This easy porch decor and a stenciled welcome sign are great for your fall porch.
Last month while I was cutting some shutter (bi-fold door) door projects on my compound miter saw, this piece fell off the saw and busted. I picked up the pieces and started putting it back together, one.slat.at.a.time. It was very tedious. As I neared the bottom, I decided that it was long enough and proceeded to put the larger piece in place with my Ryobi nail gun and Gorilla Wood glue. That sort of left some ends hanging off. I took it to the saw to cut off the end pieces. But just as I got to the saw, I stopped—took another look and decided that the end pieces resembled legs…
Materials
- Shutter (I used 1/2 of a bi-folding door)
- Welcome Stencil (I made mine on my electronic cutter, but you would buy one at a craft store or online)
Supplies
- Paint
- Spray Paint
- Press-n-Seal
Tools
- Paint Sprayer (I use Homeright’s Finish Max) You could spray paint the shutter welcome sign.
You can see that I still had about 8-10 slats to go when I stopped. I had enough of trying to get those slats back in place. Just as I was going to the saw, I had second thoughts.
Design the welcome sign in Silhouette
I made a stencil for the welcome sign in my Silhouette program. You can see the font is Adobe Thai and it’s about 518 pt. I cut it out of contact paper to save on using vinyl.
Paint the shutter that will become the welcome sign
I used my Homeright Finish Max to give the shutter a couple of light coats of diy chalky paint primer with a couple of light coats of semi-gloss over it. If you’ve ever painted a slatted project by hand with a brush, I’m sure you can relate to how much easier it it with a sprayer. The Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer by Homeright will not give you runs, or drips on the back side of your project. I’ve had that happen to me a LOT when I was using a brush on the slats. Not only do you get drips, it takes a LOT longer to get your shutter or bi-fold door painted.
Apply the welcome sign contact paper stencil
When I stencil with contact paper, I remove the contact paper backing from the entire piece, place the stencil on my project, then weed out the letters.
Using Press N Seal to protect spray painted project
After placing the stencil on my welcome, then weeding the letters, I used some Glad Press-n-Seal to protect the rest of the shutter from over spray. This is a much easier process than using painter’s tape. It really did work like a charm.
While removing the press-n-seal you can see that my shutter was protected from the overspray. It’s resting on my potting bench-a great outdoor work station that I use a lot.
Welcome sign made out of a shutter or bi-fold door
You can see the paint sort of got under the stencil, but I LOVE how the repurposed shutter welcome sign turned out. Perfect projects are soooo overrated, don’t you think? The Press-n-Seal did a perfect job keeping the rest of the shutter paint free. Have you tried this trick yet? Notice how pretty the slats are because I used the Finish Max.
Isn’t it the perfect addition to my fall porch? Since fall will be well on it’s way soon…. I think it will head to Glendale with me. I have lots more shutters—I can always make another one because it was so easy.
Be sure and stop by tomorrow to see how all the rest of this outdoor fall decor came together.
gail
see more great fall decor and more here: What’s It Wednesday
I loved hearing about your thought process on this shutter.
…how the end pieces resembled legs’! Perfect.
I often wonder how others come up with their projects.
I usually come here for ideas… or Pinterest…but you just have them pop into your head! You’re genius!
Cute sign… I also like the contact paper trick.
that looks so good! it’s always good when something good happens out of something bad.
I adore this shutter welcome sign! For some reason, it just speaks to me – actually, it’s YELLING at me – “go make one just like it?” So happy that I won’t have to do the tedious gluing of the shutter pieces that you did, however 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing this. I just love it!
Laurie,
I totally get what you’re saying. Sometimes I see something and I just HAVE to make it. That happened recently to me with the easy frames I saw a friend make.
gail
Do u know where ur booth will be at Glendale? I’m assuming u meant Crossing Festival at Glendale,ky if u can tell me where I will definitely stop by!
Donna,
I will be in FRONT of Bennies Barn. If you were to stand on their porch and look out, I’m in the second booth space. The first booth space is my niece. We are on the double row, not the single row. I have two spots. Hope you stop by to say hi!
gail
Press and Seal? Yet another genius tip!! Yay! Perfect is SOOO overrated, and if you expect everything to be perfect you won’t be DIYing very long…just the way it is, we embrace the imperfections! 🙂 Love your pretty fall porch Gail!!
Looks great! And thanks for the tip on using the press-n-seal. Will definitely be using that in the future!
I love all the porch decor and can’t wait to see all the projects. Amazing work as always!
Heck yeah perfect is over rated. Great tip too using the press n seal.
Very nice..!! If that is your front porch, it’s AWESOME..I love it..!!!
Tammy
It is my home’s original front porch, but now it’s on the side of the house and the door has been closed off. So, it’s basically a porch to nowhere. But because I live on a corner, it’s very visible from both streets.
gail