How to Make a Wooden Door Hanger (Stained Welcome Sign)

Pick a pre-cut wood round for your door hanger. Put on gloves and apply a thick coat of walnut wood stain with a rag, rubbing it into the grain all over. Do the front, the back and the edge. Jessica tried a watery stain first and switched to a darker walnut for richer color. Let the round dry completely before you move on.

Before painting, lay your stencil and any decorations on the stained round to see how everything fits. Then use painters tape to divide the round into sections. Here the top and bottom edges will be black, two stripes will be white, and the middle stays stained for the word. Move the tape until the spacing looks right to you.

With the tape in place, paint the top and bottom edges of the round black. Chalk paint dries faster than regular acrylic and covers well. Give it two coats, letting the first dry before adding the second. Paint around the side edge too so the sign looks neat from every angle. Once it dries, peel the tape off slowly.

Tape off the next section so the white stripes sit between the black edges and the stained middle. Brush on white chalk paint with a foam brush. White takes more coats to cover the dark stain. Jessica used about three so the wood did not show through. Let each coat dry before you add the next one.

When the white paint is dry, pull off all the tape. You should now have a black top and bottom, two white stripes and a stained wood band across the middle. Check the edges. If paint crept under the tape anywhere, you can touch it up with a small brush later. A little mistake is easy to fix at the end.

Cut your Welcome stencil from vinyl on a cutting machine, or use a ready-made stencil. Pick it up with transfer tape, center it on the stained band, and smooth it down. Then slowly peel away the clear transfer tape, leaving the vinyl stencil stuck to the wood. Rub over every letter so the edges are sealed tight against the surface.

Brush a thin layer of Mod Podge over the open letters of the stencil. This seals the stencil edges so the paint you add next cannot bleed underneath. Mod Podge dries clear, so any that lands on the wood will not show. Let it dry until it is no longer tacky before painting over it.

Load a little black paint onto a foam pouncer or a gloved fingertip and dab it straight down through the stencil. Dabbing pushes paint into the letters without sliding it under the edges. Cover every letter evenly. Let it dry, and add a second light coat if the wood grain still shows through the letters.

While the last coat is still a little soft, start peeling the vinyl stencil away. Go slowly and pull at a low angle. The black Welcome lettering stays behind on the stained wood. Use a weeding tool to lift out small pieces from inside letters. Touch up any fuzzy spots with a fine brush or a paint pen.

Fix a small hook to the back for hanging. A light round only needs a sawtooth hook. Tie a bow from wired ribbon, or make your own with loops. Arrange faux eucalyptus along the top edge and attach it with staples or hot glue, then fix the bow in the center over the stems. Hang it on your front door.