An Easy Hand Painted Sign

I love that we have a basement and a garage...because I can usually find supplies for a spur of the moment project already on hand. I had been wanting to add some type of vintage DIY sign to the kitchen in that little space above the cabinets.

Yesterday during nap times, I measured the space and took off to the garage, in search of a board. I found one that was the right dimensions. In fact, it was already painted white! It was the board we had removed from Nora's closet renovation.

I have been blessed with three AMAZING sets of grandparents. My sister and I pretty much agree that grandparents are supposed to last forever and that ours are the best in the world. All three of my grandpa's were such hard workers. I love finding ways to incorporate bits of their lives into our home.

My hard-working grandpa used to run a little grocery store. He's been called "Popeye" his entire life and so, the store was called "Popeye's Grocery." He is one of the most self-less people I know, working as hard as he could to provide for his family. I just love my Pa.

My mom grew up helping in the store after school so that my Nanny could cook supper. Mom would get to pick out the candy they would sell from the candy truck each week. I love listening to stories about the store. One day was bread delivery. Another day was pop. The bus stop for school was out in front of the store and so the kids would hang out here in the afternoon. You can see their school pictures displayed on the counter in the picture below.

Although the store is now closed, the building still stands on my Pa's property. I talked to my Pa last night about re-making the sign. He told me Pepsi provided the original one, as advertisement for their product. He was known for having the coldest pop in town. He would stock the coolers each evening after the store closed so that the bottles would be super chilled in the morning.

Photo by my sister Amy

Photo by my sister Amy

I wanted to honor my Pa's hard work and have a little reminder of the stories I've heard from the store. So, I decided to copy the original sign for my kitchen sign.

I found a font close enough to his hand-painted sign (Ariel Black). I had to use punctuation from another font (Eras Bold ITC) to match things up perfectly.

After printing and cutting the letters, I traced them with pencil onto my white board.

I had originally planned to paint the letters and then rough them up with a little sand paper. But I found that it was super easy to paint the letters in a weathered way. If my brush ran out of paint, I just left the faded area.

The whole project, start to finish, took less than 30 minutes.

Jeremiah hung the board for me this afternoon using two picture frame hangers.

I love having a reminder of my family history hanging in my kitchen.