DIY No Soliciting Welcome Sign

Welcoming people into our home or shop is one of my most favorite things - there's nothing like laughs, snacks, coffee, wine (and cheese!) - and of course a good bourbon - with family and friends. Inevitably, we needed a welcome sign for our porch to welcome those loved ones - but at the same time, I felt we needed something else too.

In this crazy world today, and with having two little babies, an unexpected knock at the door or silhouette in the window not only makes me jump - but disturbs nap time, startles the kids, and gives an uneasy feeling with a stranger at the door - almost always unwanted. I've seen the cute signs that say something similar to "No Soliciting - We know who we are voting for, we have found Jesus, we are too broke to buy anything" with the coy addition of "unless you are selling thin mints or have a package from Amazon, GO AWAY" - cute in it's own right, but a little too much for my personal style.

So how do we convey that same concept subtly? It took me a while to play around with verbiage and fonts until I found something that I felt was rustic, sweet and simple - a polite farmhouse style "thanks but no thanks" that hopefully will deter the uninvited. 

This particular piece of wood is 1'w x 3'h piece of pine. It's not necessary to get stain grade although you absolutely can - I just love the challenge of elevating otherwise considered throw away or scrap wood into something that looks and feels expensive. Not sure what to get? Check out this guide to educate yourself on types of woods and their attributes.

Size wise, 1'x3' is probably the smallest you would want to go for this sign. It would also look great on a larger/taller size, depending on the size of your porch and the proportions you're going for. I had imagined it paired with an antique wood chair, side table and beautiful greenery - a scene I intend to make this spring, so I will definitely post when that comes together! I must admit that by itself, my sign feels lonely. He needs some decorative friends to complete the look.

Simply start by sanding your wood to smooth it out and file the edges as not to be rough or get splinters. I'm still obsessed with the multi-stain technique, so I chose that route. I won't quite give away the full technique, but if you are feeling adventurous I'm sure you can figure something similar out ;). So far I've combined 4 hues of stain - you could do more, you could do less - that's something I know I personally will experiment with in the future.

And of course, you could do paint! I could see something like a distressed lighter gray with darker gray lettering would be very farmhouse-esque, and very cute. In the same fashion, a deep cream with brown lettering would be very sweet as well.

With the 4 stain technique, I start from darkest stain to lightest. The key is to not use too much stain, and I find sponge brushes tend to work best. Once you dip the tip of the brush in the stain, pat it on a rag or paper towel to get of excess stain. Then, simply stroke left to right, and right to left across the board - make sure to take the brush all the way past the edge for it to look authentic, versus it tapering off near the edge but not quite going over the edge.

Do this with the dark stain sparingly - just random across the board. Also, make sure you are following the grain of the wood. Dab your brush into your rag to get off any excess stain (no need to wash out the brush first), and dip in your next darkest color. Repeat the random lines for all colors except your lightest - in my case, the driftwood. 

The driftwood almost goes on like a tinted clear coat - very subtle. Put a decent amount on your brush, and brush across the entire board, again following the grain. This is what melds the colors together and brings them into harmony. The lines of the other colors flatten out, blend together and become less streaky.

I love this technique because it creates so much depth and richness in the wood, and makes it look unique and really elevates the piece.

Make sure to stain both sides of your piece, as well as the sides. This is what makes it look professional and finished in the end.

Once dry, I created a stencil for the text, originally creating the design in Adobe Illustrator, using the font A Day Without Sun that you can find for free here - it's one of my favorite simple, rustic, playful and farmhouse-style fonts. Before I had the equipment to create stencils (vinyl cutter and ORAMASK 813 Paint Mask Stencil paper) I printed my design out off of your average printer and transferred the design by tracing the design with graphite paper beneath, then painting the letters by hand. This is incredibly time consuming, and the lettering was never as crisp as I would have like. The stencil has eliminated this problem - but if you can free-hand the letters, hat's off to you because that is such a talent! Especially when able to stay true to the font.

I use chalk paint for most projects - it covers amazingly, and dries quickly. Choose your paint color and dab the paint over the stencil with a sponge brush. Do not use back and forth brush strokes like for a painting - this will shove the paint beneath the stencil and ruin your crisp lines. Use a light amount of paint - you can always go back over it to darken it. If you want a really rustic look, a lighter application works great because the paint doesn't cover the area completely and leaves it looking distressed.

The chalk paint dries so incredibly fast that your paint will be set in about 10 minutes or so. For the last step, I simply sealed the artwork in a weather proof, matte clear coat sealer and it was front porch ready!

There are so many creative ways you could go with this project - and we would love to see everyone's end results!