Easy Monogram

A friend recently had a birthday and I wanted to give her a small token for living another year of life. Or for being in my life. Or something like that. Thankfully she doesn't read my blog and won't find out how cheap inexpensive her present was for me to make!

I found several pieces of this super-weathered wood out behind the shop. I love that it's rough and turning gray. Please don't be distracted by the minty green background--it's the original circa 1960 kitchen counters here in our temporary housing. I know you're jealous.

I gave the wood a good scrubbing in the sink and let it dry completely. 

I then painted it in this shocking green BHG sample paint. I knew it would dry grayer than it looked wet, but I wished I had stain or something to tone it down! Oh well! My friend is from the Caribbean, so I wasn't worried about the bright color. It's the color of the sea in that part of the world, right?

I let the paint dry and gave it a good sanding to let some of that gray goodness show. Please don't be distracted by the wood table in the background. It's priceless, I know. 

I found a font I liked and sketched a sample letter on a piece of paper, then grabbed some of my kids' paints and a brush and free-handed the S right onto the board. I made mistakes. I had to let them dry, paint green over them and try again. Justsoyouknow. 

Here you can see some of my patches as I fixed areas I didn't like. You can also see a third enviable kitchen surface, this time in the form of faux butcher-block. I wouldn't mind it much, but it's so shiny! Real would is not that shiny, folks! You might have also caught on that this project took several days, what with the drying time in between each step. So it got moved around a lot and worked on when I could, and photographed rather randomly. I'm sure you noticed the slight variations of color in each picture... Professional blogger, I am not!

When everything was finally dry, I sanded it down again. I like the rough, weathered look so much better! Unfortunately, this is the only "After" shot I have because I was running out the door to go sing Happy Birthday to this friend.

So there you have it! Scrap wood + sample paint + kid's craft paint and brush + sandpaper = easy, inexpensive, totally personalized monogram art!

Have fun!