Local Landmarks Sign

I have a good friend who asked for some help in decorating her office/playroom. We live in a really amazing area...seriously amazing. In order to enjoy our fabulous location, we sacrifice size. We live in tiny houses. I am ok with tiny. It is definitely worth the size sacrifice to me.

So, this dual functioning space needed to have a space for her two girls to play and an office where her husband wouldn't feel completely over run by girl stuff. We came up with some great things for the girls, but in the office space we were now left with a large blank wall. Hmmm...we had already used a white board and bulletin boards in the girls space. So, we decided to go with a personalized art piece.

My friend loves living here, but will only be here for a few more years. We are a Navy town and people come and go...it is a sad fact of life around here. I wanted to make her something great for the space now, but something that would also serve as a reminder of all the places and people they loved here. So I decided to make a large rustic sign of all their favorite local landmarks.

There is a house down the street that has an old Ferry Landing sign. We walk past this sign all the time and it always catches my eye. I am not sure if it is an original sign or a replica, but I love it. It is aged and worn and always makes me smile. For years I have thought I should make something similar. This is not really similar, but probably where the idea originated.

I started by lining up a row of 1x4 pieces of wood. I laid two pieces of wood horizontally across the other pieces. I used Gorilla Glue to attach all of the boards together into one large sign. Then I used some wood stain I had to cover the entire piece.


Next I took a list of favorite local landmarks and went onto mapquest. I use mapquest all the time, but I never thought I would use it to make art! I used their address, the locations they love and mapquest to figure out exactly how far each of these places are from their home. I then took these distances and landmarks and used my Cricut to cut the letters needed from vinyl. I used a white colored pencil to mark off straight lines and stuck my letters down.


After all of the locations were spelled onto the boards, I made sure to press each piece down to ensure it would stick. Next, I gave the entire piece a coat of Rust-Oleum Heritage White Satin. When the paint dried, I peeled off each of the stickers.


I didn't like what I had at this point. It looked far to new. I really wasn't happy with the piece, so I began to rough it up with my power sander. Now I had some places that were no longer stained. I took a rag and lightly rubbed over the entire piece, even the painted areas. That's what I wanted.


I think I need to make one of these for myself!

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