Vintage Style Cafe Sign

Photos--they tell the truth and you see things differently when looking at a photo. When looking at photos of my house, the space above my pantry looks bare. I do have twelve foot ceilings, so there is a lot of wall space. I don't see it in real time, but definitely in photos so I decided to make a sign for the space.

I used a five foot long shelf board I had and painted it with blocks of wood. First I painted the board dark brown. I apply paint in layers--red, peach, green using a scrap wood square and letting each color dry before applying the next. It gives it such a great distressed look.

The top color also is applied with a wood block, but I cover more of the board. When it was dry I stained over the background paint.

When the stain was dry, I used craft store stencils to stencil the white letters. 

I hand paint the black shadow on the letters. It adds a lot to my kitchen/great room space.