When I saw The Rustic Pig's Ironing Board turned Welcome Sign on Pinterest a while back I loved how it looked propped up on the front doorstep.  I have been keeping my eye out at the flea markets and thrift stores for an old ironing board, but that has been an impossible mission.

This image isn't pinable, please use original source

But then, on one of my many trips to the Ikea “as-is” section (although this happened to be the same trip I also picked up the cabinet door I used for the kids' backpack station) I saw this long tall door for only $2 and I knew it would be perfect to convert!


 (This was originally a floor model display door from a sample kitchen,  it is really a Lidingo 15x64 door panel, which retails for $134! I'm telling you.. ALWAYS CHECK THE AS-IS DEPARTMENT!) 

My original idea was to stencil the word “Welcome” on it in black and call it a day, but I decided I wanted more of the aged vintage look like the original.
Instead of just painting and distressing it with sandpaper, I decided to use the school glue crackle finish technique I used previously on the pair of boat oars that went into the nursery.

I applied a LOT of white school glue all over the surface:

Then brushed it out to set the direction of the cracks:

I wanted the crackle finish to really show so I used a sample of grey-black ‘oops’ paint as the top coat:

As the paint dried the cracks were really obvious between the white door surface and top coat.  After it had completely dried I cut a stencil out of dollar store contact paper and stuck it down to the door:

The font I chose was Colonna NT (a default font that came with my computer, but you can download it here) because I loved the look of the split letters:

I used off white to stencil the letters themselves:

I really liked the result:

At this point I thought I was finished.  I set it up outside just like my inspiration sign:

I lived with it for a couple days, but there was something about it that bothered me. The high contrast in the paint didn’t truly look old, especially the bright white letters.

So I sanded the edges with some fine grit sandpaper and then I watered down some brown paint (Burl by Martha Stewart from my bathroom cabinetry) and gave the entire thing a once over.

Here is a little trick to get ‘faux water stains’ on your finish: 

1. Give the surface a quick coat of oil based stain and quickly wipe most of it (you want it to still be a little damp.

2. Working quickly, splatter it with water based paint and immediately wipe that off with a slightly damp rag.

When the water based paint hits he oily surface it will separate leaving distinctive rings and stains:

The finished version definitely looks more ‘authentically vintage.’
 I set it back on the front step, but I loved it so much I decided to try it out in some other locations.

I hung it on the front of the house for a while:


Finally, I decided to move it indoors.  It is currently hanging up for you to see as you walk into the house. I had the perfect long thin spot right above the cat door:

I love how it came out, especially since my total investment was less than $4.