Painted Nautical Anchor Sign

Remember how I mentioned a few weeks ago how I had the itch to make some signs? Well I wanted to make a sign to hang on my front door for the summer. I didn’t really want to do a wreath and thought a fun sign would be really cool. I usually do something for the 4th of July, and this fits, but I wanted something more summery. I made this painted nautical anchor sign for my door to last all summer long.

I bought these outdoor pillows a few months ago, planning to use them on my front porch for the summer. It was the pillows that inspired my idea for my front door sign.

*can you spot my reflection in the window? 🙂

I had my husband cut me some 3/8 inch plywood into a 16×20 piece and I painted it white. For this project I used chalk paint powder and mixed it into my colored paint samples. I used BBFrosch chalk paint powder and I loved it! It drys really quick so I got this project done in no time. You can see the painted flag sign I made with it for the 4th of July.

Once my board was painted white, I used painters tape to make stripes. Then I painted my red stripes.

Before the red paint was 100% dry, I pulled off the tape. I even did a little distressing using some sand paper. Normally I wouldn’t put the frame on until the end, but since my husband was putting the frame on for me, he did it when he had time, so it got done earlier in the process than normal, but it still worked out. For the frame we used 1 inch x 4 inch cedar planks that had been used on our gate that my husband just replaced. We cleaned the wood and cut the planks in half. My husband just used a nail gun to attach them to the ply wood.

I then used a vinyl stencil of an anchor to paint the blue anchor onto my sign. I tried really hard to make it as straight as possible.

I peeled up the stencil once I got my anchor painted. Once all the paint was dry, I used a piece of sand paper to distress the paint in some areas. I wiped the sand paper dust off the sign and then used some clear wax to seal the sign.