Anybody else find it interesting that in such an image-driven society, one of the biggest home decorating trends is displaying WORDS everywhere?
Granted, they’re usually words displayed in a very attractive fashion, but they’re still just words. Eat. Gather. Believe. Family. Blessed. Prints of famous quotes, or walls covered in scripture or song lyrics are also vastly popular. As a lover of words, I think it’s amazing!
The trend isn’t hard to implement, since it seems every home decor store across the country is sporting lots of it. But what if you want to personalize things a little, or you are particular about cost, color, or design? Then, my friends, you do it yourself!
Our kitchen/great room, (love our open floor plan!) has a cathedral ceiling, which is gorgeous, but when we first moved in, the empty space above the cabinets looked so stark and boring! And I was dealing with dark gray cabinets, too, which didn’t work with my old color scheme at all. I needed something large, bright, and eye-catching above my cabinets!
Especially with all the gray, I thought metal letters would look the best, but at $30 a piece, plus the cost of paint to add color, that was a NO! I knew I could get what I wanted for far less money.
The word “HOME” is so simple, but especially after a grueling house searching and selling process that left me on the verge of a nervous breakdown more than once, (and I’m only barely exaggerating there,) it was a word that became very precious to me. “HOME” was what I wanted above my cabinets, and so the letter search began!
These 3-D cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby were perfect! They stood 16 inches high and were regularly priced at $9.99 a piece, but were on sale 50% off. Four letters cost me $20, which was a steal compared to both the metal and wooden letters I had looked at!
But brownish cardboard was hardly what I was looking for. These things had to be painted, and for the metal look I wanted, Rust-oleum had some great colors and finishes. This was my favorite…
(Did you notice I painted on moving boxes? Seemed we had an abundance of them at the time. Actually, we still do…)
When the “metal” layer was dry, it was time to add some color. I went with a dark red… even mixed in some black to get the shade I wanted… because red is a beautiful contrast to my gray cabinets.
You can certainly use another spray paint to do this, but I like the look you can create with a brush and inexpensive acrylic paint. It makes for a rough, distressed antique finish. Just brush the paint on as thinly or as thickly as you like, even stopping to rub some paint off if you like, especially at the corners and around the edges. I really went thicker with the paint than I should have. If I could do it over, I would leave more of the silver showing through, but I was still very happy with it.
Once my letters were dry, it was time to mount them. Remember these were hollow cardboard letters, so standing them up and expecting them to stay was not going to work. I could have mounted them to a single board and placed the board above my cabinet, but I opted instead to place a little platform above the cabinets and then attach the letters to it individually. And the good thing about working with cardboard letters — they are LIGHT! Duct tape was great for stabilizing them in place.
I’ve had guests to the house who asked me where I found my “metal” letters! I managed to create exactly the look I wanted, without breaking the bank. Now I have an oh-so-dear-to-me word adding warmth and character to my little HOME!
I love this idea. You would never know they are cardboard! A great addition to your kitchen cabinets
And the good thing about cardboard… If they ever fall from the top of the cabinet, (which has happened before!), I don’t have to worry about anybody having a concussion. 😉 Thanks so much for reading, Linda!