Our someday house. It’s what we would refer to when we were renovating our newest duty station house…”in our someday house, I want to have a mud room.” We talked about this house for twenty something  years as we bounced around, fixing up house after house. When it came time to look for our someday house, our list of wants was long. I mean really long. He wanted a garage AND basement. I wanted a garden. He wanted an office. I wanted lots of windows. He wanted land. I wanted a pantry. We BOTH wanted a barn.

To think that we would be in our someday house til the end of time was daunting! All we had known was a cycle of packing, unpacking, painting and hanging pictures, settling in, and then starting the whole process over again. Suddenly (I say suddenly because even though you spend twenty years dreaming about it, when the time comes, it still feels like it happens in the blink of an eye) we were trying to find the house of our dreams. But the house of our dreams we did find, with everything we wanted and more. So much work to be done, but it’s no longer our someday house, it’s our forever house.

I had the pleasure of helping my cousin surprise his wife with a new sign for their forever house, a quaint farm called “Serenity Farm” with plenty of room for a few chickens and a lovely garden. With their children nearly grown, this truly was their dream home.

I had sketched out and built a slat sign made out of reclaimed barn wood. It was on my table to paint when my husband offered for us to go a few towns over to look at some wood from an old barn that was recently torn down. At first glance, the pile of 150 year old wood looked pretty shabby. But the price was right so we started loading it on our trailer. The more we dug into the pile, the more excited we both got. Gorgeous pieces of 20″ wide planks, naturally aged and distressed to perfection. Pieces of every length, width and texture, just waiting to be repurposed.

Needless to say, I found an amazing piece that was just perfect for my cousin’s sign.We framed it with weathered wood slats. Instead of acrylic, I used an enamel paint so it would withstand the elements. I chose Copperplate typeface to give it an authentic farm house feel. And you can’t go wrong with a chicken, capturing the warm and inviting feel of their forever farm in their new sign.

Please check out my gallery for new pieces added often and let me know if I can create something one-of-a-kind for you!