Eat Sign

There is this little corner in my kitchen/eat-in dining area that was waiting for some love. I had this arrangement temporarily sitting in the corner, but didn't want it to be it's final resting spot. 

I originally wanted to put some extra "pantry" storage in the corner. I researched, measured and found some bathroom storage units that would fit great in the space, or so I thought. We bought two of them at Ikea and only put one together to get an idea of if it would look like what I envisioned.... and it didn't. I turned it different ways, but still didn't like the look. It looked strange and stuck out funny. I decided to move the cabinet to another place in the house and took the other unit back to Ikea. 

So then I had to come up with Plan B for the space. 

I have been loving the EAT signs that I have seen in kitchen photos on Pinterest. I decided to do the dog bowls on the floor, do the EAT letters and add a menu sign.

I'm sure there are so many ways to make "metal" letters on Pinterest. One tutorial that I pinned a long time ago was found here.  But here is how I made my own "metal" looking letters.

I bought cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby for $2.50 each. I was hoping they were on sale for half off, but no luck :(  I also bought some Krylon Hammered Silver Spray paint. I used a 40% off coupon for the spray paint. 

 I spray painted all the letters. They had a good color and texture to them, but of course they needed some black paint on them. I found a feathery brush that would be perfect for what I needed. 

 I just put a little bit of black paint on my brush and dabbed it off til there was very little paint on it. I went around all the edges of the letters to make them look kinda warn. I did very light strokes on the tops and sides going different directions to add a little more texture to them. One of the letters, I ended up not liking after I did the black paint so I simply re-sprayed the top and redid the black paint.

The letters are really light so I put a few command hook stickies on the back.

I centered them on my wall and stuck them up. No nails needed and they stick great! 

Here are the finished letters on the wall. I love that I am slowing getting these small projects done to add personality to my house. The menu board still needs some love, but I got something up on the wall at least.