I think a welcome sign outside your door is like applying lipstick for that finished look! We had a unique problem by our kitchen door. The spot where the propane gas line entered the house was quite ugly. It hit you square in the face when you approached the house. I had to think of a way to hide as much of it as possible.

After searching the web for different door or porch treatments I noticed the trend of wooden boards with various sayings. I thought to myself, perfect! Next step was a trip to the workshop to look for appropriate scrap wood. I’m a bit lazy so was excited to find some remnants of fence boards we had used for another project; a screen for the propane tank itself.

I found four boards of same length, and secured them together by screwing on smaller crosspieces at the top and bottom of the back. I did give it a coat of white exterior paint as a base. The wood was rough so the paint did not fill all nooks and crannies, but I liked the shabby look.

Then it was back to the drawing board to decide on a design to paint on the sign. The first thing I did was decide on color palette. The house is gray with a bright yellow door. Being Scandinavian, I love yellow and blue, so built it around that. Sunflowers seemed a natural for the yellow required. I did buy a sunflower stencil on Amazon to start with, but I have to say didn’t have much luck with it. But I managed to touch it up by detailing the outline a bit more. I also used stencils for most of the lettering. I added a Scandinavian version of Hello, and also Italian, since I live with one, haha.

I played with it some, sanding it down a bit to give it a shabbier look, and finished it with a coat of varnish to protect it. I added a couple of eye hooks on the back with some picture wire andVoila! I couldn’t completely cover the gasline, but it does hide the ugly entry hole. I added a sunflower wreath on the other side of the door to tie the whole thing together. Do you think this is enough, or should I add more?