Vintage Family Rules Sign

Hello! I'm Erin from Decor Allure.  I'm a Mom of six with a love of decorating.  I love the challenge of trying to decorate for this crowd, yet budget-friendly.  I love garage sales, thrift stores, re-painting, re-upholstering, and re-everything!

     I have fallen in love with these vintage subway signs I'm seeing everywhere. But at prices like $785 for the ones from Restoration Hardware, it's out of the question.

 Then...I saw this family rules sign idea at http://www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/ :

 Not really fitting my home's decor, but I liked the concept. Then this crazy lady's light bulb went off! I added the two ideas together to fit my style and created this:

    Here's what I did- I already had a frame that I had a piece of 1/4" plywood cut down to size for me at Home Depot (they do 2 cuts for free and many cuts for batted eyes!) I then painted the border with off white craft acrylic paint. After dry, I taped it off and painted my center black.  Two coats later, sand down the whole surface until sufficiently "aged." 
     I then typed up each phrase in a banner-making program and printed each out.  After cutting them out, I layed them out on the board as I wanted and taped the edges down to hold them in place.  Now here comes the fun part; place a sheet of carbon paper between the wood and printed paper.  On the first phrase, trace each letter.  Take off the paper and carbon and you should have a nice copy of your lettering.  Using a paint pen in off white (I used the medium and fine tip "DecoColor" brand from Michael's), trace again and fill in each letter. I kept a piece of cardboard handy to help blot the tip when it got a little too full. You can use the finer tip to define the edges of each letter a bit better. When done with the first phrase, move down to the next.  I just worked on the floor, laying on a pillow so I could really see what I was doing (and make sure I could really smell those lovely paint fumes!)

     When all dry, I sanded the letters to help age them as well.  Since making this first one, I found another larger frame at Goodwill.  It was taller and had a chunkier frame that I painted black:

I even made a few on some ready-made pine boards from Home Depot and hung them without a frame. Here's one that's dark brown and cream:

    This really wasn't that hard, yet it makes such a fun, custom sign.  Not bad for just under $20, huh?  A friend suggested making a subway-style sign using street names from your life (your different homes' streets, the street you grew up on, etc.)  I just saw this idea of writing a poem or saying on a large piece of plywood to make an inexpensive, but large piece of artwork for that big, empty wall:

   You can find instructions for this from Amanda at http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/diy/an-easy-doityourself-statement-sign-heres-lookin-at-me-kid-107848
    Oooh, the possibilities!  Try it! Just send me your signs for future inspiration.