I love antique/vintage furniture and decor pieces, but I don’t usually have the time to browse antique flea markets, especially with curious kiddos in toe. My next best option is to make something to look vintage, which is how my Dairy Fresh wood sign came to be. (My husband is a dairy farmer so I feel like this sign is “extra” appropriate for us to have)

I LOVE simple and easy projects you can complete quickly and cost you next to nothing! This wood sign is a piece of scrap wood from an old pallet.

Dairy Fresh Wood Sign Supplies:

1. Piece of scrap wood: My piece came from a wood pallet
2. Saw (if your wood needs to be cut)
3. Sandpaper
4. Oil (optional)
5. Pencil
6. Sharpie/Sharpie paint pen
7. Printable template (included down below)

Instructions:

Step 1: Cut wood to size

My wood was from a pallet. If you have ever worked with wood from pallets you know it can be a pain at times, but it’s hard to beat free! I pried my piece off and then trimmed the ends. In the end my piece measured 5.5″ x 35.5″

Step 2: Sand

I took my palm sander and gave the wood a good once over using 100 grit paper.

Step 3: Apply oil (optional)

I had some of this wood oil laying around and thought I would apply a little to deepen the color a bit. This step is completely optional. You could stain the wood, leave as is, or paint it.

Step 4: Add words!

I used the same tracing method I have used for several projects. You can check out my video tutorial below. As promised, here is the free printable pdf to print off and use to make your own sign. There will be 4 pages total. Print them out and then tape them together, lining up the letters. You can see how I did this below.

DAIRY FRESH Printable

I taped the 4 pages together, then centered on my board and taped in place.

After tracing my template with the technique shown in the video I filled in with a black sharpie paint pen. A regular sharpie would also work or you could fill it in with paint.

That’s it! Easy! Let the letters dry for a little bit and then lightly sand to give a more aged/distressed look.

Note: be careful if you used a sharpie and you decide to sand it. I have found that sometimes when I sand over sharpie it blackens the wood surrounding the letters. This may be okay with you depending on the look you are going for (it happened on this sign a little) After I sanded the letters I got a rag and wiped around the letters to lessen the darkening.

Dairy Fresh Wood Sign

I have not decided exactly where I am going to put this sign yet. We have an old milk separator (you can see a little bit of it in the corner in the above picture) that is in our dining room that I think this would look good over. I will post a photo once I make a decision.

Thanks!

Emily