Let's Eat, Y'all

With my time with Jana coming to a close very soon (I leave this afternoon), I wanted to share my favorite project from this week.   She wanted a large wooden sign to hang on one wall of her kitchen.  Several years ago, Jana purchased some large ceramic "utensils" to hang in the kitchen.   In fact, I broke one of them accidentally and went crazy trying to find a new one for her, but eventually they were re-stocked and all was well.   We decided to incorporate those into the design and set about trying to figure out the best way to do the project.

There was a trip to Home Depot to purchase beadboard paneling.  The piece we found was white and was 32" x 48"---slightly larger than what we needed, so we had them cut it down to 42" long.  Since this paneling was so thin, I knew we needed something to stabilize it and also to fasten hangers on, so we picked up some small flat stips.   Jana used her muscles to cut them down to size. 

Back at home, We stapled the furring strip to the back of the beadboard near the top and bottom.   The,  I dry-brushed some brown acrylic paint onto the white finish and rubbed off enough with a paper towel to give the whole thing a distressed, slightly weathered look.  I even chiseled a few nicks  here and there to make it look a little more authentic.  

Meanwhile, Jana printed out the lettering in the font and size she liked.   

We traced around the lettering with a pencil and then set to work painting.   She chose to paint the "let's eat" with a light yellow green that matched her pillows and curtains while I used a slightly darker green for the "y'all".  

I used a small piece of sandpaper to distress the lettering a little bit and then we added hangers for the utensils.   Here's the final product----I just love it!!!