Last Summer my amazing and talented hubby built me a chicken coop! I had been wanting to have a backyard flock for years and my dreams came true! I am finally getting around to decorating the coop this Spring and adding little fun details. I decided to make a sign to start, and thought I would share how I made this easy DIY chicken coop sign. This could also be for in your house! A cute farmhouse kitchen with this sign over a window or sitting on a shelf would be super cute.
I started off by finding a 30″x 5″ scrap piece of wood in our garage and it ended up being the perfect size ! We had used it as a sign at our wedding so it was already stained. All I did to prep this was sand down the letters that were still on the board a bit. You could stain the wood first if you want, or even better- try to find an old weathered piece of barn wood!
Next I lightly painted the board white with the same outdoor white paint that we used for our coop. I purposefully did really light strokes and let the dark stain peak through in some areas. I wanted it to look more worn and rustic. After that was fully dry I needed to figure out what I was going to write on my sign!
I don’t have the best handwriting so I knew I needed to make a stencil. I could have just bought one and saved time but I wanted to just use materials that we already had. I created a stencil template that you can download HERE: page one page two page three. I thought using card stock instead of regular printing paper would have been best, but I think regular paper would have been actually much easier to cut through!
I used an exacto knife (that was much too dull) to cut out the letters. This is what honestly took the longest! My hand was killing me halfway through the letters. I would recommend making sure you have a new sharp blade to cut with and to not rush. I was trying to get it done as quickly as possible because I was just too excited to see how it would turn out ! I used an old cutting board underneath my paper so I didn’t ruin our table. What’s nice about a rustic sign is that the letters really don’t have to be perfect!
Next I lined the stencils up so the letters were all evenly spaced apart and traced each letter with a pencil. I put the silhouette of the hen in the middle but you could put it on either side of the board as well.
Using a fine tip brush I traced over the pencil with black paint and then filled in the letters with a slighter larger paint brush. I used the Folk Art outdoor acrylic paint in matte black.
We added hangers on either side to easily hang the sign on the coop. And voila ! I really love how it turned out and now I have three more signs I want to make. I may go back and sand the edges of the board and over the letters a bit, but I figured it would naturally get a bit weathered being outside.
Now I just need to add some cute planters and flowers around the coop, maybe a hanging basket of flowers, and a stone path. I can’t wait to keep adding little decorations like this to the coop!
If you make your own DIY chicken coop sign be sure to share on Instagram and tag me! @mymountainwild
For more DIY’s check out:
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