Prativya: DIY Industrial Laundry Sign

I hate laundry. Anyone else with me on that?

It’s that task that I always put off to do. And don’t even get me started on the pains of ironing.

Our laundry room has been empty since we came into our home. A brand new washing machine and dryer did fill the floor space, but the walls have been empty ever since. We would like to add some storage cabinets on the walls, but that’s one of those snowball projects that is pushed to "some day".

So, I decided to add some decorative stuff on the adjacent walls at least, and what better way than to create a hand painted, industrial LAUNDRY sign. (Just in case no one knew what was going on in this little area.)

Here’s what you need to make a vintage rustic Industrial LAUNDRY sign. Or you could use the idea to make something similar for any room!

Materials:

A piece of wood - I used some recycled wood I had lying around the garden of our home.We used a hand saw to cut the piece to the size we wanted.
Sandpaper/ Sanding block
Computer print out and a pencil
Wax crayons
Clear timber wax polish
Metal bits:

Instructions:

First we cut the piece of wood with a saw and sanded the entire piece of recycled wood along with the edges. I used a cloth to wipe away the fine dust.
After the wood was sanded, I printed out the word LAUNDRY on my computer to the size I needed. I used a regular font as I only wanted an outline to give me some idea of the size and placement.
I used a waxed crayon to color the back of the printout, placed it on wood, and then with a pencil, I traced the outline of each letter onto the wood where I wanted it to go, but the correct way. This rubbing effect transfers the pencil outline via the wax crayon from the back of the printout onto the piece of wood.
After transfer, I painted them in with black acrylic paint. I didn’t fill in the letters perfectly going for the vintage look.
I took some sandpaper and sanded off the paint in some spots as well. You can see I smudged the letter "R" a little bit, but that seemed to vanish after sanding and waxing.
Then I finally finished it off with a good wax to seal it up and add some sheen and finish.

The clear wax works like magic! Look at that gorgeous wood grain and color coming through!
Next step is optional, but hubs helped me attach the fun metal bits to the wall to give it the industrial look. (Now it goes with the industrial pipe lights in the dining room, and the pipe fittings on our entertainment unit!) A trip to Bunnings got us all the tidbits we needed. It is so much fun when we share the madness of home decorating!