“LOVE” decorative sign with hooks

As promised, I am going to show you how I created the “LOVE” sign I made for our mudroom. I had a really fun time with this project!

Decorative “LOVE” hook rack/ wall hanging.

This project came out of 2 different ideas I saw, so I combined them. The first idea, I don’t have a picture of, but I saw someone use a cabinet door (like the one I did), and they glued wooden letters on it to create a sign. Then I saw this at Hobby Lobby:

Adorable Hobby Lobby Wall Chalkboard with hooks

I seriously loved this so much. However, it was priced at $100. I wanted to get a similar look but for much cheaper.

To create my sign I used the following items:

1. A cabinet door from IKEA’s “As is” section. They have TONS of random cabinet doors. The one I purchased was only $2.99.

2. Wooden letters from Hobby Lobby. These were just over $1 a piece. I measured the space of my cabinet front and took those dimensions with me to see what word I could fit within this area.

3. Wooden decorative pieces for the top of the board. These were also from Hobby Lobby and are found in the same aisle as the letters. I found 2 of the same decorative pieces to mirror that were only a couple of dollars for both.

4. Hooks from Hobby Lobby. Make sure you buy them when they are 50% off, or use your HL 40% off coupon.

5. Acryllic paint from Wal-Mart. I used the “Patina” color for the main color. I used a white and coral for the hooks and clothes pins. Wal-Mart has really cheap acryllic paint less than $1 each.

6. Wooden craft clothes pins from Wal-Mart.

7. Sand Paper

8. Hanging hardware

9. Polyurethane to seal the paint on the hooks (optional).

10. Wood glue

I started by figuring out where to place the letters and decorative wooden pieces on the cabinet door. I measured carefully to make sure everything was centered and evenly spaced. After I got each piece where I wanted it, I traced it with a pen so when I glued each piece down I knew exactly where to put it.

I used wood glue to adhere the letters and decorative pieces to the cabinet door.

Using wood glue, I covered the bottoms of each piece and put glue within the traced areas on the cabinet. After that I set a bunch of heavy books on top until the glue set. Then I made a mistake that I am hoping to spare you from making. I left on a date with my hubby and was not around to check on the glue situation. So while the glue set, it oozed out around the letters. It wasn’t a make or break situation but if I make another one I will check it periodically to wipe away any glue oozing, or gloozing, as I like to call it. (Wah wah…)

Once the glue was completely dry, I painted everything with my “Patina” acrylic paint. I think I needed about 2 coats.

I wanted it to still see some brush strokes because of the style of the piece so I only did 2 coats.

Once the paint was completed dry, I lightly sanded the piece.

Here is the piece after it was sanded. I also used some dark brown paint and a fine brush to give more of a distressed look to the letters since they were a light wood color.

You also want to paint the hardware/hooks (if you choose to). I just used acrylic paint to paint those as well. You can seal them with a polyurethane, however I did not because our sign is just decorative and won’t actually be used to hang coats.

Painted hooks and clothespins.

The last steps are to find out exactly where you want the hooks/clothespins/hardware to be placed, to secure those items onto your board and then to add hanging hardware of your choice in the back. I screwed the hooks in and used wood glue for the clothespins. We used a wire in back secured on each side to hang our sign so that we could secure it to the wall in a way that our kids would not be able to yank it down and hurt themselves.

Figure out where you want all of your hardware and then adhere or fasten it to the board.

You can take this idea and do whatever you want with it, whether it means using the space where I placed the letters to make into a chalkboard similar to the Hobby Lobby inspiration piece, or you can do a vertical sign with a special date (2 numbers for each row). The possibilities really are endless. There are so many fun color combinations you could do and so many fun hooks that you could mess around with to create something truly unique.

This piece cost me about $25-$30 to create. You could make it as cheap as you want depending on what you want to include and what items you already have on hand. Then hang it up and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Closet turned mudroom

This is a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time. We have a closet in the garage entry way that has always simply stored junk. It used to be the home of our cat’s litterbox, and after that it just stored whatever it was that we didn’t have a place for elsewhere.

One day I was flipping through a magazine that my mom had on her coffee table that showed a lady who had converted a closet much like ours into a mudroom. Brilliant! I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to do.

With kids coming in and out with muddy and wet boots (especially during the winter months), I wanted a place where they could sit and take off and store boots, shoes, gloves, coats, etc.

Here is the transformed space.

We held off for awhile because originally I wanted to have bead board lining the mudroom but it was just going to end up costing too much. I finally decided that painting the inner walls with a paint color we already had on hand was the way to go. I really like the way it turned out.

It’s super simple too. We just removed the closet doors, painted the interior, put in a bench and installed a couple of hooks.

To add some light we got some of those puck lights that plug into an outlet and stuck them on the bottom of the top shelf. Then we put one single piece of molding across so that the lights weren’t visible.

I will be following this post within the next few weeks with a few other DIY projects that were included in this project.

I’ll show you how I made this:

Decorative “LOVE” hook rack/ wall hanging.

And these:

Rustic shoe baskets.

Here is the view of our new mudroom from the hallway:

The transformation makes a much more spacious entry way from the garage and creates a much more practical place for children to remove shoes before they walk all over my hardwoods!

More to come in the next few weeks!