Whitewashed Gather Art

Our dining room at the Plaid House was pretty lonely.  I needed more quick art work like I did in the living room.  I had the design of this piece floating in the back of my mind, and I thought it would be perfect for the dining room. But I was trying to use my luan that I had on hand, and a large piece of stained luan just wouldn’t look too nice.  So I compromised.  I tried a reverse stencil.  Now although I would love to have a vinyl cutting machine, I just can’t justify dropping the bucks on it.  When I found this printable vinyl, I knew I could easily create one by hand.

And since I was crazy short on time, I created a painted frame and plan to add a frame around the edge in the future.

Steps:

1. Size out your word.  I sized mine in Microsoft Excel.  The font is called “fox in the snow”, and the ornaments are nothing more than parentheses, to which I added hash marks while cutting out.  My word and parentheses took 4 sheets of vinyl.
2. After printing, I carefully cut the letters out by hand.
3. I stained the luan with Puritan Pine, using a relatively dry rag and rubbing the stain into the luan.
4. To save time, I didn’t frame it out yet.  Instead, I taped off a border, then laid my letters and ornaments onto the board.  I taped the letters down with painters tape while I got them centered, then pulled the backing off the vinyl piece by piece.
   
5. I made about a 50/50 mix of paint and water.  A little goes a LONG ways.  I worked in sections, brushing the paint on, then rubbing it in with a paper towel.  I did the entire board, then immediately did a second coat.  It’s really just preference of how transparent you want the wash to be and how much water is in your mix.
6. Pull off the vinyl and hang!

 

7.  Pull off the vinyl and hang!

Now that I’ve tried this project, I definitely have a few others I’d like to try… I know I still have PLENTY of luan left!  If you give it a try, definitely let me know how it turns out!

 

-Marianne

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Source List of Actual or Similar Items:

Wheat Bundle

Pillows

Pillow Fabric

Table

Lantern

Basket

Printable Vinyl

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