DIY Vintage Laundry Room Sign

I am not a painter. I have found that I do not really enjoy painting. That being said, after I spent hours searching on the internet for a sign I could buy and coming up empty, I painted this. Yes me. And so can you. All you need are some paints, a candle, and a sticker of some sort.

I knew what I wanted the sign to say, but I didn't want to just stick vinyl lettering on a wall. I knew I wanted different colors and different distressing to make it look old and worn. I didn't want it to be crisp and clean. Who's laundry room is ever crisp and clean! Maybe in our dreams....

So I began by trial and error. I found a great pin on pinterest on how to do this with furniture. I then took those tips and applied them to my sign. But first I had to make some samples to see what paints I wanted to use and how this would all work.

I gathered all my supplies. I used these chalk Paints from Michaels.

I also used some peel and stick wallpaper samples to create my lettering.

I started with a small scrap piece of wood. I painted it the dark brown color and once it was dry I rubbed the candle all over. Then I painted the light blue color and once it was dry I used a scraper to scrape the wax off which exposes the color underneath. Then I ran my candle over another time and painted the pink on top of it. Again waited for it to dry and scraped my candle wax off. Leaving something like this.

Next I put the sticker that I made from the wallpaper sample over the distressing and painted over the whole thing white. I don't have a picture of this because you want to pull the sticker off before the white paint drys. But once you pull the sticker off it reveals all the distressing underneath.

I didn't LOVE how this turned out so I made a few more practice pieces including this "Laundry Sucks" sign that helped bring me closer to my desired effect.

Once I thought I mastered the technique, it was time to build my wall... In my living room.

Don't mind the old floor! I can't believe I lived with them for so long!

Next I laid out my plan with the vinyl sticker I ordered off of Etsy and my sconces to make sure it all fit. My original plan was to just stick this up there in black and live with it, but I knew I would hate it. I'm so glad I figured this out!

And I started the painting and scraping process.

Yes, my living room was trashed, my floors were trashed, to be very honest... my whole house was a wreck during this laundry room project. Side note: I do not recommend doing this inside on your living room floor if you're planning to keep it.

Once I had all the layers the way I wanted I carefully laid the sticker on top and painted over the whole thing with white paint. Talk about stressful! If it didn't work this was all garbage and I had no backup plan.

But it did and I couldn't be more in love with the outcome.