DIY: Old Headboard Into New Welcome Sign

Living in the country has a slew of pros and cons.

The obvious highlight is the breathtaking beauty we experience every day coming down our winding driveway. The leaves haven’t reached their peak yet, but in another two weeks, this will be spectacular.

Since I’ve caught the painting bug over the last few weeks, I’ve been having fun sprucing up a few pieces of furniture. With that, my daughters have also been wanting their own pieces to paint, namely our nine year old.

I’ve thought it would be warm and inviting to add a Welcome sign at the top of our hill for awhile, and knowing we had groups of people coming to our home for the weekend, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to let the girls have a little fun with some extra paint I’ve had laying around for awhile.

My goal was to let them make it their own, knowing that what ever the outcome it would be a Good enough Thing.

Our daughters’ bed broke over a year ago, and the queen headboard has been sitting under our lean to that entire time.  Yes, it’s been patiently waiting for us to do something with it, and because it had been accidentally exposed to the elements, the bomb fire was calling its name.

Fortunately, creativity hit, and I thought this would be a perfect project for the girls, and they were so excited.

If it didn’t work, no financial outlay had occurred, and they learned some great, additional DIY skills in the process.

Since I knew that no one would ever see this up close, I told them to skip any sanding, but we cleaned it well first.

We then used an oil based Kilz primer since I knew this would be outside. We let that coat dry, and then used a can of light blue latex paint by Glidden that I bought over two years ago and had never finished.

You CAN use latex over oil based paints, but typically, not the other way around.

I love that we are doing a unique DIY project using only what we already had on hand.

Since Chalk Board paint is much more expensive, I told the girls NOT to paint the entire headboard with it. It would have been very neat, but would have driven up the cost.

Many people confuse Annie Sloan Chalk Paint with Chalk Board Paint. I love both, but found out an interesting fact about Chalk Paint. If you apply three layers, it becomes not only water resistant, but it also becomes a chalk board.

Since I had a small sample pot of Chalk Paint on hand, the girls used that instead of chalkboard paint.

Once it was finished, my son leveled it right into the side of our hill. Guests now turn the corner by our mail box and are greeted with a special note just for them.

It will be fun to write all kinds of encouraging words to my family too.  Although, if they are in trouble, it could yield a surprise warning as well, so they better keep on their toes.

I want to add a few smaller signs now around the yard. Since this is such a large headboard, I will be looking for some smaller twin sized ones at yard sales. Typically, I find them for around $5. We’ll use one for a score board by our volleyball court and maybe one for just a weekly bible verse.

My girls did such a fabulous job!

They had fun painting. It was a “free to us” project. We re-purposed and reused items on hand, and now we have a special Welcome sign.

I do admit, giving your children room to create is a wonderful thing, but this is where a mom has to restrain herself and let them do it.

Everything in me wants to go and “perfect” the sign with a perfectly painted blue chalk board area along with a detailed calligraphy greeting, but guess what?

I love it!!

It’s another amazing day in the month of “Good enough Things.”

Has there been something in your month that has been a Good enough Thing? I’d love to hear it!

Read the rest of my 31 Days of Good ‘enough” Things by clicking here, and don’t miss the launch of 10 Minute Dinners.

I’m tackling 31 Days towards 10 Minute Dinners over at my new site.