Bathroom sign

I had this idea for a fun sign for my daughters bathroom. I wanted to make a vintage looking beach sign that said "No Lifeguard on duty"

With all the construction going on around us, I knew I could get the wood for free. I wanted aged wood, so I started looking for a pallet. I found one that was already tore up, so I just grabbed three of the slats off of it. At home, I cut about a 2-3 foot section out of each with my hand saw. I glued the three pieces together, side-by-side. They were really really warped. 

Hand saw and wood glue

All the heavy things I had lying around ;)

I stuck them under a piece of plywood, and put all the heavy things I could find on top of them. I let it sit this way for a day...

Half way through the day I took all the bricks off, added more wood glue to any gaps, and then turned the boards over. I put all the heavy things back on top and let it sit for the rest of the day.

Success! They were perfectly imperfect! and very stuck together. The variation in the tops was still bothering me, so I sanded it down in a few places to match a little better.

After sanding, I gave the top a rough spray with some antique white spray paint and let it dry.

To do the lettering, I used Microsoft Word. I printed out the letters in the font I liked (stencil) at the size I liked (190). After cutting them out, I placed them on the board and used painters tape to keep them there. Then, I used a method I learned on Pinterest... I traced over the letters, pressing down kinda hard on the pencil. Which left an indentation on the board of the outline of the letters. It worked really good in the places that the wood was soft, wherever the wood was really rough or hard, it was a lot harder to see the indentations. But I really like this technique and will definitely use it again. I used the indentations as a guide to paint the letters. I used acrylic black, blue and white paint mixed together to get a nice gray color.

After the lettering dried, I gave it another sand with my orbital sander. Just a light one to take away the freshly painted look. I did streak a tiny amount of gray and blue paint here and there with a small dry brush. I also rubbed some gray paint on the edges with my finger. Then, I gave it a light coat of stain. I used minwax 'Provincial 211' and a paper towel to apply it. I'd dip the paper towel and rub it back and forth length wise, mostly wiping off whatever I could. Then, I used the paper towel to stain the edges... Done!

(To hang it, I used 2 short wood screws and some wire on the back of the sign.)