Barnwood Sign: Made Using a Paint Technique

Want a barnwood sign for your home?  No time to go collect the real thing?  I am going to show you how to make your own for fall with a paint technique you need to see to believe.  This quick and easy method will have you making a barnwood sign for every season of the year.  This one was originally posted over at Crafts Unleashed where I am a design team member however I thought I would post it here in case y’all missed it.

Supplies needed to make a barnwood sign:

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• Wood Stain in a dark color
• Craft Paint (in white, light grey, orange, and dark grey)
• Blank Wood Pallet Sign
• Paint Brush

This paint technique involves a dry paint brush.  Basically you get very little paint onto your paint brush then dab most of it off on a piece of paper.  Run the dry paint brush over your surface quickly.  It will leave dark and light spots as well as spots that are not even covered in paint.  This is perfect!  Start by using this techique on your pallet sign with the dark grey paint as shown below.

Then add the light grey paint on top of that using that same dry brush technique.

Finally use the same technique with the white paint.  You should still have some raw wood showing through at this stage.  These are each very, very thin coats of paint. Also because you are using such small amount of paint the layers dry almost instantly.  You can therefore add all of these layers within a few minutes.

You can now follow with your dark stain.  Add it to the entire surface with a brush, allow to sit a few seconds, then wipe off with a rag.

I then repeated the dry brush technique that I did above with all three paints over the surface.  This gives you a rustic rough appearance that is worn and layered.  However this only takes a few minutes to do on any surface.  One note:  don’t forget those edges when you are painting!  You want to get those covered as well as to not ruin the look of your barnwood sign.

You now have a barnwood like surface that is ready for any treatment on the top.  I free handed the word “fall” but you can add anything that you like.  (Psst…want to get better at hand lettering?  Be sure to check out this post for a course you don’t want to miss!)

Ready to see how this compares with real barnwood?  The sign is sitting on the real thing in the image below.  You can see that mine turned out a little lighter but overall it is a good representation!

You might also want to make the metallic leaf mason jar shown above or those baker’s twine pumpkins.  They will really complete the look!

Grab your craft paints and make your own barnwood sign today.  You will love the results and just how easy it is to pull together.  Y’all enjoy and be sure to add this to your fall decor.

Love this and want more?  Try the links below!

• Wheat Wreath for Fall
• Fall Burlap Craft Ideas
• Jar Ideas for Fall
• Farm Sweet Farm Sign
• Quick and Easy Fall Wreath
• 3D Paper Pumpkin
• Pumpkins Fall Sign
• Fall Wood Bead Garland
• Fall Decor Buckets