I was scavenging about.  I think it was one of those circa 1970's or 80's pictures that I saw a lot of back then.  I probably would have passed it up because the frame is actually made of plastic but I loved the oval shape and the price was just right - $2.00.

As I said I  loved the oval shape - not a usual find for me.  Usually, I find the ordinary square or rectangular frames.  I love to pick them up when I find an interesting one because I know I can transform them into something new and pretty simply by using a bit of old paint.  And, they are usually quite affordable as I rarely pay more than $2.00 for one and try to stay at $1.00 or less.  I have quite a collection of frames right now to work with.  Thank goodness because I think these hot days are here to stay for a while.

I started this project by taking the picture completely apart first- back, picture, glass, and frame.  This one was put together well with little screws holding the back on.  

 I painted the frame with my favorite paint right now - Rustoleum's Black Chalkboard Paint.  I love this stuff and I have to tell you there is not a thing I have found that doesn't turn out awesome when coated with it.  It took 3 coats to cover the gold up but look how awesome it is now.  

Next, I painted the picture.  It was a print on a very durable cardboard like-oval piece.  I simply painted it with white craft paint I had on hand.  

This also took two coats to cover the print up well.

I then chose an old store logo graphic  I found at the Graphics Fairy that I loved.  She has all sorts of graphics that you can choose from to make a one of a kind piece of art or craft for your home.  Check her site out I think you'll love it.   I love using these old logos throughout our home.  They add that vintage feel I'm trying to achieve.  I chose this one because it's a store logo from old St. Louis - close to where I grew up.  So it's not only vintage - it's also a reminder of my childhood.

I actually used artist's transfer paper to copy the logo onto the white background making sure I had it centered.  As you can see this is just a light tracing that I was then able to go over with a black sharpie.

This is how it looked once I went over all the tracings with the marker.  This does take some patience and time but what else is there to do when you're hibernating and trying to keep cool.

Then I simply put all the pieces back together and this is what it looks like now.  A big difference from what I found in the thrift store.  A one of kind piece of art for my kitchen that I love.

What do you think?  For $2.00 and a little paint, I have the perfect vintage kitchen sign. I placed it on our kitchen shelf unit along with a few other thrift store pieces to make a pretty little vignette.  An added bonus is it can also be used as a tray for serving some awesome sweet tea should some guests stop by to hibernate with you.  Not only a cute vintage kitchen sign but a serving tray also - now that is a bargain!

So, what have you been up to lately?  Are you also hibernating from the heat or do you embrace it with vigor?  So glad you stopped by today - keep cool and have fun creating some great projects for your own home.

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Have a wonderful day and keep cool......

I will be linking this post up to the parties that are listed on my Where I Party page.  Go by and visit a few - check out all the great creativeness and inspiration you'll find there.