Seaside Hues - This Way

Worn wood and watery hues.

It all started with a fence section that I scooped up out of someone's trash one morning on the way to work. Yes, I find some good stuff just taking an extra street or two on the way in to work on Mondays.

I had absolutely no plans for this and was not sure if I should have bothered because it was cumbersome, but it had the big gate hinges on it and I knew the wood could come in handy for that elusive someday.

See the piece of hinge hanging off at the bottom?

Well, this sat leaning up against a pile of stuff under an awning behind my house and that mess embarrasses me to no end. This was being used to sort of block a piece of furniture that I didn't want getting wet when we have wind blown rain, but instead of looking like a little fence that blocked the view of the junk, it just looked even more trashy. I went into a clean up mode one day and decided it had to become something or be deconstructed for signs or parts for something else, or it was going to be history. The hinges had been removed long ago.

Three of the boards were only partially attached and rusty nails were sticking out everywhere waiting to pull a gotcha on somebody's foot or hand. I got busy with deconstruction, but after removing two boards, it cried out to be made into a cute little standing sign with the remaining three boards left on it. So with some rusty colored nails purchased at a garage sale some time back, the boards were renailed so it would be sturdy.

Since there were no true plans for this and I wasn't attached to it, it was perfect for experimentation. I'd been wanting to do something painted with individual boards, each painted a separate color. Now was the time.

This received a treatment of one of my favorite color combos, and since there are tons of cans of paint around here that aren't quite right for certain things by themselves, a few were chosen and a little color washing applied. 

Add some dry brushed white and layer a few colors here and there and it gives off a seaside vibe. The boards still need some edge distressing, but since the sign is sitting out in the sun and rain, that may come about naturally, so I haven't invested the arm power on that yet. This is where it's at so far. As I worked on it, wondering what it should say, it seemed to be calling out to become a sign that could point to a party or a sale or whatever event might be going on at any given moment. 

Awhile back I'd but two little arrows out of the thin wood of a salvaged drawer bottom. After finding an arrow online, all it took was printing it out, tracing it onto the wood and then cutting it out with a regular hand saw. A cute wood arrow was born. Then holes were drilled and a little twine laced through to hang them. Yes, it was a little tricky cutting the right angles, but I managed. One arrow was painted white and one was painted an aqua/turquoise color.

They have just been hanging around pointing this way and that in my house for no apparent reason.

I couldn't commit to putting words on them, kind of like with the new water-colored sign. I didn't want to choose a particular saying and narrow the potential, so I thought if it just said "This Way", I could hang the arrow pointing right or turn it over and hang it on the left post pointing the other way, depending on what direction was needed at any given time.

I love it.

Since I am having trouble deciding about the words, I tried it out by adding text with picasaweb just to get a feel for it, but forgot to tone down the white lettering. Imagine it with a little more weathered coloring. What would be even better would be to create a way to hang individual letters on the sign so it could be changed up completely- (as if I need signs so often that I need them to say a multitude of things). Still, I like to think ahead. Well, it would be cute, and it would give it even more of a 3-D effect to have various letters hung on it. But it might be tricky to pull off because it would require a lot of letters and a way to hang them all.

I suppose "This Way" could work. We'll see if I can commit. What would you paint on such a sign? I'm open to other creative and useful ideas because my paint brush is still hovering in indecision.

I hope you'll stop over and visit at these link parties this week: