on the flip side.

Published on by Quandie

I’m embarrassed to admit that my Rudolph and Co. sign, and all of our other outdoor Christmas decorations, were still up until last week when we’d finally had enough snow melt to be able to reach some of it.

You have to cut us some slack here in Minnesota, especially when we’ve had a winter with a lot of snow.  We can’t always get through the snowbanks to take things down.  In addition, decorations often get frozen into place and we have to wait for them to thaw.  The spruce tips in my rusty urns only just thawed out enough to remove them, and I still can’t get to the potting shed or my front window box at all.

But now I’ve gotten at least some of my Christmas things tucked back away for next year, and I wanted to put something else in that spot on our deck for spring.

Last fall I painted a Farmers Market sign to hang there.

Somehow ‘Farmers Market’ says autumn to me though, so I didn’t want to just put that back up again.

You may also remember that I had a fresh flower market stencil on the flip side of that sign though.

But I was rather tired of that black and white look.  It definitely pales in comparison to the Farmers Market side, doesn’t it?

So I decided to give the flip side some new life with the Flower Market – Open Til Dusk stencil from Wallcutz.  I started by sanding over the previous stenciling.  You always want to do this to prevent seeing a shadow of that old stencil under your new paint.

Next I painted the sign in Dixie Belle’s Kudzu, a spring-ier green than the Dixie Belle Juniper I used on the other side.

I followed that up with the stencil, painting a shadow of the word “FLOWER” in DB’s Midnight Sky, followed by the full stencil in their Drop Cloth.

That tiny black shadow adds so much!

You may remember that the first time I used this stencil on a dresser, I separated the first two lines of wording.

But no worries, I was still able to use the entire thing on this piece.  In fact, it made it even easier for me to once again re-arrange the layout somewhat to fit my sign.  I moved the “always fresh” to the top where it fit nicely on that raised trim, and then put the curved “open ’til dusk” wording below that instead of above it.

Once all of the paint was dry, I sanded to distress.

It’s always fun to distress down to a pre-existing color that works well with your new look.

To finish the sign, I added a topcoat of clear wax.  I’m often asked if clear wax is suitable protection for an item that will be outside, and if I wanted to be on the safe side I would say no.  Certainly not if the item will have standing water on it, and maybe not if you want the piece to look good for years and years.  This sign hangs vertically and although it will get wet, it won’t sit in water at all.  The Rudolph sign that I took down is also finished in clear wax and it has held up just fine in our snowy climate.

So, for me, wax is good enough for things like this sign.  Plus, I don’t mind a little accelerated aging … at least when it comes to painted décor items.

Once the sign was finished, I hung it back up outside.  Just in time for April Fool’s Day!

Yep, Mother Nature played a cruel joke on us and we got a foot of fresh snow on April 1.  I had been planning to get some pansies to replace those spruce tops and fill the urn on the bench before taking some pictures of the sign for this post, but luckily I hadn’t done that quite yet.

But I think it’s going to warm up enough for pansies next week, fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I’m still enjoying my Flower Market sign and telling myself that garden season is going to be here before I know it.  Right?

24 thoughts on “on the flip side.”

  3. Love the Kudzu color on the refurbished sign.
    Better yet, your opening line prompted me to remove my Christmas decorated vintage sled and ice skates still languishing on my front porch!

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    1. I do love the Kudzu. It only occurred to me as I was writing this post that the Adirondack chairs that sit on the deck are now the wrong shade of green to work with that sign though. Looks like I’ll be painting those as soon as it warms up now 😉

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  5. God bless all of willing to brave those winters and live there! I love winter and snow but in limited amounts. We lived in Pittsburgh for 3 years and that was all I could take! Good luck with your spring gardening!

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    1. Great job on the new signage. Love the color and especially the shadow effect. I still have my sled on the porch…figured it’s ok til the snow is gone…hopefully I can bring it in on Easter. Lol

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  7. Fellow MN gal knows the pain. Hoping to get out today to “spring up” my front step decor. It’s been one long winter.

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  8. I love the new sign! I can’t believe how much snow you got. Yikes! Glad and thankful that I am still in Florida for another month.😊

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      1. We rarely get snow where I live in WA. This year it snowed 5 times there. It has been a hard winter for many.

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      2. Yes, it has, that’s for sure. And a weird one. I was chatting with my mom just a few days ago and she said it was only going to be a high of 49 in Vegas that day. That seems crazy to me for April!

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  9. I’m always amazed at how tough you Midwestern people are. I can’t imagine living with that much snow ever let alone repeatedly! I live in rain country but you don’t have to shovel that. It does turn everything green including your fence and your siding, your sidewalks, your driveway whether you want that or not. Nice re-do

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  10. My winter decorations are still out too. Should be able to get to them next week and take them in. The sign redo looks nice.

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