Watercolor Outdoor Sign

Hello again SNAP! Friends!  It’s Ariean from OneKriegerChick here to share a fun outdoor sign with a watercolor paint technique.  It’s way easier than it looks!

One of my favorite places to spend the Summer is at the pool.  Lucky for us, our home came with one…It was the only redeeming feature when we looked at our home a couple years ago.  The Summer after we moved in, we built a Poolhouse area on our back patio…But I never finished decorating it.  I think it is finally coming together thanks to some fun wall art…

Living in a house of little boys, there’s a whole lotta splashing going on…

Here’s what you’ll need to make the Splash Sign…

• Large wooden letters (Mine are 13 in.)
• Paint: Cream or white, shades of turquoise or blue (I used chalky finish paint, but any will work)
• Paintbrushes: Multiple sizes (Shown in tutorial)
• (If you notice the “P” is missing in the photo, that’s because I forgot to buy one and had to run back after painting these…What I get for shopping with children in a craft store!)

Now that we have our materials, let’s get started…

Start by painting letters cream.

It took two coats, so on the second coat I used a coarse paintbrush to give the letters some texture.

Ready to watercolor…the easy way?

Choose three colors of paint…I wanted the look of water, so I used three watery blues.  Since I only had two, I mixed some cream into the darkest color.  Turned out perfect!

Now, let’s paint…

I loosely painted a stripe of each color.  Then…

I used a damp paintbrush to drag through the paint from the darkest color to the lightest.  You’ll want to use one side of the brush and then flip the brush over to drag through the next section.  The paint dries fast, so you have to work quickly.  If you want to increase the time you have to work with the paint, add a little water in the paint to thin it a bit.  The more water, the more watery the look.

I painted the end of each letter with the middle blue color.To make sure each letter has the same stripe variation, set the letters side by side and use the painted letter as a guide…

After painting SPLASH, I thought it needed a little something more. Why not a small sign to spell out “Make a…SPLASH”…  So simple to make.  Just a scrap board and some paint.

I painted the board cream, then penciled “make a”, and painted over the pencil lines with a small paintbrush and the darkest paint color.  Once hung on the wall, I think it finishes it off…

Here’s a sneak peek at how the Poolhouse is coming along…Just a few more accessories to go!

If you like this project, you may also like my other Poolhouse decor…Pottery Barn inspired POOL Sign // Rope Anchor