Cafe Cowley Kitchen Sign

For a few years, something we struggled with was eating out too often. It got to the point that our boys would ask us where we were going for dinner. One day I told them we were going to Cafe Cowley, in the kitchen. After that, I decided that I wanted to make a sign that said Cafe Cowley to hang in the kitchen. I tried making one once, and it didn’t turn out at all. Since we moved, I thought I’d give it another try! So today, I’m sharing with you how I made this Cafe Cowley Kitchen Sign.

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Cafe Cowley Kitchen Sign Supplies:

• Board the size you’d like (We used our table saw to cut this)
• 1″ x 2″ for the frame around the board (cut with a miter saw)
• Stain
• Electric Sander (I used my Matrix with the Sander Attachment)
• Vinyl Stencil (cut with Cricut Explore)
• Paint
• Nailer for attaching the frame
• Sawtooth hook for hanging

We had some leftover boards from when we built the pantry. I thought they’d work great for sign making. Now that I’ve used one, I’ve learned that this isn’t the best wood for sign making, but it does work and it’s inexpensive. We cut this board to be 11″ x 23″, so finish with the side on it makes it about 1′ x 2′.

I stained the top of the board and let it dry.

Once the stain was dry, I sanded the top with my sander.

I designed my words in Cricut Design Space and then cut them on my Cricut Explore using vinyl. I applied the Cafe vinyl to my dry stained board.

I made sure all the edges of the word were stuck to the board good, and then painted it a light gray.

Once the gray paint was dry, I applied the Cowley stencil. Then I painted it white.

Once I had that painted I pulled up the vinyl stencil.

I measured the top and bottom and cut frame/edges for that, then measured the sides and cut those. I sanded them good to make sure they were smooth.

I painted the frame/edges white before I attached them, then using our nailer, I attached them to the sign, I attached the top and bottom first, then the sides.

I added a sawtooth hook to the back (These are the best! No nails required.) so I could hang it from a nail on the wall. I LOVE the way it turned out! It turned out better than I could have imagined!

It makes me happy to see it hanging in my kitchen! Now if I could just figure out how I want to decorate my whole kitchen…I have lots of space on top of cabinets that I need to figure out what I’m doing with. We do have my husbands Dr. Pepper collection on top of the cabinet shown, and I did make a valance for the kitchen window, but other than that, I just have a bunch of odds and ends on the top of the cupboards.

I’d love to hear any ideas you might have for decorating the top of the cupboards. In the meantime, I’ll just be in my kitchen looking at my new favorite sign. 🙂 I can’t wait to make more signs like this!