Happy Monday friends!  I hope that all of the mom’s out there had a wonderful Mother’s day yesterday 🙂 For my post this week, I’m sharing how I made a cute little reclaimed wood and galvanized letter sign for above the sink in my kitchen.  I love this sign for a number of reasons.  First, I think it fills the blank space above my sink perfectly.  Another reason that I love it is that you can make the entire sign without any power tools.  You don’t even need to cut the wood!  

Just look at what I was working with.  That blank area above the sink desperately needed some pizzazz. My first thought was to put a valance above my window but I didn’t want to limit the light that was coming into my kitchen.  Then as the days passed, I came across these awesome inexpensive reclaimed wood boards from Hobby Lobby.  They are a cool mix of gray and brown tones and look great with galvanized letters that can also be purchased at Hobby Lobby.

I’ve always liked signs that say “eat” for kitchens.  I’m not really sure why.  When you think about it, why would someone want a sign that tells them to eat?  I mean, who actually needs a reminder to eat?  I went with it anyways.  The cool thing about the length of these boards is that you can comfortably fit 6-7 letters on the sign if you wanted to use a longer word.  Maybe something like “digest”, “breathe”, “blink”… ok, enough nonsense.  Sorry about that 😉  On a serious note though, you could easily fit other common words for signs.  Some that I’ve come across that would be a great fit are listed below.

Other word ideas

Home

Gather

Kitchen

Blessed

Market

Coffee

Bakery

Another great option would be your name if it’s short enough!

Ok, let’s move on to actually making the sign.  First you’ll need a few materials.  Don’t fret though, you don’t need much for this project and it’s probably one of the easiest sign tutorials you’ll find out there!

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will make a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Materials

Woodpile – $9.99

Galvanized letters – $2.99 each

Clamps (at least 3)

Wood glue

Picture hanging kit

Nails

Tools

Hammer

Hot glue gun

Screwdriver

Directions

Step 1: Select 3 boards

Choose 3 boards from the woodpile that look good together.

Step 2: Clean the edges

Use a brush to clean the edges of the boards so that the glue has a nice clean surface to adhere to.    

Step 3: Glue the boards together

Run a small bead of glue along the edge of one of the boards and then clamp the boards together at the ends and the middle.  To prevent the boards from bowing, I only attached two boards and then once it dried I went ahead and attached the 3rd board.  I also used weights to hold the boards down to prevent bowing from the clamps.

Step 4: Attach the hanger

I used a simple picture hanging kit with two D-rings and wire.

Step 5:  Insert nails for each letter

You can see below that each of the letters has a small hanger at the top.  I found some nails that had a head slightly smaller than the opening in the letter hanger and then used a hammer to drive them into the boards.  Be sure to space your nails appropriately so that the letters are evenly spaced.  You’ll want to drive the nails in just enough so that the letters sit flush with the boards.  The picture below shows how much the nails should stick out of the board.It’s kind of difficult to see with all of the texture in the wood, but if you look closely, you’ll see three evenly spaced nails for each of my three letters.

Step 6: Glue the letters to the nails

While the hot glue gun is heating up I entertained myself by rearranging the letters to see how many words I could come up with…. I quickly realized that this game isn’t so much fun with only three letters.

Apply hot glue liberally to the nail head and the base of the nail.  You can also put a little bit of hot glue through the opening in the hanger on the letter.  Then fit the nail head through the hole in the letter hanger.  Make sure that the letter is straight and then apply slight pressure to the top and the bottom of the letter. Once you have all of your letters attached you’re done!  It’s a super easy sign to make and I just love how it fills the space above my sink.What do you think?  Let me know if you have any questions and as always, if you make a sign please use #handmadeweekly on social media so that I can see it!
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<3 Hannah