Home Decor 889: Simple and Cheap French Rustic Bathroom Sign

I get absolutely giddy once the weather starts warming up- partly because I can feel like me again in my flip flops for the 9 out of 12 months of the year that I can get away with it here.

But also because it means we get to host a new year of cookouts, hangouts, and all kinds of family/friend gatherings. We love grilling up a storm in the backyard and inviting over lots of the people we love who we're so blessed to live close to.

And it never fails, when we invite new friends over, there are always people hunting for the restroom in the middle of a party. I guess because our powder room looks like a closet in our downstairs hallway.

Simple and Cheap French Rustic Bathroom Sign | Bless'er House

I joked before that I should just put a bathroom sign on the door so no one has to ask that awkward, "Um...where's your bathroom?" And let the whole room of people know their business. Then, I realized it wasn't such a silly idea to make one after all.

A while back I found this teenagery bedroom sign for $1 at Goodwill and knew I'd make something neat out of it. I just hadn't decided what until now. Really though, I could cross out the word "room" and write "house", hang it on my front door and call it a day. Because our house is actually clean about 2 days of the entire year. #ToddlerParentLife

The comma splice on the sign would have driven me batty though. #FormerTeacherProbs

Supplies I used:

Sign or wood piece
Dark brown acrylic paint
White acrylic paint
Dark gray acrylic paint
100 grit sandpaper
Vaseline
Large and small craft brushes
Computer printer and paper
Sharpie or other permanent marker

I gave the entire thing a light sanding first. To make it look like a weathered painted sign, I put a little brown acrylic paint just around the edges.

When the brown paint was dry, I rubbed a little Vaseline on the edges to prevent the next paint color from sticking. This sign took 5 coats of white acrylic paint before I could get those stripes to disappear. I could have used spray paint but I didn't have any. I just used supplies I already happened to have in my stash.

I rubbed off the Vaseline after the white paint had dried to reveal the brown underneath and make it look distressed.

For the lettering, I just typed "Toilette" into Picmonkey and saved as a JPEG. (Okay, so I know I could have typed "toilet", but somehow it seems a little nicer as the French translation "toilette". Toilet = gross. Toilette = fancy pants. Just like pronouncing Target like Tar-jay instantly makes it a luxury boutique.)

I flipped the JPEG image horizontally and printed.

I don't own a vinyl cutting machine or anything, so this is my method for making signs. And it's cheaper anyway.

I gave the sign one more sanding for good measure and wiped away any dust.

Then I placed my printed lettering face down (hence why it needed to be a mirrored image) and taped it to hold it in place. I painted a little water on top of the lettering just enough to wet the paper, not to soak it.

I rubbed the lettering to transfer the ink from the paper. I used a Sharpie pen top but you can use anything as long as it doesn't rip the paper.

The ink transfer from the paper left a light imprint.

From there, I outlined the transfered lettering with a Sharpie.

And filled in the letters with dark gray acrylic paint.

I forgot to photograph this step, but I gave the whole sign one more sanding using 100 grit sandpaper. I focused on the lettering to distress the dark gray paint.

I didn't want to damage our bathroom door, so I used Command hanging strips to attach it.

This bathroom is in our dark downstairs hallway, so it's challenging to photograph, but it turned out pretty great for only $1 find at Goodwill.

It was the perfect size for our door.

And at least now future guests won't have to feel embarrassed to ask where our restroom is. Unless they don't know what "toilette" means. Then, we might have a quick French lesson. I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out.