DIY Farmhouse Bathroom Sign

Hey everyone - Welcome back!

Today, I am sharing the step-by-step instructions for a DIY Farmhouse Style Sign made with our Wall Quotes™ Stencil Decal.

I shared some of this on my last DIY post as well, but in case this is your first visit, I'm starting from the beginning! 

So first, head over to the store, find a decal you love (so many to choose from right?), pick a size, and make sure to order it as a stencil.

I ordered our Have A Nice Poop Wall Quotes™ Decal in the 7" x 11" size. The color doesn't matter as you will be painting the decal on your surface and removing the vinyl.

To get started, I joined two scrap pieces of wood I had from another project with my Kreg Jig tool. I am working on 2 signs here. The bathroom sign is the one on the right. I made the base an inch larger than my decal in both directions. So the wood base is 8" tall x 13" wide. 

Remember to measure the space you have available and account for any frame or border you will add.

I used my orbital hand sander and make sure the top of the boards were nice a smooth. The smoother this surface, the easier it will be to get a nice crisp edge when painting later. I used three different grades of sandpaper. I started with 60, moved to 120, and finished it up with 360. It was super smooth when I was done.
I cleaned up the surface of any dust from sanding using mineral spirits on a lint free rag.
PS - does anyone else use their table saw as a table when you are out of room in your workshop? haha!
Carefully flip the decal back onto your surface and smooth it down with the squeegee that is included with every order. If you misplaced your squeegee, you can use any hard plastic card you may have - that old gift card, the frequent shopper card gathering dust in your junk drawer, anything that is hard plastic.
Peel off the transfer tape, also at a 180° angle. This layer is what was holding all the little bits and pieces in place for you.
Now comes the fun part! Whatever color you used for the background of the sign, you will paint a light coat over top of all the openings in the vinyl. Your surface should be pretty smooth, but if there are any areas that may bleed underneath, this will seal them up in the same color as the background so you won't have any touch-ups! Woot!
Then, I wanted my letters to be Black on the White background - classic! I used Valspar "Dark Kettle Black" for the letters. I got a sample size for under $4.00 at Lowes. Win! I used a small brush and did two coats of the black.
 
I love how the letters are just a bit raised from the thickness of the paint but it is completely permanent!
Thanks for following along! If you have any questions, comment below or email us info@wallquotes.com 
I'll be sharing a couple of other signs I've made and some variations and options to think about when making them.
Cheers!
Liz

Then the painting begins. I did three coats with Semi-Gloss interior paint in White. Use light coats - they will dry quickly and will be smoother in the end.

I also cut the frame pieces for my sign at this point and wanted to make sure everything was the right size. Measure twice cut once right?

Now it's time to add vinyl! The installation for a stencil is exactly the same for a wall installation so the instructions that are included are super helpful. I trimmed the excess off the decal, centered it on the board, and attached it with painters tape. Whenever we can, your stencil will have an inch of extra vinyl all around the design so you don't get paint onto your background.

 Then, flip up the decal and peel off the backing paper. This is the thicker paper on the back that has a grid on it. Make sure to pull it away at 180°.

Here is my sign all painted over in the White.  

Now for this sign, I attempted to peel off the vinyl stencil while the black paint was still wet. Since I have lots of experience with vinyl, it wasn't a total loss, but unless you are in a huge rush and needed this done yesterday, it is worth a couple of extra hours to let the paint dry.

When you are taking off the vinyl, it will probably rip, tear and stretch. That is totally fine since we are not saving that part. You should just be able to use your fingernails to get up all the outside sections of the vinyl.

The inside sections are a bit trickier. Hubby has a pick is his stash of tools-that-I-have-no-idea-what-they-are-truly-for and it worked wonders. Or, you can get a set of picks at Harbor Freight for under $10. Or, if you also happen to sew, I believe a T-pin would also work. 

Now, since my paint was wet, I mentioned I did have some touch ups to do. I waited for everything to dry and used a small watercolor brush.

You can see the bottom left of this letter is smudged and inside doesn't look great either.

So I put a little white in a blank area on the sign and carefully re-painted the areas that needed some help. Then I just removed any excess that was left.

To add the frame, I glued the wood, clamped it in place, and used my air nailer to attach it (sorry, no pictures of this as I didn't have an extra set of hands and always safety first!).

Here is my sign in the lovely backdrop of my front yard. As soon as it was done I was so excited I didn't even get it inside yet!

That's it! Super simple DIY. I've styled this in all my bathrooms at some point and have some inspiration for you below. I don't plan to hang this anywhere so I didn't add any hardware to the back. I'll share some signs I've done soon that I did add hardware to so you can see some options.

Thanks for following along! If you have any questions, comment below or email us info@wallquotes.com 

I'll be sharing a couple of other signs I've made and some variations and options to think about when making them.

Cheers!