I love the look of words on on the wall. I love the signs with sayings and also the letters whether they are random letters or spelled out into words, I just love them. My problem is when I start filling my shopping cart with the words I want to spell out on the wall, and I am figuring how much I am spending in my head, so I usually shorten my words from words like “kitchen” or “grocery” to something short like “eat”.
I have seen where some people buy the craft letters and paint them themselves, so that is what I did. I found my letters at Target on sale for $3 a piece. I had a $10 off coupon so I purchased four letters. Since I am pleased with the way they turned out, I plan on going back and getting the more letters so it will say “Wash & Dry”.
I spray painted the letters black. I used Rustoleum primer in black, but you can use any black spray paint. I have found that it is much easier and much faster to spray paint the base coat instead of using a brush. Then you let them dry completely.
For the zinc or metal look, I used pewter gray and a metallic silver craft paint.
I have done this several times, and it is so easy. You really can’t mess it up because it is suppose to be messy. Dab the pewter gray onto the letter, and make small brush strokes. Whatever brush strokes you make, you need to use on all the letters so it will look the same. Remember it should be messy and not neat and perfect.
Make sure that you paint the sides also. You don’t want to completely paint the entire letter, leave some black showing. I found that it is easier to do all the letters in the gray before going on to silver paint.
Dab the silver paint on top of the gray still making small brush strokes. You make have to dab some of the paint off the brush if you load the brush to heavily.
Let dry, hang on the wall, and enjoy that you made them yourself, and you did not spend much money at all!
April Rutherford says
These are great! Thanks so much for sharing.
Five Marigolds says
Looks great!
Sherry says
Thank you!!
Pam says
how tall and thick are the letters? i seen some at walmart that are 8″ but don’t look as thick as these ones. i would love to make some for my son’s room
Sherry says
I purchased the letters from Target. They are 8 inches tall and 1/2 inches thick, but I think they look bigger because they letters are so wide. Here is the link to the letters. http://www.target.com/p/hand-made-modern-wooden-letters/-/A-17273420 I hope this helps!
Kathryn says
I totally thought they were metal. Well done. I would love something like that in my laundry room. Thanks for the inspiration!
Celeste | The Whole Serving says
I like this, it’s awesome how you can go from the wood look to metal. Love it.
David Reyes says
I totally thought they were metal. Well done. I would love something like that in my laundry room. Your all blogs are very nice and fantastic. I really like this blog. I’m a long time reader but I’ve never been compelled to leave a comment. Brilliant job Thank you. Thanks for the inspiration!
steel letters
Small metal letters says
Making your own metal letters seems a quite interesting activity. The step by step procedure you have provided here is really wonderful. Actually the metal letters you have made give a great look to the wall and provides a good finish by using paint on it. Keep up the good work!
Small metal letters
Sherry says
Thank you so much for featuring my DIY painted metal letters! I appreciate it so much!