Bringing seasonal color back to the bottom of the driveway topped my list of outdoor tasks. Now it’s done!
When we first moved into our house, one of the neighbors mentioned how much she enjoyed seeing our house sign, with it’s four seasoning paintings, when she walked her dog each morning. Built by the previous owner, the sign had fallen into disrepair over the last five years.
I’d removed the interior frame and put the paintings in the basement for safekeeping. I detailed the rest of the story when I first introduced my restoring our house numbers sign project last month. Meanwhile, I’ve been hoping for a stretch of dry weather and a few days that were warm enough to paint. Finally — after the wettest summer on record followed by Hurricane Irene — those arrived. I intended to do the painting myself but there’s been so much to settle since we moved, I haven’t found time. As luck would have it, Terry, our friend and longtime painter found a few hours free last week to help me.
Terry quickly scraped off the old paint, primed and gave the sign two coats of exterior white paint. He also unscrewed the finials and handed them to me for a color change. It was the least I could do.
But they sat on the chair in my study for several days. I wanted to paint the entire sign with my preferred coating — Fine Paints of Europe Dutchlac oil-base paint that we used on the exterior trim. While far more difficult to apply than acrylic, it holds up for years and years. But Terry convinced me to go with the water-based paint since it was already too chilly for the oil-base stuff to dry properly.
So I turned the painting over to Terry, along with left over blue paint we’d originally used on my front door. He quickly got the finials in shape.
Then our camera-shy friend went to work on the ratty interior frame that holds the paintings in place.
That had reached an emergency state of near-naked chippiness.
After a day to thoroughly dry, the interior frame was ready to reassemble. It’s still quite funky in back but I was able to reattach the original Plexiglas (which I intend to replace in the Spring) quite easily.
What a pleasure to celebrate Halloween by hanging out our harvest scene! Meanwhile, I ordered a stencil with our house address which I will spray paint in black across the top bar of the sign myself. As theme decorating goes, it’s understated but, truth be told, this is as close to theme decorating as I get. No patience here for cobwebs or black cats. I’m busy setting up my new online vintage store.
Lovely! Not a theme in sight!
It looks great!
How beautiful! And what a great and unique concept. I love your house sign
Did the OP paint them themselves?
What a pretty welcome to your home! I think you’ve made the sign very happy!
What a great idea! If I were your neighbor, I’d enjoy looking at your sign each time I ran or drove past it.
I love it! I’m sure the original owner would be pleased they are still being used.
You’ll need to add a picture to the post as each new season arrives so we can see them all.
Thanks to all for stopping by. Yes, the OO built the whole thing and painted the paintings. DH wanted to replace it with a stone marker as there’s a stone tradition around here. But I didn’t want anything so fancy/commercial. There aren’t many things the OO did that we left but this was worth keeping. One day, I’ll do a B&A on the exterior, which is a bit shocking.
Great idea Allison. I’ll do that!
Lovely! My kind of ‘Halloween decor.’ Can’t wait to see the other seasons.
Love it! Now I am scheming on how I can do something similar.