This was a metal sign we bought that had some major wear on it. It needed just a little work to get it looking real nice. All together this project took just a few hours to complete.
This is how it looked when we first bought the sign. I loved the look of the saint de fleur. We have a couple of decorations in our house with the saint de fleur image. That instantly drew my focus. You can tell it was originally painted a gold but most of the paint is gone. The metal rods are painted black but the black is faded and has absolutely no shine to it at all. And of course the family looks like it was some type of reddish gold color. It has lost all of it appeal with age and wear. So I wanted to try and bring some shine and life back into this hanging family sign. Let’s take a look at the work that went into updating this sign and making it look like new.
This is the black spray paint I used for both the back of the sign as well as all of the round rod connectors. I put one fresh layer of paint on the back of the sign. It helps to keep the fresh new look when the front of the sign gets done plus it also helps to paint the back with the rods because in painting some of the paint will cover the tops and bottoms of the rods. After just the one coat on the back, the sign took the paint really well and the shine was already coming back into the piece. It was now time for the front.
I put blue painters tape onto all of the letters and the saint de fleur. I am keeping all of the rod work painted black but just adding a new layer of fresh paint to bring it back to life. Once I got all the letters taped up, I put on a fresh coat of the black paint. Once I got the black then it was time to change the tape to the rods and leave all the letters clear for there coat of paint.
This was the most tedious part of the project. It took a bunch of time and patience in order to get all of the little pieces between the letters. Without covering those then there would be no breaks between the paint. I had to make sure to get all of those little pieces covered before spray painting. Once covered then it was time to spray the gold paint onto the letters. I chose to paint both the saint de fleur and letters a gold color. I am a sports fan and while I am not a New Orleans Saints fan, I do like the look of the gold saint de fleur with the black that the Saints use. After painting and letting it dry, I then had the chore of removing all of the blue tape that I put on there to begin with.
And here is the final product of the finished sign. The saint de fleur and family painted both in gold with the rods painted black. Everything turned out really well. The dull reddish color has been replaced with a bright and shiny gold. The saint de fleur is back to a nice clear coat of gold paint. The rods have a shiny new coat of black paint. This piece was not as labor intensive as some of the other furniture we have already done with all the sanding and painting that some of the furniture pieces take. The spray paint is a nice change up, however, the tediousness and patience to cover the sign twice with the painters tape can be just as challenging. This is another new type of project that we have undertaken and something that we are hoping to keep doing as we move forward learning and doing more and more.