DIY Tutorial: Dry Goods Sign Made From Pallet Wood

by Noting Grace

30 Minutes

Easy

Recently, while remodeling our Kitchen, we decided to update our Pallet Wood Kitchen Island. In our new home, light was an issue in our kitchen. When we remodeled, we wanted light to come in through the Pallet Island, so we removed a few of the boards from the front of the island. Instant Pallet wood for me to work with!

diy tutorial dry goods sign made from pallet wood, crafts, how to, pallet, repurposing upcycling, wall decor

SCORE! I wanted to create a sign to hang over my pantry, and was so excited to have a piece of pallet wood that fit perfectly.

I tried to use the same transfer technique I used on my Cabinet Door Sign, or my Painted Recording Studio Sign, but on the weathered pallet wood it didn't work. I followed the same steps: Printed out the "Dry Goods" template. Shaded the back of the printed page with a graphite stick. Aligned the paper to the pallet wood. Traced the letters. Here's what happened:

Uh, oh! The transfer didn't show on the rough, weathered wood! I got a retractable pencil, retracted the lead, and traced the letters with the metal tip so that they would still show a slight template so I could outline with my paint pen - it just took a bit more pressure to have the letters show up.

Once the letters were traced (almost engraved) into the pallet wood, I outlined the letters with a fine tip paint pen. Once all the letters were outlined, I filled them in with a full tip paint marker.

Yay! I was so excited that it worked even with the transfer paper fail. Once the sign was fully painted with the paint pen, it looked too new, so I needed to distress the letters. I used 80 grit sand paper and knocked down the paint.