Though I’ve been really into farmhouse style decor for a while now, I’ve only recently become a Rae Dunn collector. I’ve LOVED incorporating her work into my new summer display, and I can tell I will never be “Dunn.” Haha! However, I didn’t see any Rae Dunn signs when I was shopping for my latest Rae Dunn goodies. So, when it was time to figure out what signs I wanted to paint for the display, it was a no-brainer. Rae Dunn inspired signs it is!
These cute little pointed signs keep showing up on my Pinterest feed, so when I spotted some wood blanks at Michaels I just had to grab a pair to play around with. I haven’t seen any of these pointed signs look like what I had been envisioning, so I thought it would be helpful to write up a tutorial for y’all to follow if you want to make your own. Who doesn’t need a Rae Dunn tiered tray sign or Rae Dunn inspired shelf sitter? (Also, what the heck do we call these signs? Triangle-ish shelf sitters? Pointy signs? I’m going with “pointed signs” but if you have a better suggestion please let me know in the comments ๐ And if you want to paint something similar but on little rectangle signs I think it would still be super cute!)
Rae Dunn Inspired Signs
What you’ll need:
- Several pointed wood blanks (from Michaels, or cut your own from a 1×4 piece of wood)
- Sandpaper (I use either 200 or 400 grit for signs)
- Paint (I used Waverly from Walmart and Folk Art acrylic paint)
- A stencil
- Jute or other decorations
Note: I found these wood blanks for $1 each at Michaels (and used a coupon so they were $0.75 each). You can also buy a 1×4 piece of wood (0.75″ thick) and cut it to make these wood blanks. They are approximately 3.5 inches wide and 5 inches tall. I really loved this project so I plan to just buy wood and cut my own next time. I’ll make a tutorial for that when I do!
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1) Use your sandpaper to lightly sand the front and the edges of the wood:
2) I wanted a slightly-chippy look so I first did a faux-wood wash around the edges and on the sides. Skip this step if you only want one color on your sign (which will make this quick project even faster!).
3) Once that was dry I painted 2 layers of white chalk paint…
4) I sanded the front, the sides and the edges, pressing harder so some of the brown would show through on the sides and edges.
5) Time to transfer your stencil onto the wood! I designed the lemon slice in the Clip Art Paint Pro program, and used the font “Mudhisa Sans” for the word lemon, then cut my stencils on my Silhouette Cameo. I love this font because it is similar to Rae Dunn’s distinctive font yet not identical- and it cuts & paints easily without being too thin!
6) I painted the stencil, which on such small pieces only took a few minutes. I removed the stencil with one of my favorite tools, needle-nose tweezers from Amazon (get your own here).
7) Ta-da! I tied jute around the top of the lemon slice sign and put them in my WIP summer display!
The question is, where am I going to leave them in my display?? I had originally planned to place them in this lemonade tray, but look how perfectly they fit in my tiered tray! I’m guessing you can never have too many of these shelf sitters, so I definitely forsee another pointed sign project in my future.
What do you think? Tiered tray or lemonade tray? If you try out your own pointed signs, I’d love to see what you came up with and how you displayed them! Be sure to follow me on Instagram or Facebook and sign up for emails, so you’ll be the first to see my new summer display and all the tutorials that accompany it ๐
[…] I hope this quick tutorial took the mystery out of chippy candlesticks! Stay tuned for my tutorial on wood bead garlands, and pictures of my summer display. Are you ready for summer? Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more sneak peeks of my summer display, as well as pictures of our little mini-vacations! I am having so much fun preparing my summer display despite the rain; if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out my Rae Dunn inspired signs tutorial! […]