DIY Playroom Signs

If you’ve started to follow me on Pinterest, you can tell I’ve been saving a lot of pins for a Playroom Remodel that I have in the works. We have a room right off our livingroom that is a perfect “creative” space for my boys. Not a dumping ground of toys, but one that can have artwork, books, and comfy and cute storage and seating. It’s been such a work in progress because finding pieces that fit the kids and their style, yet be functional and fitting MY style is not an easy task.

Take a gander through those Playroom pins and you’ll see that most times I save pins, it’s because of the artwork. I love adorable farmhouse signs. White and black with adorable sayings and perfect fonts. I save them time and again, and then when I go to purchase, I realize they are over $100 each! I need that money for storage and furniture, not for art on the wall for this space.

The solution? DIY!

I wanted to create two signs that had the words from one of our favorite songs: Skidamarink! I love the lines, “I love you in the morning and in the afternoon. I love you in the evening and underneath the moon.” Precious!

Materials

• 2- unfinished wood pallet frames (mine measured 12″ x 8″)
• White paint
• Expo Markers
• Paint brushes – I used a 2″ brush and small craft brushes
• Black acrylic paint

Instructions

To make these more of a farmhouse style with the black and white, I watered down some leftover white paint I had from our remodel. I made a mixture in a small bowl of 1 part white paint and 1 part water. This keeps the paint light with a little more worn look to it. The wood is already very natural and light so the watered down paint will let the wood shine through with a tint of white.

I made sure the paint was applied lightly with plenty of long brush strokes so it was a smooth, light background.

So my handwriting is not good enough to create a beautiful sign I would be proud of. To get the font that I love, I decided to take to my computer and pick a font of my own that I wanted for the pictures. I fell in love with the font Segoe Print and typed out the lyrics to the song using 158 point font. A few of the words were a little too large for the way I spaced them out so I made “afternoon” at size 130, “underneath” at 120, and “the moon” at 130.

A quick print on my home printer and I cut out each of the words and spaced them out on the frames. From there, I traced each of the letters with a pen, pushing hard so there would be an indent in the soft wood frame.

You can see in the photo below how the letters have an indent in the wood and easy to see when it’s time to trace.

After I traced each word with pen, I then went over the indent in the wood with a black expo marker.

After each word was traced and outlined, it’s time to fill in each letter with your black expo markers. I chose the fine black expos so I had a cleaner line.

Since the frames were completely unfinished, I wanted to paint the frame a black to coordinate with other frames I have in the space and fit the theme of my home (see my livingroom rug? 😊). So a little painter’s tape to keep that white background safe as I take to the edges.

I purchased a small black acrylic paint and using small craft brushes, I painted around the edges of the frame.

So. much. cleaner. 🙂

To finish this project, I wanted to lighten up the font and make them not as harsh and dark. I took the watered down white paint I used earlier and I put one more thin layer over top of the finished lettering to make it look more worn and vintage. I felt like it was a needed touch to finish the project, but it certainly can be skipped if you want the darker font and more of a standout sign. Choose your style!

In the end, this project took me less than $25 to make the two signs for my playroom space. I can see myself doing this on a much larger scale for bedrooms and nurseries and making those adorable signs that we see all over Instagram and Pinterest, without the price tag!

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